Role playing puts sales professionals into realistic situations, yet allows them to make mistakes that don't cost anything – and helps them to learn from those mistakes. It also gives you the opportunity to validate your own values and selling practices to your salespeople. Not only does your team learn how you want them to sell, they get the experience of actually doing it. Your salespeople will be able to anticipate the problems and objections in real selling situations and will know how to overcome them. Here are some tips that will help you to make the most out of the role playing experiences you provide for your sales staff, and increase the success they will feel, as well as the results they’ll get when they’re out in the field.

Make them work hard: If your sales team is going to be able to handle the pressure and stress of difficult questions and objections from your prospects, you need to replicate that experience in the role play. If it’s too easy for them, they will be unprepared when they hit those real life situations. Play the difficult, obnoxious customer – you’ve had them before – and let them figure out how to close the deal in spite of the fact that you’re angry, disillusioned, uninterested, or simply ambivalent.

Role play all kinds of buyers: Salespeople need to adapt their sales communication skills to the types of people they will be selling to. The way you sell to a CEO of a multi-million dollar firm is very different than the way you might sell to the president of a small private company. Similarly, your approach might be different if you are selling to the middle manager of a company versus the owner. And personality comes into play as well. If you are selling to a Director/Driver type of person who wants the bottom line now, your presentation will be different than if you are selling to a Relater type of person who values relationships and who wants to get to know you first. Then, there are the Analytical types who will need all the information you can provide and time to process, and the Socializers who want to take you out for drinks and a night on the town before they talk business. Being able to adapt to all of the different roles and styles of your prospects will give you a significant advantage in the sales game. So, don’t role play all the same type of person – mix it up. Make it fun so that your sales team doesn’t know what’s going to come next. It’s the best way to learn.

Share the fun: Sales role playing should be carried out by both sales management and sales team members, and participation should be mandatory. No one gets a free pass. When everyone is participating, it builds the sense of fun and creates team spirit. Knowing everyone will get their turn means everyone is on equal footing. Everyone should get the opportunity to be both the prospect and the sales person. Switching it up like this will give you the greatest range of personalities and experiences, and will make for the best learning opportunity.

Deal directly with sales objections: In every industry, there are a handful of sales objections that are used by prospects most often – your top ten. Make a list of what those are for your industry,and use them often in your role play scenarios. The more equipped your sales team is in dealing with those objections, the better they will be able to turn those objections into closes.

Critique the role play sessions: If no critique is involved in your role playing sessions, you may be having a lot of fun, but you won’t be accomplishing much. Part of the role play process is to get feedback from others on how you’re doing. What did you do well? Where could you have done something differently to change the outcome? What specific things do you need to work on? When your sales team understands these things, they will hit their sales targets faster. If a salesperson crumbles under the pressure of role playing as part of their training, how can they possibly perform in person? And how many qualified prospects are they losing by not understanding how to turn those situations around? Role playing will assist your sales team in increasing their success.

Where possible, record role playing sessions for future learning: Role playing is a reusable, educational tool that can be used over and over again. By recording your sales role playing session (either via audio or video), you can document and measure successes. Months later when a person watches how much they struggled in a certain area, and they realize how much better they have become at overcoming that problem, it is a huge confidence booster, and a motivator for continued learning. Also, when a new sales team member comes on board, you can use those sessions as a training tool to get them quickly immersed in your sales culture and strategies.

Role playing is a fantastic tool to improve your sales team’s performance. By using role playing as an experiential training tool, salespeople can anticipate prospect comments and selling pressure before it happens, to help them develop strategies that will increase their sales closing ratio. And what sales person doesn’t want to do that!

Top

You interrupt him again and this time, he says into the phone, “OK, gotta go. Somebody’s here.” He hangs up the phone and looks at you. “What can I do for you?” he says. You explain that you need a particular part for your stereo, but you’re not sure which brand to get for your specific needs. He stares at you for a moment, and then says, “I don’t know.”\ Stunned, you try again by asking if there is anyone else in the store who could help you with this purchase. He says the manager is out for lunch and that he is the only other person on today. He doesn’t offer any further assistance, so you ask if the manager might be able to help you, and when he/she would be back from lunch. He yawns, looks at his watch and tells you in a half hour, but that it’s possible the manager might do errands after lunch so in fact, he’s not completely sure when he’ll be back.

You ask whether there’s anyone else at another store he could call to get the information. He rolls his eyes, sighs, picks up the phone, and dials the other store. “Hey Joe, yeah, this is Brian from ABC Mall. I got a guy in here looking for a cable for his stereo. He doesn’t know which one to get. Any ideas?” He gets off the phone and tells you that Joe isn’t really sure either, but that you could try Brand X because it’s usually pretty good and they don’t get very many returns with it. You select the item, and put it on the chip-laden counter to pay. You pay with your credit card, but when you look at the receipt you realize he has charged the wrong price. When you point it out to him, he seems exasperated with you and tells you he’s not really sure how to do a refund on the overcharge. He asks if you can wait for his manager to return in order to do the transaction.

Let me ask you a few questions. How are you feeling about this store right now? How likely are you to shop there again? Dr. Carol Kinsey Gorman, keynote speaker, management consultant and business specialist says it takes the average person only seven seconds to make 11 impressions. Look back over the story and count the number of impressions you have made about the store itself, and the young man at the counter. It’s true that a customer’s first impression often makes or breaks his or her decision to buy from you, so as a business owner – you should know what that impression looks like. This is important because knowledge is the key to changing things that could be driving customers away. Here are some tips on how to get a handle on those first impressions.

