Best Practice Guide: Sales Roleplay with Tough Tongue AI

Introduction

Sales roleplay has traditionally meant sitting across from a colleague or manager, running through scripts, and getting feedback that’s limited by time and human availability. Tough Tongue AI changes this completely.

This guide will show you how to use Tough Tongue AI for sales training and practice. Whether you’re preparing for a high-stakes enterprise deal, onboarding new team members, or refining your pitch, these best practices will help you get the most out of your practice sessions.

What Makes Tough Tongue AI Different

Before diving into best practices, it’s important to understand what sets Tough Tongue AI apart from other roleplay tools.

Real Multimodal Understanding

Most roleplay solutions convert your voice to text first, then process it, and finally convert text back to speech. This creates delays and misses crucial information. Tough Tongue AI works differently. It processes audio directly, which means:

1. The AI hears your actual voice, not just your words
2. It picks up on hesitation, confidence, and tone
3. It notices when you’re struggling to articulate value or rushing through objections
4. It can see your facial expressions and body language through your camera
5. It gives you feedback on your hand gestures, eye contact, and overall presence

This matters enormously in sales. Your prospect isn’t just reading your words on a screen. They’re watching you present, hearing how you handle pressure, and forming impressions based on your entire communication style. Tough Tongue AI evaluates all of this, just like a real buyer would.

Agentic Tools That Create Realistic Scenarios

Here’s where things get really interesting. The AI agent doesn’t just talk to you. It can use tools to make the practice feel real.

Image Generation Imagine you’re training retail staff. Instead of saying “pretend you’re at the cash register,” the AI can show them the cash register. It generates an image of the actual scenario: the customer standing in front of them, the product in question, the store environment. This visual context makes the practice feel real and helps people respond more naturally.

Example uses:

1. “You’re standing at the entrance of a Banana Republic store. A customer walks in looking confused. Here’s what you see…” (generates image)
2. “The customer places these three items on the counter and mentions the price seems high. What do you do?” (shows image of items)
3. “Picture yourself in this executive’s office for your pitch…” (visualizes the setting)

Interactive Cards and MCQ Questions The AI can present multiple choice questions or create visual cards to make training more engaging. This is perfect for:

1. Testing product knowledge before diving into roleplay
2. Creating decision points: “The customer says this. Do you A, B, or C?”
3. Reinforcing learning after practice sessions
4. Making training feel less intimidating for beginners

Mermaid Diagrams for Process Training Complex sales processes involve many decision points. The AI can draw flowcharts showing:

1. “If customer mentions price, follow this path”
2. “When they ask about competitors, here’s your response framework”
3. Sales qualification frameworks like MEDDIC or BANT
4. Objection handling decision trees

These visual guides help sales reps internalize processes rather than memorizing scripts.

Notepad for Hands-On Practice Some sales skills require actual data entry or documentation. The AI can open a notepad where trainees practice:

1. Entering customer information into your CRM
2. Taking proper discovery notes
3. Documenting objections and responses
4. Filling out qualification criteria

The AI watches what they write and provides feedback in real time.

Google Slides Integration Your AI agent can navigate through your actual sales deck, presenting slides while speaking. This means:

1. Practice your pitch exactly as you’ll deliver it to prospects
2. The AI can jump to specific slides based on conversation flow
3. Perfect for training on new product launches or complex technical presentations
4. Works in any language, so global teams can practice in their native tongue

Google Meet for Group Training The AI can join Google Meet calls, which opens up possibilities like:

1. Conducting group training sessions where multiple team members practice together
2. Recording and evaluating team selling scenarios
3. Screening calls for high-volume sales teams
4. Situations where you need the AI to interact with multiple people simultaneously

Deeply Customizable Scenarios and Analysis

Every sales organization is different. Your products, your buyers, your pitch… it’s all unique to you. Tough Tongue AI lets you customize everything:

1. Upload your actual sales call recordings so the AI learns from your best performers
2. Define your own evaluation rubrics (what makes a good discovery call in YOUR organization?)
3. The AI analyzes sessions against YOUR criteria, not generic sales advice
4. Use “Edit with AI” to quickly create scenarios that match your specific selling situation
5. Control every aspect of how the scenario runs and how feedback is delivered

This means the practice isn’t generic. It’s tailored to how you actually sell.

