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Role-playing and The Value of Practicing Sales Calls

deBanked asked several brokers over the past month about the value of role-playing with colleagues to prepare for real life sales engagements. Below are some excerpts of what they said.

Cheryl Tibbs, Commercial Capital Connect: “Before my broker life, I was a call center supervisor, so just really familiar with call centers making cold calls and that type of thing. So it’s very important [to role play], I think you have to practice. You don’t want to read a script, you don’t want to sound robotic, but you want to be engaged enough where you can have a good conversation with people without having to really think about it.”

Is there a point where practice is no longer necessary?

“Our industry changes day-to-day, little by little, things are changing. So I think it’s just always incumbent upon us to sharpen our skills. That means practicing at least once a week.”

Josh Feinberg, Everlasting Capital: “Role-playing is like stretching before going for a run. It makes it possible for you to be fast on your feet and really be able to have the answers when you’re talking to a, let’s just say, a construction company that does equipment financing, and they’ve financed all of their equipment. A lot of times they’re going to be more knowledgeable about the equipment financing and leasing product than a lot of the brokers that are going to be talking to them in regards to it.”

Is this something you do with your own reps?

“Yes, especially when someone is newer or starting out, role playing is essential to even a point just like on Equipping The Dream, we need to make sure that we’re call-coaching too. While we’re listening to them on the phone we’re in their ear telling them what to say, just to have them get used to it. And then we do a bunch of different role playing…we’ve done it hundreds and thousands of times over the years”

Adam Oster, Canyongate Financial: “We have a set list of questions: understanding the merchants needs and building that relationship. And if I know somebody’s really good but they’re not doing well, then we’ll go back and say, ‘Hey, let’s role play. Because there’s something—you’re too complacent, you’re missing something, or you’re not listening to the customer.’ So role play is very important.”

How does this take place?

“If they’re here locally, we’ll do it in-house a lot of times. I’ve got a couple people—one in California, one in Austin, Texas, so we have to do it over the phone. And if somebody’s thriving, I’ll ask them, ‘What are you doing? What are you saying to your dealerships or your customers that are helping you get deals?'”