Sales Leaders Rule #26: Roleplay Creates Muscle Memory

Roleplay is one of the most important teaching tools that you can do as a sales leader because it allows you to provide real world examples to help create muscle memory for your team.

Here's what happens when we don't role play. We tell people what to change in their sales process. Salespeople tend to nod and say, "Absolutely, those are great ideas." The sales leader assumes that those suggestions will be implemented, only to witness on a sales call or in a later debrief, that the suggestions the sales person agreed to use, never happened. Why? Human psychology got in the way.

Human psychology says when under pressure, people will revert back to what they're accustomed to doing. Instead of fighting against that ingrained trait, use it to your advantage. Under pressure, people revert back to what they're accustomed to doing. You need to help them create a new more effective default.

Use human psychology to your advantage. People remember 20% of what you say as a sales leader. They remember 30% of what they see. But they remember 90% of what they say and do. So, role play allows them to say and do something new. Pick the top ten most important aspects of a sales call that your team often struggles with and role play in small chunks.

You should be role-playing as a sales leader three to four times a day, easy. It doesn't take a long time. Roleplay should take under three to five minutes. Never do a one-hour role play. It's not realistic, and no one can remember it. It’s a process of frequency, not intensity. If you don't feel competent enough to role play in certain areas, get others managers or experienced sales people to fill in for you. Why? Because adults learn by imitation and illustration. If your sales people are not doing something right, they need to see how to do it right. Telling them that it's not right isn't going to solve the issue.

Here are the steps to role play that will make it productive for you.

The sales leader plays salesperson.

Don't force your sales person to take on the sales role initially. If they could do it, you wouldn't be role-playing. So, if you witness recurring mistakes don't say, "Let's see that again because there are some problem areas." What do you think is going to happen? Do you think they're going to all of a sudden be great? No, far from it, they’ll actually be rehearsing the mistake and further ingraining it as their default reaction.

Instead say something like, "Mary, I liked a lot of different parts of your call but I noticed that you didn't set up a good agenda. Would you agree?" Be sure to pause to get their perspective. Assuming they also see room for improvement you might say, “Okay. So, do you mind if I show you how I would have done that? Now, you play customer Mary; I'll play you." Now jump into what you would like them to have done so that they can see it. Now, they're getting a live demonstration of what could be done better.

Let them edit it and own it.

Allow you team member to own the improvement. Here's what it sounds like. "So, Mary, you got to play customer. How do you think the customer would have felt?" Get feedback on what parts of your delivery the sales person can adopt and which parts are too far outside their comfort zone to begin using immediately. Isolate specific elements of your role play that are problematic for the sales person, "Okay. What would we have to change for it to feel fine for you? Because I want to incorporate that into my next try understanding that our personalities and styles are different.” It might take a few iterations but as long as the core technique is intact you can customize the delivery to the way the sales person would say it. Changing your words to match the sales person’s style provides them with the competence and conviction that this works.

Practice, practice, practice.

Now you have to know as a sales leader that the first few role plays are not going to be perfect because the sales person hasn't done it before. But repeating the practice five or six times with gentle guidance will begin to instill that change. After getting a handle on it in a safe environment the sales person will begin defaulting to using it in front of a customer. Why? Because under pressure people revert back to what they're accustomed to doing.

Role play is the fasted way to increase the skill level of your team. It's the fastest way to help newer people or people who are struggling in different parts of their business to become experts rapidly. Demonstration and practice prevents poor performance. Salespeople probably won't roleplay on their own, but with your guidance as a sales leader in creating the environment where they feel comfortable, they will begin to change the way they go about doing business.