The Rule of Eight Drill/Role Play

Setup: Sit or stand with your partner a comfortable distance apart with any materials or tools you normally use in your sales process. One will start as the coach (acting as a prospect) and the other will be the salesperson, once the exercise is complete, switch roles and start again. Ensure everyone has a printed version of The Rule of 8 which are 8 Steps to address Prospect Resistance and Establishing Interest. This was sent along with this exercise. Note: Be realistic in drilling and doing this exercise. Use your sales process, use realistic situations, and be professional.
1. Manners and etiquette a) List out 10 things that would be good manners in the sales process and 10 that would be bad. b) As the salesperson, introduce yourself to your partner and begin the sales process using bad manners as listed above. How do you feel? How does your partner feel? c) Repeat step b using good manners as listed above. How does this compare? Note: As the coach, look for the salesperson using good or bad manners inappropriately throughout the steps below and politely correct him or her and start again.
2. Granting importance a) Begin the sales process with your coach. Do not go into selling your product. Simply talk and be genuinely interested in the prospect. Ask questions and really grant the importance to the prospect and what the prospect is saying. This step is complete when the coach can see importance being granted and it feels genuine. b) Talk about the prospect’s reality and come to a point where agreement can be established.
3. Establish agreement a) As the salesperson, begin the sales process again (keeping in step 1 and 2) and look for the reality of the prospect. What may be real to the prospect? Note: Do this several times until it is smooth and effortless to come to a point of agreement.
4. Ask questions that discover interest a) As the coach, think of a scenario of how you got to this point of considering the product or service. b) As the salesperson, ask what caused the prospect to contact you or how he heard about the product. c) Next, politely ask more details and try to find a specific point or points that prompted the prospect. Note: This is passed when the specific point the coach determined in step a) is revealed. d) Repeat this step two or more times using different, appropriate scenarios.
5. Prior prospect experience a) As the salesperson, ask about prior experiences with similar products or services. b) Gather lots of details and look at how this would compare to your product or service.
6. Envisioning the future a) As the salesperson, ask what would be ideal in your product or service to solve the problem or benefit the prospect. Note: Reword this to be more appropriate for your product or service.
7. The upfront agreement a) As the salesperson, politely ask if the prospect would want to move forward based on details gathered from prior steps. b) As the coach, practice different scenarios like being uncertain or simply saying no. c) The salesperson should politely acknowledge and handle anything that isn’t a clear yes by bringing up points established earlier. For example: “you mentioned this prior bad experience, if I could provide a solution without those problems, would that interest you?” d) Do this step three or more times using different scenarios and handlings. Note: You want to develop a smooth transition back to asking for the agreement of the prospect.
8. Establish trust a) As the salesperson, transition into explaining the product and begin asking qualifying questions. Ensure trust is there.
9. Verbatim Note: Now that this process is familiar to you, learn it verbatim. a) Write down the 8 steps on a piece of paper. b) Read them out loud to your partner. c) Do this repeatedly until you give the 8 steps to your partner without having the paper. d) Switch around and repeat so you both learn it verbatim.
10. Full drill a) As the salesperson, go through each step again and transition smoothly from step 1 into step 2 and all the way through step 8. b) The goal here is to be able to go through all 8 steps easily and come to a point of trust. Note: This step is finished when the salesperson can go through all 8 steps smoothly and without stopping.
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