Getting Started: Three Pathways

1. Start with Pre-Made Scenarios

If you’re new to Tough Tongue AI or want to practice immediately, start with our professionally designed scenarios.

Where to find them:

1. Explore the Enterprise Cold Calls collection for B2B practice
2. Check out the Sales Mastery collection for fundamental skills
3. Browse individual scenarios in the library

Best for:

1. Individual contributors who want to improve specific skills
2. Testing out Tough Tongue AI before building custom content
3. Practicing universal sales situations (discovery, objection handling, closing)

How to use them effectively:

1. Record every session so you can review the analysis
2. Practice the same scenario multiple times to track improvement
3. Share your session analysis with your manager for additional feedback
4. Use them as templates for creating your own custom scenarios later

2. Create Your Own Scenarios

Once you understand the platform, building custom scenarios lets you practice exactly what you need.

Adding Your Context

The more context you provide, the better your scenarios will be. You can upload:

1. Recordings of your best sales calls
2. Transcripts from won and lost deals
3. Product documentation and pitch decks
4. YouTube videos of great sales presentations
5. Competitive battle cards
6. Your company’s sales playbook

The AI uses all of this to create scenarios that mirror your real selling environment.

Example: Replicating Your Top Performer

Let’s say your star sales rep consistently nails discovery calls. Here’s how to scale their approach:

1. Upload a recording of their best discovery call
2. Add your product documentation
3. In the scenario instructions, tell the AI: “You are a VP of Engineering at a mid-size SaaS company. Notice how the sales rep in this recording asked about current pain points before mentioning features. Respond with similar skepticism and require the user to earn your interest.”
4. Define evaluation criteria based on what your top performer did well

Now everyone on your team can practice against an AI buyer that responds like your best deals.

Scenario Creation Best Practices

When writing your scenario instructions, follow this structure:

Name it clearly: Use the format [Role]:[Situation]. Examples:

1. “Enterprise Buyer: Technical Discovery Call”
2. “Retail Customer: Handling Refund Request”
3. “CFO: ROI Justification Discussion”

This helps the AI understand context immediately.

Define the AI’s role explicitly: “You are a VP of Sales at a 500-person company evaluating sales enablement tools. You’re skeptical of new technology and need strong ROI justification. You’ve been burned by vendors before who overpromised.”

Notice how this gives the AI personality, context, and attitude. The more specific, the better.

Set the agenda: Tell the AI what to cover and how to probe. For example:

1. “Start by asking what brings them in today”
2. “If they mention price, push back and say you’ve seen cheaper options”
3. “Ask about decision-making process and timeline”
4. “Don’t give information easily. Make them earn it with good questions”

Add evaluation criteria: For sales scenarios, you want to measure:

1. Did they ask qualifying questions before pitching?
2. How did they handle objections?
3. Did they establish next steps?
4. Were they too pushy or too passive?
5. Did they articulate value in terms of business outcomes?

Be specific about what good looks like in your organization.

Use Edit with AI: Instead of starting from scratch, use the “Edit with AI” feature:

1. It has templates based on years of scenario writing expertise
2. It can research your industry and incorporate best practices
3. You can upload documents and let it extract key points
4. Iterate through multiple conversations to refine the scenario

This dramatically reduces creation time while ensuring quality.

3. Professional Customization Services

For organizations that want high-quality scenarios but don’t have time to build them, our team can help.

What we provide:

1. Deep collaboration to understand your sales process
2. Professionally crafted scenarios that match your methodology
3. Complete collections for different roles (SDRs, AEs, CSMs)
4. Dashboard setup and team onboarding
5. Ongoing updates as your products and messaging evolve

Best for:

1. Sales organizations rolling out AI practice to 20+ reps
2. Companies with complex technical sales
3. Teams that want to move fast and ensure quality from day one

Email help@getarchieai.com to discuss customization services.

Best Practices by Use Case

Enterprise Sales Practice

Challenge: Enterprise deals are long, complex, and involve multiple stakeholders with different concerns. Practice needs to reflect this reality.

How to practice effectively:

Create Multi-Stakeholder Scenarios Don’t just practice with one buyer persona. Create separate scenarios for:

1. Technical evaluators who grill you on architecture and security
2. Economic buyers who only care about ROI
3. End users who want to know it’s easy to use
4. Procurement who will negotiate aggressively on price

Practice each conversation type until you’re comfortable switching between technical depth and business value.

