Sales Coaching For Objection Handling
The key to successful sales coaching is to understand what your employees truly know and can do. We provide a framework within a model we called the Tiers of Learning: knowledge, skill, and behavior. Knowledge is to have the ability to teach the process or steps to execute. Skill is the ability to perform flawlessly and consistently and professionally. Behavior was to perform with absolute confidence and conviction void of anxiety or fear. The key element of sales coaching is to ask questions using these tiers of learning. For example, ask a salesperson what do they specifically say when they get a price objection. Their response will be indicative of what their true knowledge level is. Most sales people will start to describe what they would do which is really not an answer to the question when in fact we are asking them what they specifically say in that moment. If they cannot answer that they are in essence shooting from the hip when they are out live in front of the customer. Most sales people are typically well-versed in their understanding of their product or service; nevertheless, they tend to fall off the desired mark when it comes to truly practicing selling skills. Objections are really a test of our ability to understand the clients needs as well as make them feel comfortable in the pursuit of our product or service.
The moment a manager mentions role playing, most employees roll their eyes and prepare for the boring and possibly embarrassing moments to come. Rarely is role playing viewed as an effective and useful coaching tool that it is. When set up and used correctly, role playing is one of the most helpful ways to train and develop your employees.
What do you need to have good role play session?
-Make sure that you have a list of different role playing scenarios, including different variations of your product, different attitudes of the customer or client, etc.
-Have a checklist of things that should be accomplished during the role play for the observers to follow and take notes on.
-Have a dedicated amount of time afterwards for review.
-Set up a place and the activity where people feel comfortable and aren't afraid to make mistakes.
How often should role playing occur?
Should you schedule the role playing monthly, weekly or bi-weekly?
Maybe look at what athletes do as far as their practice schedules and take your cues from them. All athletes practice almost every day, but once every week or two, they will have a mock competition where they practice exactly what they will be doing at a real meet or game. Basketball players will have scrimmages, runners and swimmers will have days where they go through their events as they would in a competition. They do this to not only get a feel of what could happen during their game, race or meet, but to get used to the pressure and correct any mistakes now before the event. This is the same with role playing, it is a realistic practice session that helps to prepare employees for the real thing, and this should be scheduled consistently.
Role playing is an important coaching tool that should be practiced and put to use more often and with more enthusiasm. It helps the employees prepare for what types of situations they may encounter in the real-world.
Handling objections should NOT be assumed and ultimately practiced from knowledge (teaching it) and skill (simulating the desired performance).
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