What are good sales roleplay scenarios for SDRs?

One scenario per skill works better than a full call. Run the first fifteen seconds against a prospect who asks 'who is this', an objection drill against 'we already have a provider', and a close against one who has softened but says 'send me something'. Each is under two minutes and can be repeated ten times.

How do you play the prospect in a sales roleplay?

Be a specific person with a specific brief, not a generic buyer. Decide beforehand how irritated you are, which two objections you will raise, and what the rep must do for you to agree to a next step. Then stick to it. The most common failure is a prospect who caves because the person playing them wants the exercise to end.

How long should a sales roleplay be?

Under two minutes per run, repeated several times. A twenty-minute full-call roleplay gives the rep one attempt and eight notes they will forget. Six two-minute runs of one scenario give them six attempts at the one thing they are trying to change.

Sales roleplay examples: six cold call scenarios, scripted

Six sales roleplay scenarios for SDR cold calls, one per skill: the setup, the prospect brief, the lines to use, and what a pass looks like.

The best sales roleplay examples are not full calls. They are short scenarios, one per skill, that a rep can run six times in a row until one specific thing changes. A twenty-minute roleplay gives a rep one attempt and eight notes. A two-minute scenario on the close gives them six attempts at the close. Below are six scenarios for SDR cold calls, one per skill on a standard cold call scorecard, each with a setup, a brief for whoever plays the prospect, the lines to use and what a pass looks like.

How to use these

Whoever plays the prospect needs a brief and has to stick to it. Decide beforehand how irritated the prospect is, which objections they will raise, and exactly what the rep must do to earn a next step. Then do not cave. The most common roleplay failure is a prospect who comes round because the person playing them wants the exercise over.

Keep each run under two minutes, stop once the skill has been tested, and run it again. Score each run on that one skill, out of ten, quoting the rep. The rules from how to run roleplay reps do not hate apply: no audience, one skill per session, the prospect decides.

Scenario	Prospect behaviour	Skill drilled	Pass condition
1. Who is this	Interrupted, asks "who is this and why are you calling"	Opener	Name, company and acknowledgement in under fifteen seconds, no apology
2. What's this about	Neutral, gives the rep one sentence to justify the call	Reason for call	One specific reason tied to the prospect's role or company
3. Two questions	Engaged but short, answers only what is asked	Discovery	Two open questions, the second built on the first answer
4. Already have a provider	Mentions the incumbent, "honestly it's fine"	Objection handling	Acknowledges, asks what it does not cover, does not argue
5. So what does it do	Asks for the pitch after revealing a problem	Value proposition	One outcome tied to the stated problem, one proof point, under thirty seconds
6. Send me something	Softened, offers the email brush-off instead of a meeting	Close	Specific short call with a day and time, soft no handled once

Scenario 1: Who is this

Setup. A senior buyer interrupted mid-task, mildly irritated. The rep has fifteen seconds.

Prospect brief. Answer with your surname only, then cut in with "sorry, who is this and why are you calling me?" If the rep apologises or asks "did I catch you at a bad time", say "yes" and hang up. If they give a clear name, company and acknowledgement, say "okay, go on" and end the run.

Lines. Prospect: "Whitlock." Rep: "Hi, this is Sam Reid from Northgate. You weren't expecting this call, I'll be quick about why." Prospect: "Go on."

What the rep is practising. Saying the three things that matter in order, unhurried, without "just", "quickly" or "I know you're busy".

Pass. Full name, company and a plain acknowledgement that this is a cold call in under fifteen seconds. The prospect did not hang up.

Scenario 2: What's this about

Setup. A neutral prospect, not hostile and not interested yet, who gives the rep one sentence to justify the call.

Prospect brief. After the opener, say "okay, what's this about?" and wait. If the rep describes their company, say "right, we're fine, thanks" and end the run. If the reason is about you, your role or your company, ask "how do you know that?", let them answer, then end the run.

Lines. Prospect: "What's this about?" Rep: "The reason for my call is that you've opened two depots this year, and operations leads usually find the dispatch handover breaks at the third site. I wanted to ask whether that's showing up yet." Prospect: "How do you know about the depots?"

What the rep is practising. A reason that could only be said to this prospect. "I wanted to introduce myself" is not one. A trigger, a role-specific problem or a peer result is.

