Practice makes perfect. Use the “batting cage” approach to get salespeople excited about perfecting their skills and landing the sale.

Ask sales reps how they feel about role-playing, and you’ll likely see raised eyebrows and rolling eyeballs. No surprise there. Who wants to look and feel like a complete idiot in front of the boss or (even worse) your peers? After all, we spend so much time telling everyone how good we are and how much we know about selling. “A role-play? Please. We don’t need no stinking role-plays.” But, wait! (Does this sound like a ShamWow commercial, yet?) Role-plays can be fun. Yeah, I know. How does that happen?

I actually stumbled on the secret (it isn’t a secret, really) by accident many years ago when I was in the publishing industry. It happened at Dodger Stadium! Before the game, BOTH teams were practicing batting.

Wait! Batting practice? Before every game? EVERY day? There’s a unique concept. Sales is about execution — every day. It involves skills. Skills, by definition, must be practiced.

Then I noticed something else. Not one single batter “struck out” during batting practice!

Practice without failure? How can that be? I was like Colombo hitting his forehead in amazement: no one strikes out, EVER! In fact, the pitcher isn’t even trying to strike out the batter.

So, what’s going on? Then, it hit me: the pitcher is “feeding” the batter pitches that allow the batter to:

• Practice swinging.
• Practice hitting.
• Build rhythm and tempo.
• Create mental images of the ball flying out of the infield.
• Program a feeling of success after success, providing positive feedback.

BINGO… I spent the next weekend revamping my entire approach to training, especially role-playing. In fact, I quit calling it role-playing. It now became The Batting Cage.

It was an immediate hit with the sales force, and in the years I’ve taught it to other companies, its success has been nothing short of spectacular. I have a drawer full of letters from sales executives and owners telling me how their people have formed their own groups and have never been so excited about training.

Making It Work

I’m going to give you the keys right here. It’s simple and straightforward (most good things are) and doesn’t require a lot of space to explain.

• The key to success in sales: execution.
• How to achieve success: practice.

Sure, we could talk all day about motivation, self-image, attitude, yada, yada, yada, but you still have to execute to succeed, and you need to practice to execute flawlessly. Sure, attitude is critical to success, but I’ll wager you this: if you’re having fun, your attitude changes for the better. People like what they’re good at.

So, how do we make it fun? Begin with the obvious (now that you’ve been to Dodger Stadium with me):

1. Make it easy and enticing. Whether you do it like we did, five mornings a week, every week of the year with rolls and coffee, or like other companies, peanut butter & jelly lunches or pizza and sodas late in the day — make it fun!
2. Do it regularly (see #1). Pretty soon, they’ll be doing it so well they’ll be knocking it out of the park every time.
3. Focus on one skill at a time. Do not role-play the entire sale. Get that person in the batting cage and drill one specific skill. Maybe it’s how to open the sale. Whatever the skill, just drill one, and only one. A quick story: I once had a rep who hadn’t written a deal in weeks! When it was her turn in the cage, I told her to take out three contracts. I had her literally “write me up” three times. No closes, no pitches, no nothing. Just write me up. Do it again, then again. She went out and sold two contracts that day! Sometimes people just need to get the mental image of “doing the deal.”
4. Have a purpose. Know exactly what skill you’re trying to develop, and help your rep understand exactly what success looks like.
5. Don’t throw “curve balls” and try to stump your reps. Trust me, they’ll get better and better doing this, and soon they’ll be asking you for some curve balls — and taking great pride in being able to hit them.
6. Meaningful feedback. Tell them (a) what you liked, and (b) how they can improve. Stay away from criticism. The more they focus on what works, the more the other behaviors will disappear.

Breaking the Ice

So, how do we begin to develop the culture of having fun in the batting cage? Start with fun games that have nothing to do with your business, products or services.

I gave every rep five one-dollar bills (good thing we weren’t a big company) and told them we were going to play “The Questions Game.” It was kind of like tennis, you had to return the serve and always return the “ball” when it was hit to you (I won’t explain tennis here).

The game is played two people at a time. The first person asks a question. The second person must answer with a question. The first person must then respond with another question. The first person that ends with a statement loses a dollar, and then the other person gets to “serve.”

Rep A: I like your watch. Where did you get it?
Rep B: At the watch store. Do you want one?
Rep A: How much does it cost?
Rep B: How much were you thinking of spending?
Rep A: I don’t know, what features does it have?
Rep B: (you do this one).

You get the idea. These exchanges are a lot of fun and can get very silly, but they do develop a great skill: to think in terms of questions, not statements. Just watch, your reps will start doing it at Happy Hour — with their own money. It’s kind of like “Liar’s poker.” I’m sure you’ve never played that.

Getting to the Batting Cage

Involve your people in creating “batting cages.” What specific skills would they like to develop? Split up your reps into groups of three:

• Prospect.
• Rep.
• Moderator (to help keep the process on track).

The three people will rotate roles within each cage. Again, keep it lively and fun.

My reps did their own cages every single morning. It wasn’t long before they began doing it automatically each day. Most of the time, I wasn’t even involved.

Soon, you’ll see them changing the groups around, and you’ll notice they can’t wait to get in the cage each morning.

How did it work for us?  My publications were small, but we outsold all of our much larger competition. Soon companies in other industries across the United States, Canada and the U.K. were bringing me in to, dare I say it, actually have fun with their management and people. Salespeople are the most fun people I know, so capitalize on it!

Now, you can do it yourself. And you didn’t even have to hire a consultant.