It’s one of the oldest jokes in the world: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? The answer: Practice!. The punch line is obvious; however, so is the value of practice and rehearsal. Nevertheless, they’re still among the hardest things for agencies to get producers to do.
As a sales trainer, I frequently hear groans; muffled and otherwise; when I lead a group through role-playing and rehearsals. It’s always surprising. Why would professional salespeople, who make a living striking up conversations with prospects they barely know, become tongue-tied and self-conscious making the same pitch in front of their co-workers?
I believe the self-consciousness comes from the fact that few salespeople have a well-planned strategy before they meet prospects; and this fact becomes obvious in an artificial setting such as a sales-training session. However, whatever the reason, I’d like to offer four tips for making your rehearsal and role-playing pay off. In doing this, I’d quote from some people who, professionally speaking, lived and died by the value of their practice:
1. Just do it
“It takes a lot of unspectacular preparation to produce spectacular results.”
Roger Staubach, former NFL quarterback
The first tip for making rehearsing pay off as a salesperson is to commit to doing it on a regular basis. There’s no substitute for going over;aloud and with someone else; your likely conversation with a prospect.
Place the rehearsal on your schedule at the same time a meeting. You wouldn’t meet with a prospect without first getting your package together or grooming yourself properly, right? These tasks are part of the commitment you make when you schedule the sales appointment, aren’t they? Schedule some time both the day before and the day of the meeting for rehearsal and role-playing. Commit to it.
2. Make your rehearsal count
“Never mistake activity for achievement.”
John Wooden, former UCLA basketball coach.
When Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight prepared his Hoosiers to face a run-and-gun team, he didn’t have his guys practice the 2-1-2 zone defense. He developed a specific game plan and worked his players until they had mastered it.
The same should hold true for you. The purpose of your rehearsal and role-playing before meeting a prospect should be to prepare yourself to implement a specific strategy you’ve developed to close the prospect.
What? You don’t have a specific strategy? Trust me, you’re not alone. Far too many producers take a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approach to sales.
However, think of how much more powerful your meeting with a prospect would be if, for example, you had researched the company and knew that it had concerns about risk management. Let’s say that you even took the next step: identified the incumbent agency and found that it has a relatively weak risk-management program; particularly compared to the outstanding, aggressive program your agency offers.
Now, imagine how much stronger this sales meeting would be if you spent some time rehearsing every way you could think of to discuss risk management, and if you had developed and rehearsed effective questions that you could use to lead to the issue of risk management and the incumbent’s lackluster performance.
3. Strive for perfect practice
“Practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.”
Vince Lombardi, legendary NFL coach.
To paraphrase an old saying, you’ll “preach” what you practice, whether you mean to or not. As a result, poor rehearsals are actually worse than none at all. Honing your own bad habits wastes valuable time and energy.
You want the conversations in your rehearsals and role-playing to sound like those you would have with your prospect. If you try an approach that leads down a blind alley, don’t say to your rehearsal partner, “Well, let’s just say we’re past that point and go on to....”
If you’re asking a question in such a way that your rehearsal partner instinctively gives an unhelpful answer, look at this question again. If all of your conversations in rehearsal sound stilted and, well, rehearsed, work on them. Rewrite the questions and answers until you get something natural and workable.
I also recommend recording the rehearsal or at least having a notepad handy. When you ask a question or raise an issue in a way that feels comfortable, you’ll want to go back and polish and memorize it. The purpose of rehearsal is not to turn you into a spontaneous speaker, but to make your well-chosen and rehearsed words seem spontaneous. Sounding spontaneous is a matter of careful preparation.
4. Practice with purpose:
“Practice without improvement is meaningless.”
Chuck Knox, former NFL coach.
Effort is not nearly as valuable as results. The reason you commit the time to rehearse and role-play is to help you close more deals. If you’re not seeing results, re-evaluate your rehearsal approach.
Are your meetings with prospects going more smoothly? Are you able to engage them in a meaningful way about their businesses and the goals they want to accomplish? Are you able to explain in a compelling way the differences between what your agency offers and what the competition is giving the prospect? When you can do these things, you’ll be well on your way to making money.
Conclusion
Committing to rehearsal as part of your sales approach, rehearsing a planned strategy, focusing on developing your skills correctly and making sure your rehearsal time is resulting in more deals; these are the ways to get rehearsal and role-playing to pay off.
If you still hate rehearsing, remember the words of Muhammad Ali: “I hated every minute of training, but I said, Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion..’”