Phone a friend!

1/11/09

I don’t know about you but I don’t always find role-play easy. Role-play is not that hard in itself, but in a training room full of people, all pretending that they are meeting someone for the first time face-to-face, or sitting next to someone using your little finger and thumb as a phone, well it just doesn’t feel real. And, let’s face it - it’s not!

But role-play and practice are actually very important if we are to be successful in finding both referrals and visitors for our chapters. They are also just as important in our everyday business life, as a great telephone manner and confidence when meeting people for the first time will win us more business.

So, how do we practise more real and effective role-play?

Well, the answer is very simple – phone a friend. Not just on the spur of the moment, but arrange a time when it would be convenient. Maybe agree on a time between 10.00am and lunchtime one morning, or just after lunch one afternoon. It doesn’t matter when, as long as your friend has time to take the call and is happy to play their part.

As a BNI member you already have scripts as to what to say, so that part is done for you. But I bet some of you are saying, ‘I can’t say that!’ Well, guess what? You don’t have to. What I would suggest is that you type the script as suggested into Word, then say it out loud. Any words that don’t sound correct for you, or you stumble over, change to words that you would use. Once you are happy with the new script, you will have your version, a version that you are comfortable saying.

Then all you do is ring your friend, try it out, and ask for some feedback. Then try again another day, and so on, until you are happy with how you sound and your friend has not said that they are leaving the country.

At this point it is time to try it for real. I can promise you that you will be surprised at how good a result you get.

Just a couple of things to finish: enjoy yourself and if your friend is a fellow BNI member, return the favour.