In my last article I went over 16 Tips To Become An Effective Sales Manager. Later, I posted on my Instagram stories some videos of me doing live sales roleplay on zoom with my sales team.
I mentioned how “You gotta do this 8 hours a week” and my friends messaged me asking how and why I had this rule.
I think it’s because if a sales manager works 40 hours a week, he or she should spend 20% of their week doing live roleplay with their team…which is 8 hours.
Part of that time can be spent doing 1-on-1 training, but I prefer group trainings because it’s more efficient. I’ve got 7 reps right now, so it makes the most sense.
Quick Intro: I’m Eric Horwitz, and I scaled my service business from $1.3M to $10.2M in 19 months, and it now takes me half a day per week to manage. Now, I help service companies grow fast while working less. Just visit winwinwitheric.com to book a call.
Here are my 8 tips that have worked well for my team.
Tip 1: Put Roleplay Trainings on the Calendar
This isn’t some random event, but instead it’s a locked-in time slot. Right now it’s typically 8:00am-9:30am PST (which are my evenings in Dubai) on Mondays and Thursdays.
These slots are not for problem-solving, or reflecting on sales issues from the previous week.
They are JUST FOR TRAINING.
You’re doing it wrong if you spend more than 10 minutes talking, because the rest of that time is for practicing sales calls.
If you have a sales manager right now, you can meet with them, show them this post and pick 3 time slots for sale roleplay every week. Each is 90 minutes. That’s 4.5 hours
Your manager can spend the other 3.5 hours divided amongst individual members (like with quick 30-minute 1-on-1s as they are making calls or doing FTAs “First Time Appointments).
Tip 2: Demonstrate and Record YOU Making A Sale
I have a video I made 3 years ago of me talking to a prospect. It was an FTA with a city in California where I pitched them a series of culinary workshops. Despite how ancient that video feels to me, it’s still a great example of a near-perfect FTA.
I engaged the prospect during the introduction, the sales presentation, and the logistics planning.
Now, I have all of my sales reps watch that video and when I tell them “you need more assertiveness” or “engage the prospect a different way” I can then immediately show them how it’s done correctly with that video.
I used Loom.com to screen record and it’s just one continuous 25 minute video, but it’s valuable because after that (and a few more) videos are made I can…
Tip 3: Practice with the sale team
Recently, I’ve enjoyed breakout rooms. I pair up all of the reps, give them the script and they start practicing in different rooms. Then I can hop into the breakrooms for about 15 minutes each, listen, reflect and give feedback.
In a recent situation, one of my reps was going over the plan for a prospective client using google sheets. During the process you have to TALK about the program and BUILD a google sheet. It’s not easy if you’re new.
You have to ask the prospect questions, engage them in conversation and all while effortlessly building them a plan.
In my case, if it’s a school district with 8 sites, I have to write down when we could teach at each site, how many workshops per session, how many students we’ll impact, and make sure my formulas are effective so there’s a price at the end that’s accurate. Plus, I have to explain the price of the workshop as well as other equipment costs.
This rep was doing all of that, but kind of slowly. Later, I paired him with a more seasoned sales rep and this rep did exactly what I wanted, showing how to banter, ask calibrated questions and build the Logistics google sheet in a fluid manner.
The goal in these breakout rooms is to just get in the reps and practice everything we’re doing, in the most effective way possible.
Tip 4: Review Pre-Recorded LIVE calls and FTAs
I have each of my sales reps use Loom to record their most recent FTAs with prospects.
You can use some of this roleplay time to review live calls and give feedback.
Then immediately follow this with recreating that exact moment and have it be practiced.
Just a headsup: don’t spend more than 20%-25% of your time reviewing live calls. It’s much, much, much better to actually do more of the roleplaying described previously.
It’s the difference between watching yourself play tennis versus actually hitting the ball in practice. Both are helpful, but the physical practice is far more powerful.
Tip 5: Create random scenarios and surprise questions
In a recent roleplay setup, when I paired up my sales reps, I gave the “prospect” different scenarios.
In the world of education, I changed things like:
- Present yourself as an elementary school district with 7 sites looking for a Summer session for 5 weeks proposal
- You’re a district with 2 elementaries, 2 middle schools and 1 high school looking for a Fall session for 10 weeks
I’d also add surprise questions to see how my reps would react.
- Another competitor offered this price, why should go with you over them?
- Could I get a discount?
We have a whole section in the SOP about objection handling, and I would pull questions from there and from my own experience.
This way I can see how well the sales rep adapts to a variety of scenarios.
Tip 6: Don’t Help Them UNTIL The End
If we’re doing a run through of the sales presentation, sometimes a peer might try to help or correct something for a newer sales rep. I don’t like this and prefer to let the sales rep get to the finish line and then share feedback.
This comes from the idea that I want them to go through the entire presentation. I don’t want to stop in the middle of it and interrupt their flow (which is a key element of a pitch). It also allows them to feel where they are trailing off or losing the momentum they’ve built.
A good FTA flows like a great conversation, and when you’re new, there are nuances of every part to master.
I tell everyone that during roleplay, don’t interrupt, don’t help, even if you know this person is off. Just write a note so you can share it at the end. Then you can go back and fix it.
Tip 7: Pick Something New To Focus On Each Roleplay
To me, there are an infinite number of things to use during these sales roleplay sessions.
Here are some recent examples:
- How to run a “follow-up meeting” after the initial FTA
- How to complete the sales presentation
- How to make a cold call to a gatekeeper
- How to talk to a decision maker after getting past the gatekeeper
Then, when you get through everything. You run it again because…
Tip 8: Sales roleplay is like the gym, you lift weights forever.
Anyone who prioritizes health knows that lifting weights has massive benefits for your muscles, heart and bones.
It’s something I will be doing forever, even though in my 40s, it’ll be different than in my 60s.
But I have to go, and show up and do a workout…forever.
That’s how I see sales roleplay.
The next sales manager will use those roleplay time slots to train and refine the team forever. I don’t care how good you are, because you can always get better.
And more seasoned reps can show the newer reps how to sell effectively.
Those time slots will be locked in for as long as my company is running (and so far it’s been a good 16 years!)
If you need help building and roleplaying and setting up your effective remote sale teams. Let’s chat!
Are you ready to scale your service company? I’ve helped clinics, staffing companies, and others get past operational roadblocks, overworked CEOs, and revenue thresholds through 1-on-1 customized consulting. Book a call and I’ll diagnose your exact issue with solutions at www.winwinwitheric.com.