How role play is being used effectively in another industry (real estate) for sales training.
Truly buying in to this perspective should shape/re-shape the entire approach to initial sales training, as is the case with at least one of my clients. You may wish to consider how to strategically push more of the didactic learning into Home Study, so that initial in-house training can focus more on practical application.
Agree. Role playing with an audience is even more dynamic. I utilize role playing with sales people at my weekly sales meetings. This enables the person playing a role to demonstrate their approach to a sales challenge. It allows the team to provide feedback, to learn, to share ideas, and to develop a collective approach to that situation. Using the role playing facilitates teaching, collaboration, and consensus to the team. It should always be part of the sales training and sales management program.
Role-Playing absolutely works in sales training, if and only if real-life challenges are brought into the mix. In my sales training workshops, we never have the class role-play unless we first do a demonstration showing them the specific behaviors that we are trying to replicate. This enables the participants to have several opportunities to practice the skills that they are learning. Some professonals disagree with role-playing in a classroom setting, saying that there is no practical application. My experience has been that if they have enough opportunities to practice and it is coached by a sales manager when they leave the classroom for the field, that it will be effective and positive change will be experienced.
With that said, do we role-play in front of the class? Absolutely. It creates a learning opportunity for everyone attending. Plus, by getting each participant highly involved, they maintain their interest.
Lastly, how do we give critical feedback. In doing this, always focus on what the participant can do differently in the future instead of what they have already done in the past.
This blog is well put together. I look forward to posting in the future.