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Section 03 - The Use and Evaluation of Role Plays
SECTION 3
THE USE AND EVALUATION OF ROLE
PLAYS
Section 03 - The Use and Evaluation of Role Plays
VIDEOTAPED ROLE PLAYING IN THE PERSONAL
SELLING
CLASSROOM: A PRACTICAL GUIDE
Stephen B. Castleberry
Practical suggestions are offered for effectively and efficiently videotaping role plays. These
include a discussion of methods to reduce "camera fright, " an approach to structure a
progressive series of role plays, teaching activities that support the role plays, benefits of the
program, and suggestions for implementing it on other campuses.
In 1982, Swinyard, reporting on a survey of
over 1,000 marketing students, stated that
"the data largely supports past findings that
sales careers are among those least preferred
Just offering a course, however, is not
enough. It must be designed and taught in a
manner that responds to students' and
employers' needs. Several studies have
reported on what industry would like to see
in a job candidate (e.g., Hafer and Hoth
1981; McDaniel and Hise 1984a). Moore et
Stephen B. Castleberry is UARCO
Professor of Sales and Marketing,
Department of Marketing, Northern
Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois.
Thompson 1981; Kennedy and Lowry 1982;
Bowie 1984; Graham 1984). In addition,
mention will be made concerning teaching
activities that support the role plays. Finally,
the benefits of our approach will be
enumerated along with advice on how others
might implement it.
Section 03 - The Use and Evaluation of Role Plays
VIDEOTAPING
It has been my experience videotaping can
be a somewhat traumatic experience for
most students. However, several techniques
own teaching skills.) After a week or so,
each student is videotaped introducing him-
or herself (e.g., "Hello, my name is Mary
Jones. I am from Portland, Oregon and my
favorite TV show is Wheel of Fortune.")
This experience allows them to see that they
can survive a videotape experience. It also
begins to provide feedback concerning their
Students actually participate in six
videotaped role plays, three as a seller and
three as a buyer. There are several reasons
why students should serve as a buyer. First,
being a buyer allows the student the
opportunity to view the whole selling
process from the other side of the process.
Students get a better feel for how buyers
as buyers is to have the professor or
someone from outside the class act as a
buyer. My experience with nonstudent
buyers is that the students as sellers
generally get very nervous and skill
play situation and to uncover their major
communication problems without the fear
that their course grade will be affected. Each
student in the class is given the same
product to sell (e.g., Minute Maid Orange
Soda) but with different situations (e.g.,
trying to get a fast-food restaurant to add the
soda, selling a major promotion campaign to
On the beginning of class on the day of the
role play, the buyers are given their
scenarios. It is best to not give these out
earlier to avoid discussion between the
buyer and seller, which would result in a
less realistic role play. The buying scenario
includes the needs of the buyer, objections
to be raised, instructions for buying, and the
Section 03 - The Use and Evaluation of Role Plays
class about the selling situation, the
professor steps outside the classroom with
The second role play as a seller is a graded
role play that usually lasts from 10 to 15
minutes. Each student in the class is
provided a different product or service to
sell. The products and services chosen and
the scenarios role-played are developed
carefully to give the class a chance to see
many of the kinds of opportunities and
The third and final role play as a seller
provides the student the opportunity to
engage in a very complete realistic selling
and provide a detailed accounting (see
Appendix C). This document then becomes
the basis for the buyer's role. (These papers
are also later condensed and added to the
available pool of scenarios for second role
plays.) After the role play, students again are
provided with helpful feedback from the
class and the teacher. Each student is then
required to watch the videotape several
variety of selling situations, objections that
can arise in a presentation, personality types,
etc. Also, students are not as intimidated
with only half the class watching their role
play. The other half of the class is busy
working outside the classroom conducting
research for their upcoming presentation
(which often includes visits with actual
salespeople of their assigned product or
(e.g., telephone, in-basket, papers) make the
presentations realistic and provide
opportunities for the buyer to become
distracted. Students are given access to aids
role play was given by a group of two sellers
to a group of two buyers. While this tactic
was successful in achieving a better
understanding of team selling, it came at the
Section 03 - The Use and Evaluation of Role Plays
expense of having the student hone his or
her own individual presentation skills.
Another change is that students are now
required to purchase their own VHS tape as
opposed to taping their presentation on
university tapes. This allows students to
keep a copy of their presentations and also
grading disputes.
