Let's play!

One of the joys of live training engagements is class participation. Asking questions, solving problems and my favorite — role-playing. Turns out that role-playing is not just a game, it's a strategy, scientifically based on performance enhancement.

In 1898, Norman Tripplett pioneered research on a theory that came to be known as Yerkes Dodson's Law, also known as The Theory of Social Facilitation. Social facilitation is the tendency for people to do better on simple tasks when in the presence of other people. This implies that whenever people are being watched by others, they will do well in things that they are already good at doing. According to the theory: "The mere presence of other people will enhance the performance in speed and accuracy of well-practiced tasks but will degrade the performance of less familiar tasks."

Dodson's Law would say that a star football player would perform better when more people are watching him. However, if a person who is not a professional mechanic is asked to fix a car's engine during a road race, he will not perform as well in the presence of others as he would in a situation (like fixing a car in his garage) where he feels less evaluated or pressured. The difference is confidence in his/her ability to perform the task.

As the research suggests, if people are well-practiced and good at something, they love an audience, and it helps them improve their performance. However, if they have any doubt in their ability or apprehension about the presentation they are making, then the opposite effect occurs and people do what we commonly refer to as "choking."

This research supports the age-old sales training technique called role-play. Prepare and practice your presentation in the sales meeting before you go live with clients. Professional football players practice Monday through Friday for several hours a day, just to play one game on Sunday. Imagine how we would be as sellers if we spent Saturday to Thursday preparing for our one presentation on Friday. Think we would leave anything out?

I'm convinced that one of the things that helped me achieve almost instant success in sales was the fact that my manager, Bill Mann, made it very clear that I was never to present to a client without first presenting to him. Those role plays not only served as a great "visualization" of how things would go, but they also served as a preparation tool to ensure that I was well prepared with all the objections and questions covered before I faced the client. "Amateurs practice until they can get it right; professionals practice until they can't get it wrong." Harold Craxton, professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Practice and role-playing are professional development tools that are critical to growing your income and effectiveness in sales. When was the last time you did some role-playing in your sales meeting?

Jeff Schmidt is the SVP of Professional Development. You can reach him at Jeff.Schmidt@RAB.com. You can all so connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.