“Don’t use a cold call script.” That is what some sales professionals say. Are they right? Let’s break that philosophy down to answer that question.
You do not sound good when you read from a script.
There are a couple of reasons why a salesperson might be fairly negative about the concept of using a script. One main reason they feel this way is that they believe that you do not sound good when you read from a sales script.
At this point, they are actually very correct – you do not sound good when you read from a sales script. You sound like a junior-level salesperson, and the prospect will not have much respect for you and will become guarded, thinking, “Uh oh, a salesperson trying to sell me something.”
This is why not reading directly from a script is one of the key steps to take when working from a cold call script. The best way to do this is to be very familiar with the call script so you can use it more as a guide than as something you need to read directly.
I am not a junior-level salesperson.
The other main reason that sales professionals think that they should not use a is that they feel like a call script is something that only junior-level salespeople need and that they are above that from an experience and knowledge level. In this area, this logic is very flawed.
Yes, a junior-level salesperson might benefit more from using a call script. However, a senior-level salesperson still needs to be prepared with the key questions to ask and responses to deliver.
A more experienced salesperson may be able to improvise a little better because they have a foundation of experience to reflect on. However, improvisation still leads to inconsistent results, and this can be immediately improved by simply using a call script.
How to Successfully Use a Cold Call Script
One thing that can greatly improve the results of using a call script is to use more of an outline, rather than paragraph after paragraph. The outline format is easier to memorize, which can reduce the likelihood that the salesperson reads directly from the script during a call.
The other thing to keep in mind is that we all can benefit from a list of key questions to ask. Maybe you do not need a complete script, but for every product or service, there is a defined list of questions to qualify the prospect and extract key information.
Regardless of experience level, having this list of questions on paper as a guide can reduce improvisation, leading to immediate improvements in results.
SalesScripter provides tools to help sales pros build a cold call script.