SUPPORTING TEACHING
ACTIVITIES
Nolan 1985; Caballero et al. 1984). The
objective is to explore the theory and
practice of personal persuasion in an open
discussion format. Second, students engage
in short role-playing exercises and
experiential exercises in such areas as
customer needs identification, listening,
on experience with The Sales Edge (see
Collins 1984 for a review), a computer
program that evaluates the seller's
personality and the prospect's personality
and then provides a scientifically-based
analysis of how to interact successfully.
Fifth, students are provided with a list of
over 30 books that have a more "practical"
focus than the text. Call numbers are
provided so that students can find the books
in the library quickly. The goal is to provide
to refute or verify what the students have
learned in class, expose the students to the
realities of selling, give them a chance to
For example, S. C. Johnson & Son has
presented performance awards to
salespeople who recently were students in
the personal selling class. Last year, these
included Rookie of the Year for the Personal
Care Products Division, Rookie of the Year
for the Household Products Division, and
Section 03 - The Use and Evaluation of Role Plays
job interviews after role-playing. Since
selling is important in any marketing job,
even those students who do not pursue a
career in sales acknowledge the benefits of
the videotaping. This acknowledgment
suggests that videotaping is an appropriate
skill-developing tool for all marketing
majors.
Administrators benefit as well. Corporate
recruiters often invest in our program (e.g.
equipment and software, scholarships for
students, monetary awards for outstanding
teachers) because the role plays prepare
students so well for their openings.
Administrators also benefit because the
course helps create more appreciative
alumni.
IMPLEMENTING ON OTHER
CAMPUSES
someone with actual sales experience, this is
not absolutely necessary, because all of us
have been involved in selling ideas and
concepts all our lives. To be qualified to
teach a course incorporating role playing
requires empathy, enthusiasm for the area,
and a desire to help students. Most
marketing departments have several people
focus, and benefits. This could be
accomplished as a part of the regular
advising appointment. Information could
also be disseminated at departmental clubs
such as the marketing club and business
fraternity houses. Once role-playing has
been introduced, student word-of-mouth will
probably be sufficient to generate overflow
sections.
Schmidt et al. (1987) reported that
marketing majors were less likely to be
satisfied with the education they received
than some other business majors. Hopefully,
Section 03 - The Use and Evaluation of Role Plays
APPENDIX A
Hints to Help Resolve Presentation Anxiety
___
1.
Keep the proper perspective. This does not determine life or death. It is also not some trivial
thing to brush aside like junk mail.
___
2.
PREPARE! PREPARE! PREPARE! Read over the text and your notes.
___
6.
Read over the scoring form and plan to include all important elements (have an introduction
that creates attention, plan to identify needs, etc.)
___
7.
Practice your presentation with a friend or classmate (do not memorize a canned presentation,
however). Ask for honest feedback.
___
8.
Watch some previous role plays on reserve in the main library (they are on the 7th Floor, Media
Room, under Castleberry Mkt. 562). This will show you what to expect in terms of personality
styles, objections, etc.
APPENDIX B
Salesperson __________________
Possible
Actual
APPROACH
2
______
(A) Salesperson gained prospect's attention
10
______
(B) Discovered/reiterated prospect's needs at beginning
PRESENTATION
10
______
(E) Use benefits-needs instead of just features (e.g., what this means to you)
2
______
(F) Absence of verbal pauses (e.g., "ah," "uhms," "okay")
Section 03 - The Use and Evaluation of Role Plays
10
______
(L) Did not interrupt the buyer
OBJECTIONS
2
______
(O) Displayed positive attitude and confidence
10
______
(P) Responses were appropriate and helpful to the buyer
CLOSING
5
______
(Q) Checked agreement after major points (e.g., How does that sound to you?)
5
______
(R) Used trial closes effectively after responding to objections (e.g., Did that
answer your question? Do you have any other questions?)
OVERALL
5
______
(U) Effective use of probing through out the presentation
5
______
(V) Salesperson demonstrated professionalism (courteous, respectful,
friendly, appropriate dress)
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
APPENDIX C
Role Play Number Three Information
Submit a typed paper which follows the outline given.
