This article was originally published on NACE.
Roleplaying is such a powerful technique for training and motivating your sales team and I firmly believe that every company should be practicing real-world situations in this manner. One of the great benefits is that it gives your team new perspectives in responding to clients and you may find a great answer that can work consistently across the board.
For example, a client may ask about the reason behind an admin fee. In a roleplay situation, multiple people can share how they would respond to such a question. A senior producer can answer, then a junior producer may answer differently. Then, as a team, you can combine the two or pick one that is the best response, which can then be adopted as a company policy.
Now, the act of roleplaying is not easy for those in the hot seat. They may feel pressure, which is natural, but should also be encouraged since there’s often pressure in real-world sales settings. The true value of roleplaying is for the listeners — those who get to observe a situation play out will be able to say “I would have said something else…” or offer other suggestions.