Use Image Generation to Set Context Have the AI visualize the setting: “You’re in the CTO’s office. They have 15 minutes before their next meeting. Here’s what the room looks like.” This helps you practice adjusting your energy and approach for different environments.

Leverage Slides Integration Upload your actual sales deck. Practice navigating through it while the AI buyer interrupts with questions, pushes back on claims, or asks you to jump to specific sections. This is exactly what happens in real enterprise demos.

Practice Objection Handling with Diagrams Have the AI draw out objection handling frameworks: “When buyer says X, your response tree is: understand → validate → reframe → provide evidence → confirm.”

Seeing this visually helps internalize the pattern.

Record and Analyze Everything Enterprise deals matter too much to wing it. Record every practice session. Review the AI’s analysis. Look for patterns:

1. Do you talk too much about features before understanding needs?
2. Are you too quick to discount when they mention competitors?
3. Do you establish clear next steps or let calls end vaguely?

Share these analyses with your sales leader for coaching conversations.

Retail and Frontline Sales Training

Challenge: High turnover, inconsistent training quality, and limited manager time make it hard to prepare frontline staff for real customer interactions.

How to train effectively:

Visualize Scenarios Instead of describing situations, show them:

1. “A customer walks up to you holding this product. They look frustrated. What do you do?” (AI generates image of customer and product)
2. “You’re at the register. The customer’s card is declined. This is what you see on your screen.” (Shows the scenario visually)

Visual context helps new employees practice realistic responses without feeling overwhelmed by imagination exercises.

Use MCQ Questions for Knowledge Checks Before diving into roleplay, test product knowledge:

1. “What’s the return policy for this item? A, B, or C?”
2. “Customer asks if this comes in blue. Where do you check?”
3. “Which of these items is part of the current promotion?”

This builds confidence before they practice actual conversations.

Notepad for Process Training Many retail roles involve data entry, inventory checks, or transaction processing. Use the notepad tool to practice:

1. “Customer wants to open a store credit card. Walk me through entering their information.”
2. “Process this return in the system while explaining what you’re doing.”
3. “Look up this item’s availability at nearby stores.”

The AI watches their inputs and corrects mistakes in real time.

Language Flexibility If you have team members who speak different languages, they can practice in their native tongue. The AI will conduct roleplay in Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, whatever they’re comfortable with. This removes language barriers from training.

Group Training with Google Meet For onboarding cohorts, have the AI join a Google Meet session. Multiple trainees can:

1. Watch each other practice
2. Get evaluated as a group
3. Learn from peers’ approaches
4. Receive consistent training even when managers are busy

Objection Handling Bootcamp

Challenge: Sales reps often freeze or fumble when prospects raise objections. Practice builds the muscle memory to respond confidently.

How to practice:

Create Objection-Heavy Scenarios Build scenarios where the AI buyer is specifically trained to throw common objections:

1. “This is too expensive”
2. “We’re already working with [competitor]”
3. “I need to think about it”
4. “This isn’t a priority right now”
5. “Can you just send me information?”

Practice until your responses become natural.

Use Diagrams to Teach Frameworks Have the AI draw your objection handling framework as a flowchart. For example:

1. Listen completely (don’t interrupt)
2. Acknowledge (validate their concern)
3. Clarify (ask questions to understand the real issue)
4. Respond (address with evidence or reframe)
5. Confirm (check if you’ve resolved the concern)

Seeing this mapped out helps reps internalize the approach.

Practice Tone and Confidence Remember, the AI analyzes your voice. It will tell you:

1. “You sounded defensive when they mentioned price”
2. “Your tone became apologetic instead of confident”
3. “You rushed through your response without letting them finish”

This feedback is gold. Objection handling is as much about how you say it as what you say.

Repeat the Same Objection Multiple Ways Create scenarios where the same objection comes up but phrased differently:

1. “I don’t have budget” vs “This costs too much” vs “I can’t justify this price”

These are the same concern expressed differently. Practice spotting this and responding to the underlying issue, not just the words.

New Product Launch Training

Challenge: Sales teams need to quickly get up to speed on new products, messaging, and positioning.

