Copyright: auremar / 123RF Stock Photo
I have a friend who is headed for a Plan Of Action meeting in Dallas this month, and she's all stressed out because there is a role play involved. Keep in mind, her company has over 300 sales reps and all of them will be required to do a role play to assess their skill level at selling the company's products. The role plays will be graded by managers on a point system and once a rep has passed the role play scenario, she/he will then go through a "competitor gauntlet" to further assess their knowledge of the company's competition. Sounds like fun doesn't it?! For who? The reps? HELL NO!
I have been in sales for a long time now, and personally I have always felt that a role play was a terrible way to judge the ability of a rep. Why? Because reps are more nervous about being judged than they are in front of a customer. Inevitably, they almost always make a mistake, but not because they aren't knowledgeable, but more than likely because they are so nervous. A role play is more like a talent show audition than a real life scenario. Don't believe me? Just ask 100 employees if they enjoy role plays. The answer you will receive 9 times out of 10 is "no!" and some people will even answer with an emphatic "hell no!". Yes there will be that one rep who say "yes", that same person did summer stock in high school and is in the cast of the local theater company's version of "Of Mice And Men". Those people are natural actors, and good at role playing because they understand what it takes to "fake it". However, not all effective sales reps are actors...in fact most are not.
Teachers and educators have all stated that role playing can be an effective tool for training in schools. However it must be conducted in an environment that is free from judgment or criticism. And in the classroom it is used as a tool to empathize with people or characters. Well, that's not the world of business. We are judged every day by our peers and our bosses, but mostly by our bosses. Moreover, many managers show little or no empathy towards their employees. Let me share a role play I was asked to do a long time ago when I was a rep. It was conducted in front of an entire ballroom of people at our annual sales conference. The audience included the CEO, COO, CFO, and board members along with the entire national sales force. No pressure right? They drew names out of a hat and guess who was the unlucky winner? Me. Here's how the role play went:
President of Sales: "Why don't you tell me about this new product you guys have?"
Me: "We have a new product? I wasn't aware of a new product?"
President of Sales: "Well if you weren't you might be looking for a new job."
Me: "You mean ______?"
President of Sales: "Uh...yes. What can you tell me about it and how it might help my patients?"
Me: "I know it's manufactured by vampires."
At this point many of the reps in the ballroom laughed, but the president of sales was not smiling.
President of Sales: "Really? Vampires? I believe you're beginning to skate on thin ice young man."
Me: "Of course I'm joking we don't have any vampires working for us. We have elves. Little medical elves."
Again laughter and louder this time, but not even a grimace came from the president of sales.
Me: "It is a great product that can improve healing rates by almost 43% over conventional therapies. We have two randomized controlled trials currently published in _______. In both of the RCT's patients benefited greatly from using ________. Can you think of any patients who might benefit from this type of therapy?"
President of Sales: "That's better. As a matter of fact I can. What else can you tell me?"
Me: "Each trial was conducted with over 100 patients and the results were pretty conclusive. I can get you a copy of the published RCT's and maybe we can try the therapy on a few of your patients. That is if you're interested. How does that sound?"
President of Sales : "Sounds like you get to keep your job buddy."
And then he finally smiled and shook my hand. All the other sales reps watching started clapping as soon as I had finished, but some of the managers weren't smiling. Why? Because I changed the role play and added some humor. Yet this was how I always presented to doctors or nurses. I infused humor into my talk track and they liked it. However some corporate people don't like to laugh...unless they're drunk. I was told by all my peers the role play was great and by all my superiors that it was awful.
After that stressful incident, the only role playing I wanted to do was as a Storm Trooper at Comic Con...well not really. So the rest of the night, I partied like it was my last day on the job. I was concerned that my lack of seriousness may have put me in the unemployment line. Yet as the night wore on and the drinks kept coming, our VP of sales, who had a little too much red wine, came up to me and put his arm around me.
"How ya feeling?", he said and leaned on me a little, almost tipping his glass of wine on me.
"Not as good as you are! My role play kind of sucked."
"Nah it was good. You covered the important stuff. That's all that matters."
"Ya think so? Bob said he didn't think I was taking it seriously."
"You seemed pretty calm. I would have been sweating bullets. I hate doing those f#$king role plays."
"What? Then why are we doing them?"
"Beats me. The trainers think they're good practice."
"Really? What do you think?"
"I think if I say any more about it, I'm gonna get myself in trouble. I also think you need another drink.", he said and waved for the bartender who came over.
"Two shots for me and my buddy here. Milagro. Por favor."
"Thanks. And after the shot you tell me what you really think about how I did."
"Listen, you just put up numbers and screw the role play thing alright? You'll be fine.", he said and slapped me on the back. We downed the shots and then he smiled at me.
"You worry too much. Relax do your best and f#$k the role play....oh wait you already did that!", he said rather loudly, then he laughed hard, and stumbled off into the night.
I knew there was something I always liked about that guy...but then again maybe it was the Milagro talking.
Have a great day and avoid the role plays!
SFTD
