Talk less, listen more

Keith Mercier and Patrick Wright are insurance salesmen, but they spend a part of every day like method actors, going deep into a role.

It's part of a preparation-heavy sales approach at Bouchard Insurance, where agents constantly role-play what a sales visit will look and sound like. They create scenarios, from simple to tricky, where agents need an answer at the ready. They remind themselves of a good salesperson's creed: Talk less, listen more. “After you ask a question,” says Mercier, who runs the Sarasota office for Clearwater-based Bouchard, “you need to shut your mouth and let people talk.”

The more unusual the questions in the role-play, the better prepared the team is to win business. “We spend a lot of time on strategy,” says Mercier. “Sales for us is a chess game.”