Sales Success Through Role Playing

The best training for acquiring sales skills is through role playing exercises. By role playing different scenarios with a sales person, the trainer can evaluate skills, give instant feedback, and correct shortcomings. Knowledge of sales techniques is only useful to the extent it can actually be applied.

Why is role playing a superior training method? I have found that inexperienced sales people can pick up skills faster through a series of short role play sessions. Consider that typical sales training consists of a lecture. Trainees may not give full attention to the subject. Even those that do concentrate and take notes often retain only a small portion of the material. Having a sales person take part in role playing exercises forces them to be more engaged, to project more of themselves into the material, to apply the concepts that have been taught, and to retain more skills.

Role playing can either be conducted one-on-one, between the trainer and the student, or between two students as the instructor observes. The latter method is frequently used with groups during training sessions. Unless there are enough experienced assistants to observe each group, mistakes may not be caught and corrected.

To conduct a role playing exercise, simply give the sales person a situation such as "I've come in and asked for tires for my car." Insist that he or she conduct themselves exactly as they would with a customer. Unless the trainee has gone totally off track, don't interrupt the scenario. At the conclusion, ask how he feels he has done. Most persons will recognize if they've done a poor job. When giving feedback, praise something that was done well before telling them what they did wrong. Build on their successes until they can do it well.

One of the advantages of role playing is that it can be done as an impromptu exercise during the day when business is slow. You can role play face-to-face or phone sales situations. Some people feel awkward when role playing, especially in front of a group. With these individuals, focus on the benefits they will get from improving their sales skills and try to get them to take part in a simple scenario to start with, perhaps one-on-one with a trainer.

When working with sales trainers, whether in-house or outside experts, ask that they present less lecture material and include more role playing so the students can practice their skills. It is often well worth the extra expense to bring the trainer back for a second session just for role play exercises.

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