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AI sales roleplay: build a sparring partner for your biggest deals

Downloads | AI playbooks, Sales and marketing leaders, The AI workforce

A UK logistics firm lost a £50,000 ARR deal after a rep rehearsed for an hour with his manager. The prep covered objections, the deck and pricing. The problem was the rehearsal: the manager was too close to the product to play a real sceptic.

The Roleplay Dojo builds an AI sparring partner for one live prospect: a persona of the actual buyer and a grading rubric for what that buyer cares about. It plays the buyer and judges the rep the way the buyer would.

The Dojo in brief

  • £50k ARR lost after a polite rehearsal
  • 1 Dojo per live prospect
  • 5 skill areas graded for each deal

Example as reported in aiblBRIEF

How do you build an AI buyer persona?

Start from what you already know, usually CRM notes. Capture the buyer’s role, main pressure, budget authority, buying process, main objections and communication style. Some gaps are fine. It needs to be coherent enough that a rep cannot bluff through it.

How does the AI grade the rep?

Against a scorecard built for that deal: opening, price objection, integration objection, value proposition and close. Each has high and low scoring logic, so feedback is specific, such as missing the cost reduction angle the buyer cares about.

When should a team use the Dojo?

Before any meeting you only get one shot at. Rebuild it when the deal changes materially, so reps practise against the buyer they will actually face rather than a polite colleague.

Key takeaways

  • Separate the character from the critique. One agent plays the buyer; the rubric judges like the buyer.
  • Build one Dojo per live deal. Generic practice misses the specific objections.
  • Use your CRM notes. Past calls hold the objections and tone that matter.
  • Grade against the buyer’s priorities. Specific feedback beats a generic score.

What’s in the full guide

If your reps rehearse with colleagues who go easy on them, the full guide shows how to build the Dojo:

  • The persona template, with a worked example
  • The five-area grading rubric
  • The system prompt for the Dojo agent
  • How to read the feedback
  • When to rebuild the Dojo

This guide first appeared in aiblBRIEF. Read the original article: The Roleplay Dojo: how to stop practising on your best leads.

Rehearse with a buyer who pushes back

AI sales roleplay: build a sparring partner for your biggest deals
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