Sales - 8 min READ. As you can imagine, this style of sales training is much more effective than just giving someone a manual with tips, templates, and scripts they have to memorize and work through on their own. Instead, sales role play becomes a team sport where everyone, including sales leaders , learns how to win together.
You and your sales reps should have a firm grip on the basics of your "sales motion," or the steps you take to close a sale.
For example:. Because this kind of exercise is meant to help you get better at the basics of selling, this is best handled one-on-one typically, with one sales manager and one sales rep, or one sales trainer and sales rep, or one senior sales rep and one new sales rep. Essentially, you want a seasoned sales pro to lead this role play exercise and help the newest team member strengthen their skills through practice and feedback.
To start with the role play scenario, it should be in person. This is your chance to really cement those basic skills, so design your exercises to be specific as they need to be. So, you ask your two newest recruits to work through the exercise together. You give Mark a cold-calling script and you set Winnie, your sales manager , up in one of the conference rooms with a prompt of her own.
You let the two of them work through the salesperson exercise a few times, switching back and forth in the roles. This exercise can be used to reinforce the basic skills from exercise 1, or it can be used as part of ongoing training. The overall goal of the role playing exercise, regardless, is to iron out the kinks. This is a one-on-one exercise between two sales reps. This time, though, there is a third person there to observe. It may be a more senior rep, coach, or sales manager. Even though there's a third party observing the interaction, you can still host this role play in person, over the phone, or through video chat.