How to train effectively:

Upload Launch Materials When creating scenarios:

1. Upload product documentation
2. Include the launch presentation
3. Add competitive positioning guides
4. Provide FAQ documents

The AI will reference all of this during roleplay, helping reps learn while practicing.

Use Slides to Reinforce Messaging Integrate your launch deck. As reps practice, the AI can:

1. Navigate to specific slides when reps mention features
2. Show product screenshots as reps demonstrate value
3. Present customer case studies when reps need proof points

This reinforces the connection between messaging and materials.

Practice Common Questions New products generate predictable questions:

1. “How is this different from what we had before?”
2. “Why would I switch from what I’m using?”
3. “When will feature X be available?”

Create scenarios where the AI buyer asks these questions. Reps need crisp, confident answers.

Test Understanding with MCQs Before roleplay, have the AI quiz reps:

1. “What problem does this product solve?”
2. “Which customer segment is this designed for?”
3. “What’s our key differentiator from [competitor]?”

This ensures everyone has baseline knowledge before practicing conversations.

Discovery Call Mastery

Challenge: Reps often pitch too early instead of thoroughly understanding the buyer’s situation. Discovery is a skill that requires practice.

How to practice:

Create Buyers Who Don’t Give Easy Answers Your AI buyer should be realistic:

1. They don’t immediately spill all their pain points
2. They’re busy and want to know why they should spend time talking
3. They might not know exactly what they need
4. They’re evaluating multiple options

This forces reps to ask better questions and really listen.

Have the AI Track Question Quality In your evaluation rubric, specifically measure:

1. Did they ask open-ended questions?
2. Did they follow up on interesting points?
3. Did they talk more or listen more?
4. Did they understand the customer’s business before pitching?

The AI will analyze the conversation against these criteria and show reps where they jumped to solutions too quickly.

Use the Notepad for Discovery Notes During practice, have reps take notes in the notepad tool:

1. Key pain points
2. Decision criteria
3. Timeline and budget
4. Stakeholders involved

The AI can review their notes and provide feedback: “You missed capturing who else is involved in the decision.”

Practice with Different Buyer Maturity Levels Create scenarios with buyers at different stages:

1. “I’m just exploring options” (early stage)
2. “I’m comparing a few vendors” (mid stage)
3. “I need to make a decision this quarter” (late stage)

Each requires different discovery approaches.

Negotiation Practice

Challenge: Negotiation requires reading the room, knowing when to hold firm, when to offer concessions, and how to maintain value.

How to practice:

Create High-Pressure Scenarios Your AI buyer should push hard:

1. “Your competitor is 30% cheaper”
2. “I need you to include these five things at no extra cost”
3. “Give me your best price right now or we’re going with someone else”

Practice maintaining composure and confidence under pressure.

Analyze Your Voice and Body Language The AI will give you feedback on:

1. Did your voice get higher or faster when they pressed on price?
2. Did you break eye contact when discussing terms?
3. Did your body language signal discomfort?

Negotiation is as much about presence as words. Practice until your delivery matches your message.

Use Diagrams for Trade-Off Planning Before negotiation practice, have the AI draw out your concession strategy:

1. “If they ask for X, you can offer Y but you need to get Z”
2. Map out your BATNA (Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement)
3. Visualize your walk-away point

Having this planned makes you more confident during practice.

Record and Review Concession Patterns After multiple practice sessions, review:

1. Do you give discounts too easily?
2. Do you ask for something in return when making concessions?
3. Do you anchor high enough at the start?

The AI’s analysis will show these patterns across sessions.

Advanced Features and Techniques

Conductor Mode for Timed Scenarios

If you want scenarios that run for specific lengths, use Conductor Mode.

How to set it up:

1. Enable Conductor Mode in scenario settings
2. Add timed instructions:
3. At 540 seconds (9 minutes): “You have one minute left to conclude”
4. At 600 seconds (10 minutes): “Thank the candidate and disconnect”

This is perfect for:

1. Simulating time-constrained sales calls
2. Training reps to manage time in short conversations
3. Creating consistent practice experiences

Dynamic Variables for Personalization

Use variables like {{name}}, {{company}}, or {{product}} in your scenario instructions.

Example: “You are {{title}} at {{company}}. You’re evaluating tools to solve {{pain_point}}. Be skeptical and require strong evidence.”

