- February 21, 2008
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Category: Understanding the Sales Force
Our five-year old son was watching First Knight, now his favorite movie because of the many battles. Last night he said, “You know what’s really weird? When people are hit with one arrow they die, but when King Arthur gets hit with four arrows he doesn’t die until after the battle is over. That doesn’t make any sense.”
I explained that because it is all pretend they can make the movie more interesting and exciting by doing that.
It is just like the role playing your salespeople do when they practice making cold calls or ask questions to develop compelling reasons. When the person playing the prospect gives the salesperson a hard time, rejects him or her, objects, asks the killer tough question or offers strong resistance, your salesperson doesn’t fail. Instead they get another chance to ask another question. It’s all pretend. There is no better way to raise sales competencies than by having your salespeople practice for 30 minutes per day. After all, professional athletes practice more than that each day and, in their respective professions, the pro athletes are better at what they do than your salespeople are at what they do…
(c) 2008 Dave Kurlan
