there are those who believe that you absolutely must follow a script. Having written several books on phone scripts, you can imagine I subscribe to this group. Some of the reasons I believe you should follow a script are:
● Following a script actually makes you sound more professional.
● Using a carefully constructed script allows you to follow best‐practice sales techniques that have been proven to work over time.
● Following a script ensures that you ask all the right qualifying questions.
● Scripts make your job easier because you know where you've been and where you're going.
● Scripts allow you to truly listen to what your prospect is really saying.
● Having a script to follow gives you confidence and control over the sales process.
● Following a scripted sales approach allows you to practice perfection on every call.
Each of these reasons for following a scripted sales approach powerfully affects each stage of your sales process, and any one of them can make or break a sale. The real argument I present to those who insist on not using scripts is this: whether you know it or not, you already are following a script!
Think about it: If I were to record all your calls for a week and then transcribe them and hand that transcription back to you, isn't it true that what I would be giving you was your own “script”? Isn't it true that you are saying the same things, over and over again, each time you get a question, objection, or blow‐off? Sure you are!
You see, right now everyone is already using a script of some kind, but the problem with most of them is that they were developed in the heat of the sale, on the fly, while they were taking “incoming” from a prospect or client. Most of the responses sales reps use were thought up on the spot and in response to (and often in defense to) some type of difficult sales situation.
Just think about how you, or your sales team, habitually respond to blow‐offs like, “What is this call in regard to?” or “We wouldn't be interested,” or “Just email me something.” Chances are, you are using the same old ineffective responses that just cause you frustration and phone reluctance.
One of the biggest benefits to using professionally prepared scripts, however, is that you can design the most effective response in advance, and then deliver your lines like a professional. I often like to cite Marlon Perkins from the old TV show, “Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom,” when making this point.
As some of you may remember, his associate, Jim, was always out in the field “wrestling with the alligators,” while Marlon was reporting from the “safety and comfort of the Land Rover.” I always remember Marlon taking a sip of iced tea and thinking, “When I grow up, I want to be Marlon and not Jim.”
In sales, it's the same thing. If you are not following a prepared and effective approach, then each time your prospect answers, you are suddenly like Jim, “wrestling with the alligators.” If you take the time, however, in the safety and comfort of the conference room, to craft out the best responses, statements, and questions to the selling situations you run into day after day, then you can calmly and coolly deal with all those situations successfully. And even take a sip of iced tea in between responses!
Here is one of the most important things to remember about sales: 80 percent of the brush‐offs, the objections and the selling situations you get, day in and day out, are exactly the same. There is very little new in sales. Three thousand years ago in the open markets in Egypt, when a seller told a buyer the price of something, the buyer probably said, “The price is too high!” Sound familiar? Eighty percent of the selling situations you face today are the same ones you faced yesterday, last month, and they are the same ones you will get next week and next summer.
I cannot stress enough how important this concept is in sales. It gives you, the sales professional, a huge advantage if you take the time to capitalize on it. Unfortunately, the majority of sales reps and companies never leverage this fact, but the Top 20 Percent of sales producers do take advantage of this by taking the time to script out proven and effective responses to these objections so they are prepared in advance to succeed. Then, when they get the same old objections or stalls, they know exactly how to handle them. They understand the importance of taking the time to drill, practice, and rehearse effective responses so they can deliver their scripts in a natural and professional tone and at an optimal pace. That is why top producers sound so smooth and professional, and why they make sales seem easy. Because they have taken the time to internalize their best‐practice scripts, top performers deliver their responses naturally, and they automatically know exactly what to say and when to say it.
And just a word about practice. Did you notice I didn't say they “read their scripts”? Every professional – whether an actor, musician, dancer, or athlete – spends hours and hours learning their craft and practicing their techniques so that when it's time to perform, they do it automatically. All those concerts you see performed by large orchestras and dance routines that seem easy and effortless are all the results of hundreds of hours of careful practice. Don Shula, the Super Bowl–winning coach of the Miami Dolphins, talks about how his players practice every day until their assignments and techniques become automatic. He said, “Overlearning means that the players are so prepared for a game that they have the skill and confidence needed to make the big play.”
It is the same with any sales professional. If you need to think about how to respond to a question, a blow‐off, an objection, or a stall, then it's already too late. If you have scripted out the best approach or response and memorized it, however, then you will have the skill and confidence to handle those situations like a top producer. This is what empowers you to be successful, and it is what separates you from the other 80 percent who are struggling and making things up as they go along.
So, should you learn and use best‐practice, real‐world responses that give you the greatest chance to succeed in the selling situations you get into day after day? Or should you continue to make things up as you go along, hoping that what you say will occasionally work? The answer to that question will determine whether or not you choose to learn and use scripts, and how successful – or unsuccessful – you will be in your career.
Speaking of scripts, if you have not yet read, practiced, and perfected the core inside sales scripts in my original, bestselling book The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts, you will benefit even more from those essential scripts. In The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts, you will find over 200 scripts that give you and your sales team proven and effective ways to easily deal with gatekeepers, get through to more decision makers, overcome objections, and close more sales. The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts lays the groundwork for selling over the phone and provides the fundamental scripts you need to be successful. Combined with the advanced and additional scripts and strategies you will find here in Power Phone Scripts, you and your sales team will have all the scripts and phone techniques you will ever need to completely turn your sales results around and transform your career, your life, and your company. Get The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts here: http://mrinsidesales.com/ultimatescripts.htm.
One last word about investing in yourself, your company, and your success. If you are a business owner or sales manager and you want the quickest lift from an investment in your sales team, then do this: buy each member of your sales team a copy of both Ultimate Books, and task them with studying, adapting, and incorporating these proven scripts into their sales presentations. Have your sales manager conduct sales meetings to teach these proven scripts and concepts, and watch your sales and revenues begin to take off.
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