The next step is to have every rep take “the hot seat,” i.e., to role-play his presentation before the entire salesforce. He must stick to the system knowing that every other rep in the room knows what he should be saying and will point out his mistakes. No winging it.
The sales manager should schedule regular and frequent sales meetings, two or three a week, and his goal should be to make the hot seat feel like the surface of the sun. The bigger the audience, the more informed the audience, the more spirited the competition, the more intense and productive the practice will be.
VIDEO: ULTIMATE TRAINING TOOL For weeks, my college coach had been telling me that I was not practicing with enough intensity. I was convinced that his charge was unfair — until I saw the videos that revealed, in an instant, my shortcomings. There’s simply no arguing with what you see on the tape.
The video camera is the most eloquent and persuasive trainer. For the sales manager, it can mean an enthusiastic and thriving salesforce. For the sales rep it can mean a double-digit increase in close rate. If a hot-seat presentation in front of a salesforce that knows the pitch flawlessly introduces pressure into role-play drill, a rolling video camera increases that pressure tenfold — like playing basketball against seven men.
The pause and reverse buttons on the VCR have remarkable power. They allow the instructor and the salesforce to review and assess every element of the presentation — elements that would be impossible to notice and critique during a live presentation.
Once the video performance has been mined for lessons in the sales meeting room, the individual sales rep can take his tape or DVD home to identify and eliminate even the smallest negative habits.
WELCOME THE PRESSURE Cindy Cipriani, sales manager of Cipriani Builders, in Woodbury, N.J., enrolled in my SuperStar Selling boot camp. As the first day of class approached, she considered the stories she’d heard, how I videotape each rep and critique their presentation in front of the whole group. Cindy wasn’t sure she was ready for that, but she swallowed her fears.
At the end of boot camp, Cindy was a believer. (Hear it in her words at http://rodneywebb.biz/?page_id=34.) She said that she had learned more from the video camera and the critique that followed it than she had learned in four years of successful selling in the field. She learned that training time could be your most productive time when you practice the way you play.
—Rodney Webb is a sales training consultant to the home improvement industry. Reach him at rodney@rodneywebb.bizz.