In this video, we discuss how to use sales role-play to increase sales. I think that most salespeople know what sales role-playing will help them to be a better salesperson, but in this video, we start by outlining why incorporating more sales role-play can transform your sales efforts.

 

Athletes don’t jump into the game

One example to look at to see how important sales role-playing is could be to look at professional athletes. Not only do athletes warm up before and during the game, but all week, in preparation for the game, they are practicing, running drills, studying plays, etc.

It would be incredibly irresponsible for an athlete to not practice at all and then just show up for the game and their performance would likely not be nearly as good compared to using a process of practice and warming up.

Unfortunately, most salespeople do not practice at all and just jump on the phone and go to meetings with more of an improvisational approach. While this can work, the performance probably can be better with some amount of practicing and warming up. When salespeople don’t role-play and practice, this is the same as a professional athlete jumping in the game without warming up and practicing, and it is very easy to see how that is problematic.

 

Perfect practice makes perfect

There is a common saying that “practice makes perfect.” That is a good saying to point out how important practice is and how you are sure to perform better if you practice. But if you are practicing something incorrectly, then you will not reach perfect, which is stated in a quote by Vince Lombardi where is said:

Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

In order to make your sales role-play and practice perfect, try to use a cold call script, meeting script, and objection responses.

 

Decrease ramp-up time

If you are a sales manager, part of your job will be to hire and onboard new sales reps. Each new rep will have an average amount of time that it takes to get them up and running. This ramp-up time is costly because deals are likely missed and lost during this time.

By simply adding more sales role-play to the training and onboarding process, you are guaranteed to decrease new sales hire ramp-up time and this will likely decrease the costs from missed and lost deals.

 

Improve underperforming reps

Every sales team will have underperforming reps. There can be many different reasons for underperforming reps and many different ways to try to get them on the right path. But one very productive way to try to help and fix underperforming reps is to simply all more sales role-playing with them. This can help to either identify areas where they are off track or can just give them the practice and confidence they need to increase activity levels.

 

Decrease sales staff turnover

When reps are underperforming, they often end up either leaving because they are not making enough money or letting go because they are not selling enough. This turnover is extremely costly, with recruiting and hiring costs combined with all of the deals lost and missed during the process to replace and onboard.

By simply adding more sales role-play, you can improve underperforming reps, and this can immediately decrease sales staff turnover and all of the costs that come with it.

 

Sales role-playing is difficult

Even though there are all of the very clear benefits of sales role-play, all of us do not do it enough. It is difficult to add sales role-playing to our routine because it is difficult to find someone to practice with, it can, in some ways, be uncomfortable to practice, and it can also be intimidating.

 

Sales Role-Play Simulator

We tried to solve the challenge of not having someone to sales role-play with by developing a tool called Sales Simulator which is a bot or AI type of technology that will play the role of prospect and gatekeeper and let a salesperson practice their pitch and cold calling.

It is not perfect, but it learns daily and will get smarter over time. You can try our Sales Simulator sales role-play software for free with our 30-day free trial here.