Retail businesses or businesses with storefronts:

Do an honest walk-through. Come in to your business from the street on a day when it is busy. Look around. Is the store tidy and uncluttered? Is the music too loud (or too soft – just barely there)? Is your staff engaged with people? Do customers look like they are finding what they need or are theylooking perplexed? Do customers generally look happy? Is your product arranged in a way that makes it easy for people to find what they are looking for? Is pricing clearly marked? Is your staff neatly dressed and professional-looking? Are there personal staff items like food packages or coffee cups in sight anywhere? Try to perceive your business from a customer’s perspective, and imagine the impressions they are getting of your store and your staff.

Hire a secret shopper. As objective as you try to be, you still can’t distance yourself from it completely like someone who’s never been there before. Find someone – a friend of a friend or relative, someone who doesn’t know you or your store. Ask them if they would take a half hour to come and give you their impressions of your store. Have them come at a time when you won’t be there. This will tell you if the staff behaves differently when you aren’t there. This may be an eye opener for you, but it will provide you with some great information.

Service-oriented businesses:

Do an honest assessment. When you look around your lobby or reception area, is it warm and inviting? Is it tidy and uncluttered? Are there comfortable places for people to sit, and interesting things for them to read if they have to wait? Is your receptionist’s desk also free of clutter and tidy? Listen to how customers are greeted and treated when they come in to your business. What are YOUR first impressions when you come in the door?

Do a client satisfaction survey. Ask the people who receive service from you how they feel about it. Ask specifically about their first impression. Were they treated courteously? Did they have to wait very long? Did they receive the service they expected? Your best source of information is the people who have made their seven second assessment about your business.

Finally, whether you have a product or service-oriented business, train your staff on the importance of those first impressions. Read the story at the beginning of this article to them to make your point. If they understand the importance of that first encounter with your customers, they will more likely stay on their toes and try harder to make that first impression one that brings customers back.

Top

What Exactly is Mentoring?

Webster's definition of a mentor is "a wise and faithful advisor", and who couldn't use one of those? In the context of you and your small business, mentoring is a relationship with someone who is farther along in their business experience than you are. Someone you trust and whose successes and integrity you admire. Someone you have faith in, can talk to, ask advice of, and get honest feedback from. This could be someone you know well and already have a relationship with, or someone you don't know at all but whom you have admired from afar.

Mentoring relationships can be formal, where the paramaters of the relationship are clearly set around business. Meetings take place regularly and are structured and focused on issues and results. This type of relationship appeals to people who don't have a lot of time, who have directive personalities and who don't like mixing business with pleasure. Clear boundaries exist and the relationship is issue-driven. The mentor offers advice on specific problems or concerns the mentee is experiencing in his or her business, guidance on future decisions, and counsel on any other aspects of the business experience. The mentor draws on his or her own experience, successes and failures to provide the guidance the mentee is looking for.

Mentoring relationships can also be informal, where the relationship is more friendly and casual. Meetings take place regularly but are less structured and focus on all aspects of home and business life. Meetings are casual in nature and may take place over a walk in the park as opposed to a boardroom, but the results are the same. Guidance, counsel, advice and wisdom are passed on to the mentee on issues relevant to their lives and work. This type of mentoring is relationship-driven and appeals to people who have a more casual approach to business, people who don't mind their business and personal lives mixing a bit and who learn better from relationships than from structured meetings. The continuum for mentoring relationships is broad, and yours could fit anywhere in between those two extremes.

How Can A Mentoring Relationship Make a Difference to Your Business?

Say your business is two years old and you're beginning to experience an incredible growth curve. You can't afford to expand with the capital you have, but you're wondering if this might be the time to borrow money to do it. How do you know what to do? How do you determine how much to borrow and from whom? How can you decide if this is the right time for your business? What questions do you need to ask? Or maybe the opposite has happened. Your business is coming down from a huge growth period and things are slowing down. What can you do to turn things around again? Is this a time to pay attention to other aspects of the business? Should you be revisiting your business plan? How can you take this decline in sales and turn it into an advantage for your business? Or maybe you're having a difficult time with one of your employees. You like them (maybe even really need them) and appreciate their contribution to your company but they are exhibiting some behaviours you can't tolerate. How do you handle it?

Those are the kinds of situations in which you pick up the phone, call your mentor and say, "we need to talk." You then rely on their experience, their expertise, and their successes and failures, to help guide you in your decision-making. You may not always agree with the choices they made, but you can see how effective they were for them, and decide whether they might be effective for you. It's kind of like taking advantage of many years of experience you don't yet have.

Where Would I Look for a Mentor?

Make a list of all the significant people you've come into contact with in your business life. Think back to teachers or professors, leaders of associations you belong to, churches you've attended, boards you've sat on, or organizations you've worked for. Think about other business people you've met or worked with. Think of all the activities you've been part of, charities you've contributed to or worked for, or even people you've just admired over the years for their wisdom. As you begin to write these names down, you'll find some immediately rising to the surface as you think about yourself gleaning wisdom from them. Once you've come up with two or three you feel strongly about, simply ask them if they'd be interested in mentoring you for a period of time. Let them know what you hope to gain from the relationship and how you see it working. And don't be discouraged if the first person on your list turns you down - keep trying. It's an honour to be asked to fill this role in someone's life and someone will say yes.

Mentoring is a great way to benefit from the wisdom of others to advance your business. So tap into this amazing resource and see what it does for your success. Who knows, after some time, maybe you’ll even consider being a mentor to someone else. Life is about giving and receiving, and your contribution to someone else’s business success would be a wonderful way to complete the circle.

Top