10/26/2023-Role Playing

The old way of practicing skills was based on caveman thinking that you’d get better if you sat in a chair on a stage role playing in front of your peers. Good news for you: there’s a better way.

If your manager used the term practice instead of role-playing in skill dev sessions, would you be more amenable to doing it?

You could stand in front of a mirror by yourself and practice delivering a pitch, but it would not be the same as having a few work friends sit in the conference room while you practice giving a deck.

Call it practice or role-playing, but either way, you won’t learn faster or better unless you emulate real-life scenarios and make mistakes in front of another live human being. Their presence is motivating, and their feedback is invaluable.

Today, pick an upcoming client meeting that you deem to be kinda-super-important and practice with a friendly at work.

Here are a few ideas that might frame your role-playing:
1. How’s your game articulating your company’s value proposition to this customer? Pitch it out loud in the practice so you and your friend can critique it.
2. What are the objections that require live prep and rehearsing?
3. What about key qualifying or strategic questions?

Click to read more on each of these, and you’ll gain an appreciation for what the right practice looks like.

A sales manager once said the following (and no truer words have been spoken)…

"It’s better to practice with each other than with your clients."

Why wouldn’t you practice with your work friends? Messing up and correcting yourself with your teammates is how you’ll learn to make it right when in front of your customers.

Your practice focus should be on specific scenarios you anticipate coming up in key meetings. In all instances, grab a friend and sit on Zoom or in the conference room and practice. For a few key areas, your practice could look like this:

1. Value prop: present the specific value prop best framed for your client…and then instruct your practice partner to push you on some of the issues. You’ll want to get practice time hearing how you respond to various potential reactions.
2. Objections: instruct your practice partner to present you with objections so you can hear how you handle them. Are you brief and succinct? …and not rushing to solve them, but instead going slowly collaboratively? What about the solution to each objection? Your practice partner can help you craft the right messaging for that client.
3. Strategic questions: ask your partner the same strategic questions you will be asking your customer so you can – again – HEAR how you respond and drive the conversation.

Finally, remember the number one privilege of role-playing as a seller: call time-out and play your do-over card if you don’t like how you’ve responded. That’s exactly what practice is for. Making mistakes, fixing them on the spot, and correcting them.

Vince Lombardi first coined the phrase, "Practice does not make perfect…perfect practice makes perfect."

It’s a good catchphrase, right?

Whether you have read the book Peak (recommended previously this month by MySalesDay) or have been personally coached in sports by someone maniacal about the details, you’re familiar with the theory of perfect practice.

This 8-minute Ted Talk from the young, charming, and slightly nervous-but-authentic-as-heck Claire Tueller will inspire you to think deeper about how you practice.

Claire shares three keys to her perfect practice in her classical piano training, and it’s sure to have applications for your skill development.