We want more than a script

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of sales people around the world use sales scripts. Used properly, sales scripts act as scaffolding or bridgework to earn us the right to have a meaningful discussion with our prospecting customers, members, donors or subscribers. The sales script is a well-constructed set of guidelines that support us when we prospect.

Good sales scripts:

• are purposeful – have a clear reason why you are calling someone;
• use language the customer understands;
• are designed for the benefit of the listener with it always being “the prospects choice” to accept or reject what they hear;
• are brief and allow for questions and conversations;
• aim to achieve a result – an appointment, donation, purchase, feedback, etc;
• are planned not canned – they are flexible, allowing the sales person to adapt to the different needs or queries of the prospect while maintaining the integrity of the calls purpose;
• leave the prospect feeling valued and informed, even if they choose not to proceed with you in this instance; and,
• are pleasant, respectful and engaging.

However, too many organisations push sales scripting too far, creating word-for-word scripts that end up being stilted and clumsy at best and one-sided and ineffectual at worst.

We had an experience recently with a telecommunications firm whose telephone sales and service people seemed unable to deviate from a scripted response, as the responses they gave us had nothing to do with our issue. The impression this gave us was that our issue wasn’t even heard let alone acted upon – it didn’t fit their script. The number of times we had to request information to check that our matter would be dealt with made the whole experience cumbersome, time consuming and very frustrating. We ended up doing all the work, while the telephone sales and service person simply read from a script, which, as it turns out, could not account for our matter in its design.

Sales scripts are not meant to be regurgitated word for word with no deviation, nor are they meant to be a one-sided affair. This type of approach is called ‘canned’ scripting. You would think that in this day and age we would have ditched these ‘canned scripts’ but they still happen.

The Cluetrain Manifesto (a resulting force that rose out of the discontentment people experience with businesses and how they fail to communicate with people) really nails it when it says:

“Learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about ‘listening to customers’. They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf. While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happy talk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it.”

Building on this and taking the canned script one step further, some companies and political parties have even ditched the live person on the other end of the phone and opted for a recording instead. And this is supposed to engage us? This is free-to-air television advertising or junk mail in disguise. At least with television we can choose what we watch and we can put a ‘no junk mail’ sign on our letter box but getting ‘canned’ advertising over the phone takes the cake in my opinion. Yes, there is the ‘do not call’ register which you can sign up to, however resorting to ‘recorded messages’ is lazy and only serves to create more angst in the already heated area of telemarketing.

If done properly, telephone sales are a very effective way of getting in contact with legitimate prospects. But when scripting removes the ability to genuinely listen and respond to a customer, we all suffer.

If you want to create positive and memorable experiences for your customers, members, donors or subscribers then seek to engage with them in a meaningful way. Don’t force your sales people to be rooted to the spot and limited by a one-size-fits all script. Trust your team to engage with people in meaningful ways by giving them the guidelines and tools they need to communicate effectively with the wide variety of people they encounter on a daily basis. The autonomy this gives your people puts back interest and challenge in the task of making effective prospecting calls and in the process might make the customers, members, donors or subscribers’ experience that much better.

Remember, everybody lives by selling something.

Sue Barrett practices as a coach, advisor, speaker, facilitator, consultant and writer and works across all market segments with her skilful team at BARRETT. Sue and her team take the guess work out of selling and help people from many different careers become aware of their sales capabilities and enable them to take the steps to becoming effective and productive when it comes to selling, sales coaching or sales leadership.To hone your sales skills or learn how to sell go to www.barrett.com.au.