When someone starts the scenario, they’ll see a popup to fill in these details. This makes generic scenarios feel personalized.

Great for:

1. Scenarios shared across teams with different products
2. Training programs used by multiple companies
3. Practice that adapts to individual rep circumstances

Memory Features for Ongoing Coaching

Enable memory in your scenarios so the AI remembers past conversations.

How this helps:

1. “Last time we practiced, you struggled with technical objections. Let’s focus on that today.”
2. The AI adapts difficulty based on improvement
3. It tracks progress over weeks and months
4. Creates continuity across practice sessions

This transforms one-off roleplay into ongoing coaching.

Quiz Mode for Knowledge Testing

Use Quiz Mode when you want to test understanding without the full roleplay experience.

When to use it:

1. Pre-training assessments
2. Quick knowledge checks
3. Certification testing
4. Reinforcement after training

After the session, it immediately jumps to analysis rather than showing an avatar.

Meeting Bot for Group Sessions

Deploy AI agents to join Google Meet calls for:

1. Group training where multiple reps practice together
2. Evaluation sessions where managers want consistent assessment
3. Customer listening exercises where the AI analyzes real calls

Two modes:

1. Custom Meeting Mode: Provide the meeting URL
2. Calendar Integration: AI automatically joins meetings with specific keywords

Currently in beta. Contact help@getarchieai.com for access.

Analysis and Improvement

Understanding Your Analysis Report

After each session, Tough Tongue AI provides detailed analysis. Here’s how to use it:

Overall Performance Assessment The AI evaluates you against the rubric defined in the scenario. For sales practice, this typically includes:

1. Rapport building
2. Needs discovery
3. Value articulation
4. Objection handling
5. Next steps and closing

Look for patterns across multiple sessions.

Transcript Review Read through what you actually said versus what you thought you said. Common discoveries:

1. “I said ‘um’ way more than I realized”
2. “I talked 80% of the time when I thought I was listening”
3. “I never actually asked about their decision-making process”

Multimodal Feedback The AI comments on:

1. Voice tone and confidence
2. Facial expressions
3. Body language
4. Eye contact
5. Background and professionalism

This matters enormously in video sales calls.

Specific Improvement Recommendations The AI provides actionable feedback:

1. “Next time, try asking ‘Tell me more about that’ instead of jumping to solutions”
2. “You gave a discount without negotiating. Practice asking ‘What would you need to see to move forward at our standard pricing?’”
3. “Your energy dropped in the second half. Consider how you maintain enthusiasm through longer calls.”

Sharing Analysis with Managers

Every session analysis can be shared via link. This enables:

1. Managers providing additional coaching based on AI analysis
2. Peer review and learning from each other’s practice
3. Tracking team-wide patterns (everyone struggles with objection X)

Make sharing analyses part of your regular coaching conversations.

Tracking Progress Over Time

Use the Creator Analytics dashboard to see:

1. How many practice sessions each team member has completed
2. Which scenarios are most used
3. Where people are getting stuck

This data helps sales leaders understand where their team needs support.

Getting Your Team Onboarded

For Sales Managers Rolling Out AI Practice

Start with a pilot group:

1. Choose 3–5 reps who are open to new approaches
2. Have them practice with pre-made scenarios for two weeks
3. Gather feedback on what works and what they need

Create your core scenario library:

1. Based on pilot feedback, build 5–10 key scenarios
2. Cover your most important selling situations
3. Make them challenging but not demoralizing

Make practice routine:

1. Set expectation of 2–3 practice sessions per week
2. Review session analyses in 1:1 meetings
3. Celebrate improvement publicly

Measure impact:

1. Track correlation between practice frequency and performance
2. Survey reps on confidence changes
3. Monitor metrics like win rate and average deal size

For Individual Contributors

Start with scenarios you find intimidating: If enterprise buyers scare you, practice with tough AI buyers first. If you struggle with technical questions, create scenarios with technical stakeholders who dig deep.

Practice the same scenario multiple times: Don’t jump around. Master one situation before moving to the next. Record sessions 1, 3, and 5 of the same scenario and watch yourself improve.

Share your analyses: Show your manager or a peer your session analysis. Ask: “What do you see here? What would you do differently?”

Use it before big calls: Got a call with a new prospect type tomorrow? Find or create a scenario that matches and practice tonight. Even 10 minutes of practice helps.

