# Running a roleplay

Getting into the Training Lab, what happens during the call, and the four mistakes that make a roleplay worthless.

Source: https://replicatelabs.ai/docs/roleplay/running-one
Last updated: 2026-09-03

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## Getting to it

The Training Lab lists what is configured for the coach you are currently on. The platform remembers your last coach selection between sessions, so if the scenarios look unfamiliar, check the coach selector at the top left before assuming something is missing.

## Running it

The Training Lab holds two lists: the **personas** on your account, which you can open to study a buyer before you meet them, and the **roleplay scenarios**, which are the conversations you can run. Filters across the top narrow the scenarios by scorecard, persona and product.

<figure class="dshot">
<img src="/img/docs/rep-training-lab.webp" alt="The Training Lab showing buyer personas and the roleplay scenarios available to run" width="1440" height="900" loading="lazy" />
<figcaption><b>The Training Lab.</b> Personas at the top, runnable scenarios below, filtered by scorecard, persona and product. Each scenario names the buyer it puts you in front of.</figcaption>
</figure>


<figure class="dfig">
<div class="dframe">
<div class="dflow">
<div class="dstep"><span class="dstep-n">1</span><b>Pick the roleplay</b><span>The scenario. Choose the one matching a conversation you are actually about to have.</span></div>
<div class="dstep"><span class="dstep-n">2</span><b>Pick the persona</b><span>Where the roleplay offers a choice. Pick the buyer you are dreading, not the comfortable one.</span></div>
<div class="dstep"><span class="dstep-n">3</span><b>Start the call</b><span>Grant microphone access. The buyer comes up on camera and opens.</span></div>
<div class="dstep"><span class="dstep-n">4</span><b>Run it properly</b><span>Treat it as the real call. Twelve to twenty minutes.</span></div>
<div class="dstep"><span class="dstep-n">5</span><b>End and read</b><span>The graded read follows. See <a href="/docs/roleplay/reading-your-score">Reading your score</a>.</span></div>
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<figcaption><b>Five steps.</b> Step four is where almost all of the value and all of the failure modes live.</figcaption>
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## The four ways to waste a roleplay

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<div class="dpanel no">
<div class="dpanel-h">Half doing it</div>
<p>Running four minutes to "see what it is like" produces a score computed from four minutes of evidence. It will look bad, and it will not mean anything. Either run it properly or do not run it.</p>
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<div class="dpanel no">
<div class="dpanel-h">Practising the comfortable conversation</div>
<p>Rehearsing the champion call before a first meeting with a CFO is pleasant and useless. Pick the one you are avoiding.</p>
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</div>
<div class="dsplit">
<div class="dpanel no">
<div class="dpanel-h">Playing to the rubric</div>
<p>If you know the scorecard rewards confirming impact, you can say the words without meaning them and score well. You will have trained yourself to pass a roleplay.</p>
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<div class="dpanel no">
<div class="dpanel-h">Re-running immediately</div>
<p>Running it again straight away tends to rehearse the same mistake more fluently. Take the weak criterion to your coach first, then re-run.</p>
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</div>

## What the buyer will do to you

A well-built persona is cooperative enough that the conversation goes somewhere and difficult enough to be worth doing. Expect it to:

- give you a vague answer to a vague question, exactly as a real buyer does
- change the subject when you get near something it does not want to discuss
- withhold a number until you have earned it
- warm up or cool down as the conversation goes on, depending on how you handle it

If you ask a lazy question you get a lazy answer. That is the design, not a limitation.

## Ending it

End the call deliberately rather than closing the tab. The grading runs off the completed conversation, and an abandoned session is not the same thing as a finished one.

## If the buyer will not start

Same cause as a coach call that will not start: microphone permission, and it fails quietly. See [Troubleshooting](/docs/reference/troubleshooting).