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By pairing the physical elements of SysTeam with metaphors from the sales world, Mark Wagner creates an imaginary world where senior sales agents can practice asking for referrals
When Mark Wagner leads sales trainings for Germany's luxury car dealerships, he is often charged with teaching sales teams how to ask for customer referrals. They're a crucial component to any career in sales, yet representatives are often uncomfortable or unskilled at asking for them. They may fear rejection or ask too early in the sales cycle when a customer's trust has not fully formed yet and be rejected.
Speakers and grabbers become sales people and customers
To help them succeed, Wagner turns to a role play exercise using SysTeam. By its very nature, the tool is ideal for teaching teams how to accept risk, deal with interdependency, and communicate clearly, but Wagner uses each element of the activity as a metaphor for the referral process.
He begins by dividing the group into teams of two – one 'speaker' and one blindfolded 'grabber.' The speaker is the sales person, while the grabber is the customer, and they must work together to remove all 16 figurines from the wobbly plate without allowing it to topple over. To succeed, the sales person must give very clear instructions to the customer, while the customer must be willing to follow along.
Like the real world, Wagner points out, there must be a good rapport between both parties before the sales person can ask for a referral, and it takes a certain degree of tact.
Sticky notes on figurines denote potential referrals
Wagner also uses the SysTeam figurines themselves as a metaphor. He labels each one with a sticky note to denote a different group of potential referrals from the customer (family, friends, neighbors, etc.), underscoring the importance of a having good strategy for broaching the subject.
"Know your customer," Wagner tells the learners. "When you get to know your customer better, he will tell you about his 'social system.' You can then dig a bit deeper and write down the names he gives you. You could say, 'As you know, I live from referrals and would really appreciate it if you could refer someone to me. Which of your friends and acquaintances might be interested in buying a car from me? Who comes to mind? What would be the best way to get in contact with this person?'"
The wobbly plate and other actions have real-world meaning too
As the activity unfolds, the trainer conjures other memorable metaphors the team can relate to, including:
- Removing the smallest figurine first may be easy, but can lead to a dead end. This symbolizes a 'one-off' referral model. It's not ambitious enough.
- Taking a larger figurine is smart - it represents a corporate client with more cars.
- A wobbly plate indicates a bad approach - the sales person was either insensitive or did not have the customer's trust yet.
"Like all the Metalog tools, SysTeam achieves something that few other forms of training can – the ability to quickly tap into my customer's visual and tactile senses, and utilize them for the learning process. I am so happy to see that when I tailor the activity precisely to the needs of my customers, I can achieve deep and long-lasting learning. I am confident in the knowledge that my work is not just useful but also great fun."
About the trainer
Mark Wagner is a trainer and coach in Duisburg, Germany.