Helping salespeople improve their skills like actors, musicians, and athletes improve theirs.
Imagine joining a sports team and the only thing they ever do for practice is divide the group into two teams and play scrimmage games. Day after day, week after week, every practice is the same; “this half the room is team A, this half of the room is team B, now go play ball!” I imagine at the beginning of the season you’d see some real improvements, as the simple act of repetition helped people get better. But after the first dozen practices? The gains would probably be minor. And after a few months? Probably very little improvement. ^^ This approach to practice is called repetition based practice, and it’s why most sales role plays aren’t all that effective outside of onboarding (or maybe when you’re rolling out something brand new to the team). And it’s why most tenured reps resist role plays, they might not have the words for it but they can tell in their gut that it isn’t helping. If you want your role play to actually sharpen your reps' skills and improve in-call performance, you need to align it with the principles of deliberate practice that govern how professional athletes and musicians practice. #sales #practice #training
Actually role-playing is one of the most effective ways to learn, WHEN the other role player has a specific, planned role, with what they can say based on how well the rep is performing. For example, they can agree to a meeting if the rep uncovers A, B, and C, presents X and Y persuasively, asks for commitment, and is able to find the real reason for your resistance statement of, “We want to wait.”
Pipeline Whisperer | Bridging the Gap between Sales & Marketing | VP Sales / Head of Sales | Known for developing and executing innovative go-to-market strategies.
3moAny suggestions on simple steps or best practices to follow?