10 role-play scenarios for your retail sales team to try
Working in retail sales can mean that no two days are ever the same. One day you might be helping a sweet old lady find the perfect dress for her granddaughter's wedding, and the next, you’re faced with verbal abuse from an angry customer whose product has been damaged.
There really is no telling what scenario your retail sales teams are going to face, which is why it’s best to prepare them for the possibility of everything.
A vital component of your retail sales training should be customer-focused role-plays. They are the perfect way to build confidence in your sales associates and familiarise the team with daunting or complex circumstances which may arise.
What are the benefits of role-playing for sales training?
Role-play is a powerful learning tool that can dramatically transform the behaviour of your sales teams. Not only is it more engaging and interactive than traditional training methods, but it can actually be more effective. Discover the full list of benefits below.
It strengthens your sales team’s ability to think on the spot
Thinking about the right answer is easy when you’re sat down in front of a computer screen but when you’re in a real-life setting, lots of external factors can affect your ability to think and act in the appropriate way. Role-playing strengthens people’s ability to think clearly and coherently on the spot. This ensures they act in the correct way even if they are feeling under pressure.
It helps your retail sales team to develop excellent listening skills
Computer-based training is great, but it doesn’t help your staff develop good listening skills. Listening skills are essential when working in retail sales because they allow you to fully understand what a customer is trying to communicate with you. Role-playing allows employees to practice listening intently to what a customer is saying so they can think logically about the best way to answer their query or objection.
Role-plays develops creative problem-solving abilities
You can create as many situations as you like for your role-playing exercise but you will never be able to replicate exact scenarios which will occur on the shop floor. Role-playing builds up the creative thinking skills your retail sales team needs to gain experience in handling difficult situations no matter what type they are.
It helps your team build up resilience
Humans are unpredictable which is why your team needs to practice dealing with them when they are not acting in the most predictable manner. When you expose them to difficult conversations it makes it easy for them to build up their resilience because the tricky scenarios that happen in real life won’t seem so surprising.
10 role-play scenarios for your retail sales teams
So now you know the full benefits of role-playing, we’re going to take you through the 10 different types of customers your retail sales team may face and how to best deal with them.
The customer who is eligible for an upsell or cross-sell
The customer who hasn’t received their in-store order confirmation
The customer who won’t wait their turn
The customer who can’t make a decision
The customer that is trying to steal
The customer who hasn’t got their receipt
The customer who has lots of questions
The customer who is taking too long
The customer who is dissatisfied with your service
The customer who needs lots of reassurance
1. The customer who is eligible for an up-sell or cross-sell
Many retail sales teams don’t make extra profit on their sales because they don’t feel confident enough to up-sell or cross-sell. They miss out on the right opportunity to make the offer and as a result, they find up-selling and cross-selling more difficult than it needs to be. Once they’re clear on who the easiest customers are to approach, they’ll feel more confident selling to them in the future.
What to do
Write down a list of scenarios where up-selling or cross-selling would be easy. For example, when a customer buys a pair of suede shoes (cross-selling suede protector is easy), when a customer wants to purchase a standard bike for their weekend mountain trips (upselling to a bike suited for rough terrains should be easy).
Choose who will play the retail sales associate and select 5 people to play the customers.
Select three customers to purchase an item with an obvious opportunity to cross-sell or up-sell and get the other two customers to purchase something which isn’t so easy. See if the retail sales associate spots the easy opportunity to cross-sell or up-sell.
Afterwards, discuss what did and didn’t go well then talk about the opportunities where they could maximise their retail sales further.
Want to observe and coach your retail team to spot their strengths and weaknesses? Download our free sales observation template below:
2. The customer who hasn’t received their in-store order confirmation
Your customer has made a click and collect order online. They’ve received an email that told them it would be ready in 3-5 days. They’ve travelled to your store within the timeframe but they still haven’t received the confirmation email to tell them that the item is available to collect.
