You see athletes overtraining all the time. You see basketball players practising with masks over their faces to restrict their oxygen flow — simulating working out in a high altitude. Why would they do that? Because they reason that if they can play three hours at high altitude they’ll be in great shape to play an hour and a half at sea level.
The same holds true for sales. If you can successfully close a deal in an extreme situation, you’ll have the right mindset and be emotionally ready for a normal negotiation.
Practising is a must. During an actual negotiation, you need to focus on the deal itself — the goals, objectives, potential issues, etc. This isn’t the time to try out a new strategy or technique. Working on a hypothetical deal with a teammate is a low-stakes way to identify issues, development areas and strengths.
“Quizzing oneself on new material, such as by reciting it aloud from memory or trying to tell a friend about it, is a far more powerful way to master information than just re-reading it,” according to work by researchers including Henry Roediger III and Jeffrey Karpicke.
The more ways you can learn will help you master the skill faster and better. Speaking, acting and interacting allows you to pick up the skill being learned faster.
Role-playing is great practice. It allows you to see how your team delivers a pitch while you measure their ability to problem solve and think on their feet. Even the rock stars on your team can learn something and push themselves further.
When role-playing, go over everything from the greeting to the demonstration and even get into the closing material. Don’t be afraid to actually do some of your training over the phone if that’s how you do your deals. If you do use the phone, then it will help you by being more realistic, and you can record the call for review later on.
Role-playing is also a great way to practice responding to difficult situations like unreasonable requests or demands.
Role-playing will also help you find your development areas – areas that might be your personal negotiation shortcomings. Maybe you tend to forget to establish a connection with your buyer or you aren’t as personable as you think. Maybe your awareness and listening skills need polish. Or maybe you get nervous at objections and cave too quickly, offering discounts when you don’t need to. Or the opposite, and you strong-arm customers and don’t negotiate or give in on simple things, causing a potential customer to walk away from the deal.