I. Description of the company manufacturing or distributing the product or service you selected
A. Historical perspective
II. Description of purchaser (or company) to whom the product/service is being sold
A. Historical perspective
B. Sales volume
Section 03 - The Use and Evaluation of Role Plays
III. Description of product/service you are selling
A. Features, advantages, benefits (in chart form)
B. Prices and ordering requirements
C. Guarantees
IV. An exhaustive list of all possible objections and how you would helpfully respond to them
(minimum of 20)
APPENDIX D
Self-Evaluation of Videotaped Role Play
Watch your presentation and critically evaluate it. Your evaluation should use the following outline
format:
I. Approach
A. Opening statements
1. What you said
2. What you should have said to create more interest
II. Presentation
A. Discuss how you stressed benefits instead of just features (provide examples); and ways to
improve
B. Discuss your nonverbals (e.g., eye contact, posture, use of gestures); and ways to improve
III. Objections and questions (for each one)
A. What the buyer said
Section 03 - The Use and Evaluation of Role Plays
D. The way I should have replied. Be sure to discuss why you feel this is the most appropriate
reply.
IV. Probing
A. Discuss how effectively you checked for agreement after major points; and ways to improve
V. Closing
A. Discuss the number of times you tried and the words you used to close. Be sure to label the
type of method used.
Section 03 - The Use and Evaluation of Role Plays
REFERENCES
Bowie, James C. (1984), "Sales/Marketing Management Teaching Tool," Journal of Marketing Education (Fall),
21-24.
Bowers, Michael and John H. Summey (1983), "A Curriculum for Personal Sales Training in an Academic Setting,"
Candidate," Journal of Marketing Education (Spring), 15-20.
Kennedy, John R. and Mary Ann Lowry (1982), "Students' Business Presentation Skills: A Plan for Development,"
Journal of Marketing Education (Fall), 38-42.
McDaniel, Stephen W. and Richard T. Hise (1984a), "Shaping the Marketing Curriculum: The CEO Perspective,"
Journal of Marketing Education (Summer), 27-32.
______(1984b), “The Marketing Curriculum: A Decade of Change," Journal of Marketing Education
(Fall ), 2-8.
Section 03 - The Use and Evaluation of Role Plays
AVOIDING THE GUILLOTINE EFFECT AFTER VIDEOTAPING
ROLE PLAYS
by
John F. Tanner, Jr., and Lawrence B. Chonko
Baylor University
INTRODUCTION
Nearly ten years ago, Benson (1983) touted
communication skills as one of the most
is critical. In some cases, behavior models
have been to help students acquire a range of
skills in management (Orpen, 1985),
interpersonal relations (Grant, 1984),
listening (Smeltzer and Watson, 1989) and
verbal communication (Behnke and Sawyer,
1988).
teaching sales skills in the university setting
(Castleberry 1989; Good, 1990). One key
benefit of videotape feedback is that it has
been shown to be an effective method of
limited to small doses." Siegel (quoted in
Kallas 1967) was more critical, stating that
"...we've seen some participants badly
further practice was undertaken.
Conventional wisdom would suggest that
empathetic feedback is crucial to the
development of the student during a role-
play experience. The purpose of this article
is to extend Castleberry's (1989) guide to
role playing in the sales setting to a more
THE FEEDBACK PROCESS
As Castleberry (1989) noted, videotaping
role plays can be traumatic for some
students. Castleberry (1989) provides
Section 03 - The Use and Evaluation of Role Plays
Rather, the approach should be that the
debriefing process is a learning process for
all of the observers as well as the
student/salesperson (Hawes, 1990), hereafter
referred to as the trainee. The debriefing
becomes less of a critique and more of a
serve as a mini-case for all involved.
Vicarious Learning From Role Plays
Several techniques (which are summarized
in Table 1) can minimize the possibility of
the guillotine effect while also enhancing the
vicarious learning experience for observers.
These techniques depend upon the
debriefing.
TABLE 1
Techniques for Avoiding the Guillotine
Effect
• Record positive comments
whenever possible.
The debriefing procedure is a series of four
steps, the first three of which are designed
for vicarious learning. The first step is to
solicit the trainee's feedback. The second
step is for the student's peers (observers) to
The first three steps, discussed below, are
the critical moments for the trainee who has
just completed the role play. This is the
period of time when the trainee’s emotions
are strongest, and the potential for the
guillotine effect is the greatest.
Step 1
positive focus is accomplished by asking the
trainee what was best about his/her
performance in the role play. By having the
trainee speak first, the trainee can be the first
to recognize the positive elements of his or
her performance. This positive start