What to do
Write down all the possible comments a disgruntled customer could say when their order is not ready to collect. For example; “Why do you state it will be ready at this time when it’s not.” “Why is my order taking so long?” “ I haven’t got time to come to the store again.”
Next, write down the best ways to handle these statements. For example; explaining why the email is worded the way it is, or why their order could be taking longer to arrive, or what options they have if they no longer want the item or are no longer able to collect the item.
Choose someone to play the retail sales associate and someone to play the customer.
Show the retail sales associate the list of explanations and allow them to fully read and understand them.
Get the customer to say a few disgruntled comments and see if the retail sales associate remembers the best explanation to calm them down and resolve the situation.
3. The customer who won’t wait their turn
It can be frustrating for customers when there is a long wait to be served but it can be equally as frustrating for the retail sales associate who is trying their best to serve everyone. If you haven’t trained your store staff in the appropriate way to handle impatient customers, the situation can escalate very quickly. Try this role play to minimise frustrations.
What to do
Before you begin your role-play, work with your team to go through different reasons as to why the customer may be frustrated about waiting. E.g. they are generally impatient, they have somewhere to be, they feel their query is quick so it shouldn’t require them to wait etc.
Ask one employee to act as the sales associate and another to act as the disgruntled customer. Ask the person playing the customer to pick one reason as to why they are becoming so frustrated about waiting.
Get your sales associate to ask questions to see if they can find out why the customer is so upset and see if they can handle it in the most appropriate way possible.
Allow the scene to play out with the customer trying to jump the queue whilst shouting over the current person who is being served.
See how the sales associate responds then have a debrief after the role-play.
Tell them what they did well to handle the situation but also what they could have done better to minimise stress for the customers involved.
Ask them to redo the role-play taking on board your comments and advice.
4. The customer who can’t make a decision
A person who can’t make a decision is the perfect customer to persuade to buy something. Train your retail sales teams on how to use the opportunity to support the customer in the best way possible and make a sale.
What to do
Before you begin this role-play it's important that you explain to your retail sales associates why a customer may be indecisive about a purchase.
It usually stems from uncertainty around the price, usability or quality. Let them know that it’s their job to listen out for which of these factors is coming into play. Once they are aware of what’s holding the customer back they can use the knowledge they have to reassure them that they are making the right decision.
Next, select who’s going to play the store associate and who will be the customer. Ask the customer to choose a reason why they are uncertain about a purchase and see if the sales associate has listened and reassured the customer in the best way possible.
Go beyond role play; observe and coach your retail team to spot their strengths and weaknesses? Download our free sales observation template below:
5. The customer that is trying to steal
An inevitable scenario that happens in almost every store is when a customer tries to steal an item. If you haven’t properly trained your retail sales team on what to do if this happens, it can result in lost profit for you and an unnerving situation for your team.
What to do
Before you begin, it’s crucial you explain your company procedure for theft. Let your sales staff know what they should do if they suspect someone is stealing, what to do if it actually happens and how to manage the process afterwards.
Select one person to play the sales associate and two people to play the customers.
Have one customer look as though they are about to steal something and the other actually steal something.
See if your sales associate used the correct processes for when they suspect someone could be stealing and when someone is actually leaving the store with an item.
Have a debrief and explain what went well and what didn’t go so well.
6. The customer who hasn’t got their receipt
All too many times customers come into stores demanding a refund when they haven’t got any proof of purchase. If your retail sales teams aren’t adequately trained on how to handle returns and refunds it can lead to a poor and inconsistent experience for your customers.
What to do
Explain your full returns policy to your sales team. Let them know what your policy is if a customer does not have proof of purchase and what options they have if they are presented with this situation.
Write down a list of possible objections which the customer without a receipt could have to your policy. E.g. You can look through your CCTV and see I purchased the item, you can see my bank statement, I can point out the person who served me etc.
Select one person to play the sales associate and another to play the customer. Ask the customer to read through the possible objections and ask them to act the objections out.
