Happy Friday, everyone!
Earlier this week I read an interesting Radio Ink article written by Spike Santee, The Four Keys to Better Role-Playing. Even if role-playing makes the participants feel awkward at first, Spike says, it's a terrific tool for helping a salesperson prepare for a variety of sales situations: "Role-playing isn’t meant to embarrass, it is meant to reinforce the content and the skill. Role-playing also drives home the point that the sales skill isn’t as easy as it looks. When you are watching a sales video or reading a sales book, you are 'unconsciously incompetent' – you think you get it, you’re following along. But when you go to practice that skill, you become 'consciously incompetent' – you are aware that if you practiced a little bit more, you could do it better." Click here to read the entire article.
So for this week's poll question, we'd like to know:
Is role-playing a regular part of your station's sales training? Why or why not?
Looking forward to reading your answers!
at June 13, 2019 9:32 PM PDT
From Chris Rolando: The single largest mistake I have seen in role plays is to allow two reps to role play together. The GM or SM should be the role players on the other side. They will not (I hope) throw out dumb things and crazy objections. I'll give you this example: I am a pilot. The first time I flew was a perfectly still day, not a breeze and a perfect ground temperature of about 53 degrees. By the time I was going for my instrument training I was taking off and landing in temps over 100 degrees with crosswinds. Had they started me at the latter, I would never have become a pilot. Start it easy.
From Joe Lyons: Should role-playing sessions be easy? No. I saw a t-shirt for sale on line that said, "Fair weather never made a sailor."
I've never enjoyed role-playing, and over the years have dreaded the days when it's been part of training. Having said that, in spite of my reluctance to participate, I have also benefited from many of the role-playing sessions -- it's a great way to say things out loud to see how they sound, try out new lines of argument, and steal an idea from another rep who says something I hadn't considered before.
