5 Tips for Polishing Your Script

There are two kinds of folks who sell by telephone (1) Those that deliberately use scripts and respect their functionality, and (2) Those that use scripts, but unconsciously. They are unaware of the fact that we unknowingly repeat phrases and terms that seem to be working for us when setting appointments, qualifying prospects, and closing sales by phone. This article is dedicated to the first group, to those of you who purposely employ a script and who are relentlessly pursuing ways to perfect it. Here are five overarching tips that should serve you well in polishing your selling scripts, according to this top trainer, keynote speaker, and best-selling author of such telemarking classics as YOU CAN SELL ANYTHING BY TELEPHONE! and REACH OUT & SELL SOMEONE (R), and the popular audio seminars, THE NEW TELEMARKETING and THE LAW OF LARGE NUMBERS.

There are two kinds of folks who sell by telephone: (1) Those that deliberately use scripts and respect their functionality, and (2) Those that use scripts, but unconsciously. They are unaware of the fact that we unknowingly repeat phrases and terms that seem to be working for us when setting appointments, qualifying prospects, and closing sales by phone. This article is dedicated to the first group, to those of you who purposely employ a script and who are relentlessly pursuing ways to perfect it.

While I can, and actually have written entire articles about the impact of using a single word in a script, let me give you five overarching tips that should serve you well:

(1) I review and polish scripts for a living, so with that in mind, when I ask clients to email me theirs, typically I receive a sheet of paper that is aimed at selling a decision maker. That?s fine, but if you?re doing business-to-business telemarketing, you need to script what you say to (a) Penetrate call screening and (b) Deal with voice mail. As I say in my audio and video training programs, if you can?t sell your way past the first barrier, you won?t get a chance to pitch the decision maker. So, begin at the beginning, by developing a great script for getting past call screening and voice mail. (If you don?t have one, I do. Contact me.)

(2) Nice doesn?t sell, and despite the title of a recent book, a book for wimps by the way, ?the power of nice? is overestimated. In phone calls AUTHORITY SELLS. You don?t get points by sounding like a weasel, using weasel words and phrases, such as: ?Is this a good time to talk?? That?s like inviting a stranger to KICK ME NOW! I clicked on some Johnny-come-lately phone guru?s blog and this is exactly what he recommends. Never ask permission to sell someone, and forget about that fairy tale called ?permission marketing.? The only approval you need is when you ask them to buy or to agree to a meeting. Just sell them!

(3) Don?t wait for prospects to close themselves. You need to take the lead and to use a close line, such as: ?So, let?s get together on Friday, and we?ll take it from there, Okay?? That?s a close. ?So, I?ll send this widget out to you right away and I?m sure you?ll find it useful, Okay?? That?s another close. Write them into your script!

(4) Write out answers to objections. Don?t rely on instincts or your phenomenal improvisational capabilities. Which objections should you prepare? Start with the perennials: no time to talk, no interest, using a competitor, no need, no authority to buy, and send me some information.

(5) Test your presentation for the proper amount of FORMALITY. We live in increasingly informal times, so striking a casual pose should work much of the time. But you can sound too ?homey? if you?re phoning university officials as I do to set up my seminar programs. They expect to hear a certain amount of distinction, polish, and reserve when I communicate. In a word, they expect to hear a Ph.D. communicating with them, and I need to demonstrate I didn?t buy my degree. If my next call is to a tractor distributor, and yes I have one as a client, I had better sound more like a regular, unpretentious guy.

Is your script polished and working as well as it should?

That?s a hard question to answer.

You might want to reach out to have someone review your script to accentuate its strengths and to shore up any weaknesses.

If you just make one more sale that you would otherwise miss, the exercise will more than pay for itself.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top trainer, conference and convention speaker, and sales, customer service, and negotiation consultant. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is also the best-selling author of 12 books, more than 1,000 articles and several popular audio and video programs. His seminars are sponsored internationally and he is a faculty member at more than 40 universities, including UC Berkeley and UCLA. Gary brings over two decades of sales, management and consulting experience to the table, with impressive academic credentials: A Ph.D. from USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a J.D. degree from Loyola Law School, his clients include several Fortune 1000 companies..

His web site is: http://www.customersatisfaction.com and he can be reached at: [e-mail]. His blogs include: YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS! and ALWAYS COLD CALL! at: http://www.alwayscoldcall.blogspot.com