Pass. One or two sentences naming something true about the prospect, leading to a question.

Scenario 3: Two questions

Setup. The prospect has engaged but is busy, gives short answers and volunteers nothing. The rep has to learn two useful things without interrogating them.

Prospect brief. Answer every question in one sentence and volunteer nothing. Answer closed questions with yes or no. On a third question, say "look, I've got about one more minute" and end the run.

Lines. Rep: "How are you handling the handover between sites at the moment?" Prospect: "Spreadsheet and a WhatsApp group." Rep: "What breaks first when a driver's late?" Prospect: "The next site finds out when the customer rings."

What the rep is practising. Open questions tied to the prospect's world, and listening. The second question comes from the first answer, not the script.

Pass. Two open questions, the second built on what the prospect said. "What keeps you up at night" fails the run.

Scenario 4: Already have a provider

Setup. The rep has stated a reason for the call. The prospect raises the objection most reps handle worst: they have something already and it is fine.

Prospect brief. Say "we've already got a provider for that, and honestly it's fine." If the rep argues or compares features, say "like I said, we're fine" and end the run. If they acknowledge and ask what the provider does not cover, name one gap, then end the run. Agree to nothing.

Lines. Prospect: "We've already got a provider for that, and honestly it's fine." Rep: "That's fair, most people I speak to do. Can I ask what you use it for, and whether there's anything it doesn't cover?" Prospect: "It doesn't do the cross-site view."

What the rep is practising. Acknowledge, isolate, redirect. Never argue with the incumbent. The question "what does it not cover" restarts the conversation on the prospect's terms. Fifteen objections, each with three ways to handle it and a worked exchange, are in our objection library, and any of them can replace this one.

Pass. Acknowledged before responding, asked one question about what the incumbent does not do, held pace. Speeding up or arguing is a fail.

Scenario 5: So what does it do

Setup. The prospect has revealed a problem in discovery and asks the question that invites a feature dump.

Prospect brief. After revealing one problem, say "so what does your thing actually do?" If the rep talks for more than thirty seconds or lists features, say "okay, send me a deck" and end the run. If they tie one outcome to your problem with one piece of proof, say "huh, okay" and end the run.

Lines. Prospect: "So what does your thing actually do?" Rep: "For you, one thing: the next site knows the driver is late before the customer does. A carrier your size cut those customer calls by a third in a quarter. That's all I'd want to show you."

What the rep is practising. Connecting what the company does to the problem the prospect just named, in one outcome, with proof where natural. The result for this person, not the product.

Pass. Under thirty seconds, one outcome tied to the stated problem, one proof point. Three features in a row is a fail.

Scenario 6: Send me something

Setup. The prospect has softened. They will not hang up, but they will not agree to a meeting either, so they offer the polite exit.

Prospect brief. Say "look, send me something and I'll take a look." If the rep asks for the best address, give it and end the run as a fail. If the rep asks for a specific short call with a day and time, say "I'm slammed next week" once. If they propose an alternative, agree to fifteen minutes. If they propose a demo or a vague "sometime", decline.

Lines. Prospect: "Send me something and I'll take a look." Rep: "Happy to. Better still, fifteen minutes on Thursday at ten, so I show you only the cross-site part and you decide if the email is worth reading. Does Thursday work?" Prospect: "I'm slammed next week." Rep: "Tuesday the week after, same time?"

What the rep is practising. A specific, small next step with a proposed day and time, one soft no handled, details confirmed, a clean ending. "Send me an email" is a soft no, and the rep answers the no rather than the request.

Pass. A specific ask with a day and time, one soft no handled without caving, a confirmed slot. Sending the email is a fail.

Running the six as a programme

Do not run all six in one session. Pick the team's lowest-scoring skill this month and run that scenario, six times per rep, in private. Next week, the next lowest. In our experience one scenario a week moves one score a week, which beats any full-call programme.

When the person playing the prospect is the bottleneck, an AI prospect with the same brief gives each rep the six runs without anyone's calendar. The cold prospect in 100 Dials follows the Scenario 1 brief by default: interrupted, asks who is calling, mentions the incumbent, tries to end the call twice, and agrees only to a short follow-up if the rep earns it. Our page for enablement teams covers how the same six skills are scored on every call.