See how your sales associate responds to the objections and then debrief on what did and didn’t go so well.
7. The customer who has lots of questions
This role-play is an excellent way to test your sales team’s knowledge in a variety of different areas. If a customer comes into your store and they feel like the sales team member doesn’t have the information to answer their questions properly, it can leave them feeling frustrated and likely to take their custom to a competitor.
What to do
Before you begin, have a quick session with your team where everyone shouts out random questions they have been asked by customers e.g. what’s your returns policy, what’s the material, is it ethically sourced, do you take American Express etc.
Write all of those questions down on separate slips of paper and get your customer to select 5 questions from the pile.
Select someone to be your sales associate and begin the role-play.
Afterwards, assess how well the sales associate answered the questions and guide them to the training which would strengthen their knowledge in the areas they struggled with.
8. The customer who is taking too long
We all want our customers to make well-informed decisions but a customer who is taking too long to make a decision can be a problem for a number of reasons.
It can mean that they have no intention of making a purchase that day and are going to need time to mull over the decision in their head.
It can also mean that the time you are spending with them is wasted time you could be spending with a customer who actually wants to purchase something.
Beyond a certain point in time, there is nothing else you could say to give value to the customer so it’s best to leave them for a while whilst you serve other customers.
What to do
Ask one person to play the sales associate and the other to play the customer.
During their interaction, you should shout out how much time has passed e.g. 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes.
See at which time the sales associate tries to wrap up the sale or conversation and whether this is in line with your best practices.
See what techniques they use to close the conversation and discuss afterwards what went well and what they could have done better.
9. The customer who is dissatisfied with your service
Unfortunately, there will be customers who aren’t happy with your service. Rather than seeing this as a negative experience, you should teach your retail sales team to view it as a positive learning experience. Train them to discover why the customer is dissatisfied and tell them what they can do in the moment to turn the situation around and make the customer happy again.
If that’s not possible, ensure they are trained on the correct procedure a customer can follow if they want to escalate their complaint further.
Ensuring your customers feel valued and understood is one of the key components of a great customer experience.
What to do
Have a creative thinking session with your team where everyone discusses an experience they’ve had with a dissatisfied customer.
Talk about how the situation was handled along with what could have gone better.
Next, choose your sales associate and your customer.
Get your customer to select a negative experience at random and act it out in their role-play.
Watch how the sales associate tries to turn the experience around. If they fail to turn the negative experience into a positive one, ask another member of the team to take over the role as the sales associate to see if they can turn the situation around.
If both sales associates fail, ask a 3rd member of the team to step up and explain the correct complaints procedure.
10. The customer who needs lots of reassurance
A lot of the time, customers come into a physical store to make their purchase because they are looking for reassurance from the sales associate.
They want to ensure they are making the right decision so they look to your staff for guidance and support. This role-playing scenario is about providing as much knowledge as possible to support the customer with their decision, but it’s also about their attitude and tone of voice. If they come across as impatient or pushy this will not reassure the customer and instead, will push them towards the decision of not making the purchase.
What to do
The person who is playing the customer should decide on what factors they are going to need reassurance on. Are they looking for information to back up the fact that they are getting the product at a good price? Perhaps they’re unsure if the material will be durable and they need reassurance to let them know that their new product will stand the test of time.
Get the customer to enter the store and ask them to act unsure about their purchase but ask them to keep quiet about what it is they are unsure of.
Get your retail sales associate to ask questions which they think would help them understand what the customer is unsure about.
Once they feel like they know what is bothering the customer, ask them to reassure the customer in the way which they think is best.
If they have correctly identified what was bothering the customer, get the customer to purchase the product. If they haven’t correctly identified what is bothering the customer, ask the customer to leave the store without making their purchase.
After the role-play, ask the sales associate if they know why the customer did or didn’t make the purchase.
Practice, practice, practice
The more you practice these role-plays, the more confident your sales associates will feel and the more likely they’ll be to carry out training in between sessions.
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