The dreaded role play
The dreaded ROLE PLAY! Two words that strike fear into the heart of many a sales rep!
The sheer panic of stumbling over your words or having a complete brain freeze, and embarrassing yourself in front of friends and colleagues.
Our delegates often tell us in our training sessions that they are dreading the role play element. They’ll get hot and sweaty; their heart will start racing and their face will go bright red!
It’s crazy isn’t it. Most of us in sales are naturally outgoing and chatty people, but when it comes to the role play – we clam up!
Sound familiar?
Yet we all know that practice makes perfect.
We all know that repetition is the mother of learning.
When we see Rafael Nadal smash a backhand winner down the line, we all know that it’s not the first time he’s played that shot. He’s practiced it thousands and thousands of times. THAT’S WHY HE’S SO GOOD AT IT!
If you were asked to deliver a presentation to a group of surgeons or the C-Suite in your local trust, there’s no way in the world you’d just turn up and ‘wing it’.
No! You’d write the presentation, play around with the slides, alter some images. Then you’d maybe practice it quietly in your head, make some more changes to improve the flow or key messages. Then you’d practice again – maybe out loud this time, or even to the dog? Then you’d time it, perhaps chop out some unnecessary waffle, and practice again … over and over … until you’d completely nailed it.
So why the irrational fear of role plays? Surely it’s better to mess up or look a bit foolish in front of your friends and colleagues, than it is in front of your customers where business/money is on the table!
Just think how awesome you could be at handling objections if you knew what they were, and practiced handling them regularly with colleagues.
Think how smoothly conversations and closing could go with a customer, if you practiced the scenarios in a role play beforehand.
It’s quite simple. YOU CAN’T EXPECT TO BE GOOD AT SOMETHING (LET ALONE WORLD CLASS), IF YOU DON’T PRACTICE.
DRILL – REHEARSE – REPEAT
Commit to practicing once a week.
Learn to love a role play. Don’t worry about making mistakes – you will (and everybody does), have fun with it, enjoy it, laugh at yourself! And if you’re still worried, go solo! Simple record yourself (on your phone) handling an objection, discussing your product or having a conversation, and watch it back.
I promise that the more you practice, the better you will get. I promise you it will be worth it. You’ll be more polished and confident in front of your customers, which will lead to more wins!
Make your mistakes in practice, when it doesn’t matter. Not in front of your customers, when it does …