Common Questions

How long should practice sessions be?

Most effective practice sessions run 8–12 minutes. This is long enough to get into real conversation flow but short enough to maintain focus.

For complex enterprise scenarios, you might go longer. For retail training on specific situations, even 5 minutes can be valuable.

How often should reps practice?

Consistency matters more than volume. Three 10-minute sessions per week beats one hour-long session. Regular practice builds muscle memory.

For new hires, daily practice for the first month accelerates ramp time significantly.

Should we replace all roleplay with AI?

No. Tough Tongue AI is incredibly powerful, but human coaching still matters. The ideal mix:

1. AI practice for repetition, specific skill building, and individual preparation
2. Human roleplay for complex situations, strategic coaching, and manager assessment

Think of AI as your always-available practice partner and humans as your expert coach.

What if the AI says something unexpected?

That’s actually valuable! Real buyers say unexpected things. If the AI throws you off, that’s exactly what you need to practice handling. Don’t restart the scenario. Recover and keep going, just like you would on a real call.

If the AI genuinely goes off script in a problematic way, that’s feedback for improving your scenario instructions.

Can we use this for hiring assessments?

Yes, many teams use Tough Tongue AI to:

1. Give candidates consistent assessment scenarios
2. Evaluate responses objectively using defined rubrics
3. Record sessions for team review

Just make sure you tell candidates they’re being evaluated by AI.

How do we measure ROI on AI practice?

Track these metrics:

1. Time to productivity for new hires
2. Rep confidence scores (survey before and after implementing practice)
3. Win rates for reps who practice regularly vs those who don’t
4. Manager time spent on roleplay and coaching

Most teams see clear impact within 60–90 days.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Audio quality problems

If the AI is having trouble understanding you:

1. Check your microphone permissions in browser settings
2. Use Chrome for best experience
3. Ensure you’re in a reasonably quiet environment
4. Test with a pre-made scenario before creating custom ones

Scenarios that feel too easy or too hard

Adjust difficulty in your scenario instructions:

1. Too easy: “Be more skeptical. Push back on every claim. Ask for proof.”
2. Too hard: “Be open to hearing ideas but require good justification. Don’t make it easy, but don’t be hostile.”

Finding the right challenge level takes iteration.

Sessions disconnecting

Sessions guarantee 12 minutes, but high token usage (lots of visual tools, PDFs, continuous whiteboard use) can cause earlier disconnection.

If this happens:

1. Use the restore button to continue
2. Adjust your scenario to use fewer tools simultaneously
3. Break complex scenarios into shorter segments

Reps not adopting the tool

Common reasons and solutions:

“I don’t have time” Start with just one 10-minute session per week. Show how practice improves real call confidence.

“It feels weird talking to AI” Have your best reps try it first and share their experience. Seeing respected peers use it increases adoption.

“I don’t know what to practice” Create a curated starter list of scenarios. Remove decision paralysis.

“I tried it once and didn’t see the value” Value comes from repetition. Set expectations of at least 5 sessions before judging effectiveness.

Getting Help and Support

Documentation and Resources

1. Full platform documentation: app.toughtongueai.com/documentation
2. API integration guide for technical teams
3. Video tutorials and demos
4. Release notes for new features

Direct Support

1. Email: help@getarchieai.com
2. Schedule a consultation for custom scenario creation
3. Join the Discord community to connect with other users

Feature Requests

We’re constantly improving based on user feedback. If you need something specific for your sales training use case, let us know. Many of our best features came from customer requests.

Conclusion

Sales is hard because real conversations are unpredictable, high-stakes, and impossible to rewind. You get one shot to make an impression, handle an objection, or close a deal.

Tough Tongue AI doesn’t make sales easy. But it does make it possible to practice the hard parts as many times as you need, with feedback that helps you improve each time.

The unique combination of multimodal understanding, agentic tools, and deep customization means you’re not practicing with a chatbot. You’re practicing with an AI that sees you, hears you, creates realistic scenarios, and helps you get better.

The reps who practice regularly don’t just perform better. They feel more confident. They handle surprises more smoothly. They represent your company more professionally.

Start with one scenario. Practice it three times. Review your analysis. Then build from there.

Your prospects won’t know you practiced. They’ll just notice you’re really good.