Role Play to Refine Your Skills

While I was at the Town Planner Publishers' conference last weekend, I sat in on their sales workshop the afternoon prior to my workshop on Friday morning. It was a great program that took participants through the most common objections the publishers face in the sales process.

The facilitator focused on 13 key objections and a panel of experienced publishers shared their strategies for breaking through each. About 50 participants were in the audience and many were taking diligent notes.

As I was sitting there observing I realized something. This was the first day of the conference and it was a Thursday afternoon. The first opportunity most participants would have to practice the new approach to overcoming these standard objections would be the forthcoming Monday. By then, most participants would only have their notes to refer to when they got home. In the heat of the moment in a sales situation, I would venture to guess that most of the strategies for overcoming the objections that were put forth in Thursday afternoon's workshop would be long forgotten.

I realized that the best way to really integrate the strategy of overcoming common sales objections would be to do a significant amount of role playing with a partner who is familiar with the sales process and these objections, someone who could play "devil's advocate" and help you practice overcoming the objections.

Most people hate role playing exercises in workshops, but I believe it is imperative if you want to improve your sales skills, negotiating skills, speaking skills, etc. Find a partner, practice your sales script, or your basic approach to engaging a prospect in a sales conversation. Then, practice overcoming the common objections you may face.

The old adage here holds true, "practice makes perfect." Although "perfect" probably isn't the standard to shoot for because it's unrealistic, practice will yield results. And, as my yoga master says with regards to generating results from my yoga practice, steady practice brings results, more steady practice brings more results. The same goes for role playing in the sales process.

Find a partner and set time aside weekly to identify the situations and the objections that provide the biggest challenge and work through them in some role playing sessions. I can guarantee your sales success will explode within 90-days. Have fun with it and good luck!

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