Sales Rep 101 – Chapter 30

Role Playing

If you are in sales I bet your heart rate jumped just opening up this article. This is hands down the most terrifying thing to do for new sales reps. And for experienced sales reps for that matter. When you are with a prospect they have no idea who you are and no idea what your pitch or presentation is supposed to sound like. So if you mess it up they would never know. However, when managers have their sales reps role play with each other in front of the whole team that is a different story.

So why is role playing so scary for sales reps? There are a few factors in play here. First, if you are new to sales you really don’t have your sales pitch down yet. You haven’t practiced much and so you will probably screw it up pretty bad. But this is why managers love role play. It is for the practice. In fact, when I was first starting out in sales I would practice in front of a mirror. I know that sounds weird but it gave me an idea of my body language which is important. Now you just video your role play which makes it much easier. But even if you have your sales pitch down pat for some reason when you are role playing people freeze up. It happens to the best of them. You get nervous and you can barely even talk. It sucks.