Practice makes perfect

Professional actors and musicians rehearse. The best sportspeople practise. The armed forces make their members drill and practise things like tactics and weapons handling.

Why do they do that? So they can perform in pressure situations almost without thinking. For an actor or musician it could lead to a near-perfect performance and a rave review. For a sportsperson it could mean the difference between being a team regular or a fringe player. For a soldier, it could save their life or the lives of their mates.

Similarly, the ability to perform in challenging situations is tremendously valuable to salespeople. If they are able to do so they find it easier to deal with them; if they are not able to do so they will lose sales that they otherwise would make.

Why then is there a reluctance in many businesses to provide adequate sales skills practice – away from real life customers?

Is it because the boss simply doesn’t ‘get’ the importance of such practice? Is it because the boss is uncomfortable with the idea? Is it because the boss doesn’t want the sales staff to feel uncomfortable? Doesn’t the boss know how to set it up?

Here are some pointers for bosses who want to help their salespeople practise effectively.

Make sure that your expectations are clear

This means that any skills to be practised must first be scripted (or at least a comprehensive outline prepared). The best salespeople are performers in the same way that actors are. The best actors have the ability to put life into the script they are following. Similarly, practising sales skills is about having salespeople follow the script (or outline) to the best of their ability and to bring that script to life. This is what you expect.

Give practice a name that your salespeople can be comfortable with

In some businesses practice is called role-play; other businesses call it drill; others call it rehearsal. Give it a name that fits the style of your business but, whatever you call it, don’t let it be seen as an opportunity to embarrass people or put them down.

Set aside adequate practice time on a regular basis

Practice is best done on a regular basis as part of a general training routine. It can’t be seen as punishment. Regular practice gives salespeople the opportunity to get over any initial discomfort and to get used to the practice environment. This then gives them the opportunity to focus on improving their performance without being overly-concerned about the presence of others.

Lighten up – treat mistakes as learning opportunities

Practice must be a positive learning experience; it’s about building people up not about putting them down. This is best done if it is carried out in a good-humoured way without it becoming flippant.

The place to make mistakes is in the training room; in the training room mistakes are cheap; in the show room they can be very expensive. With this in mind the boss must forgive mistakes while making sure that the salespeople learn from them

Take your turn

The most effective practice occurs when the boss, whether the business-owner or a manager, takes a turn. This means demonstrating what is expected of the salespeople; not only ‘telling’ but also ‘showing’.

This means that the boss has to keep his or her sales skills up. This also is a positive thing; it sets the standard and demonstrates leadership by example (and makes salespeople more likely to follow).

Always create the opportunity for self-critique

The first question any salesperson should be asked after a practice session is ‘What, if anything, would you do differently if you had the chance to do that again?’

This is a positive opportunity. It means that the salesperson can critique themselves first; pointing out things that they recognise could have been done better. Self-criticism is easier to accept than the criticism of others.

Sometimes the salesperson will be unnecessarily harsh in their self-critique. If this happens it’s appropriate for the boss to correct them and let them know that they did a better job than they thought they did.

Ensure that feedback from others is always constructive

Once the self-critique has been made, others in the group can offer their feedback. The boss can’t allow the criticism to become destructive – it must always be constructive. Remember also that the feedback is about how well the salesperson followed the script (or outline) and brought it to life; it is not about unrelated personal opinions.

What to focus on when practising

There are key steps in any sales process; clumsiness during any of them could result in the needless loss of a sale. While the steps differ slightly from business to business they generally include Engaging the customer, Conversational questioning (to establish needs and wants), the ‘show’ (or demonstration), handling Objections and Closing.

It is important that all of these key steps be practised on an on-going basis; the idea is to sharpen the knife before it gets blunt.

Final point

Many salespeople assert that they perform better in a real life sales situation than they do in a practice situation; this is probably true. It follows therefore that if they can improve their performance at practice they will perform even better in real life, with even better results.



(The up-coming post for Monday 20/4 is What sets your business apart. It's about Positive Points of Difference.)