The AT&T stadium in Arlington, Texas is home to “Americas Team”, The Dallas Cowboys. It’s massive and houses the worlds largest television; a screen so large, it’s actually gotten in the way of several punt kicks. With a price tag of $1.3 billion its another example of Jerry Jones, the franchise owner, flexing his wallet. 15, years later and just up the road in Frisco, Texas, Jerry splashed out $1.5 billion on the Ford Center; the practice facility…
It’s interesting to see a team actually spend more on their practice field than their game day field. This is an investment in the future. This facility will attract and develop the next generation of talent, or so the residents of North Texas hope. Other teams from other sports leagues are doing likewise. Manchester City for example built their £50 million practice facility to develop their youth players and woo them away from neighboring Manchester United.
The logic is sound, but it’s not emulated in Sales. In sales we’re doing something very different. To go back to our Cowboys narrative what we are essentially doing is the following. Head Coach Mike McCarthy gathers his team in the locker room. He tells them how the team plays and how they’re going to beat the Eagles in two weeks. He draws up plays on a white board, and tells his players what they need to do. The meeting ends and they all go hang out for two weeks. They get together two weeks later on a Sunday afternoon in Arlington and play the live match. They hope to win…
That just wouldn’t happen. They would run drills, all day. They’d hit the gym. They’d work on specific plays and they’d reinforce the basics. In sales though, we’re running rushed, box-ticking onboarding sessions, and infrequent, “knowledge checks” or certifications. Then we go and try out new skills with real clients. When we mess up, there is revenue on the line.
This is nuts. Not only is it nuts, it’s fixable. You probably know where this is leading. The weapon in our arsenal to help here is not a popular one. It’s really effective though. That’s right… roleplay. We spend so few hours roleplaying, if any at all. It’s awkward. Reps hate it, managers hate it. It actually takes a lot of skill to adequately facilitate an effective roleplay session. It takes time to invest in scenarios as well. We all claim to be too busy to put the effort in.
Especially with your younger reps starting out, you have a tremendous opportunity to prepare them for the job they’re actually going to be doing. There are tools and services out there to help, but you’re going to need to put the effort in. Do it, it’s worth it.
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