The following are seven things that you’ll want to avoid when putting together a cold call sales script:

 

1. Don’t do all of the speaking

The most productive and powerful conversations are two-way conversations where both parties are contributing and engaged. Try doing what you can to create conversations that have this dynamic in which both parties are involved and talking.

It is understood that you’ll speak with many different types of people where some will be more talkative than others and you have no control over that. But you can control how you design your cold call sales script as well as have the script structured to where there are moments when the prospect is prompted to speak and answer questions.

 

2. Don’t share your title

Many salespeople share their title and role in their internal organization in the introduction of their cold call sales script. As an example, someone may say, “And I’m the regional sales manager for distributed application systems.”

The salesperson may take pride in their role, and that title may mean something when they’re speaking with other people in their company, but that information means very little to the prospect, which, in turn, just wastes valuable time during the cold call. In addition, sharing a sales title might create a negative impact because it has the potential to trigger the prospect’s guardedness when they hear you’re a salesperson.

 

3. Don’t talk about your products and services in your introduction

Try avoiding talking too much regarding what you’re selling in your introduction in the cold call sales script. This tends to trigger the prospect’s guardedness. When you’re talking about products and services, they’ll start thinking, “Oh wonderful, another salesperson trying to make me buy something,” and, as a result, they can begin to shut down.

 

4. Don’t forget to discuss the value that you’re offering

Commonly, we leave out of the script the value that we’re offering. When you take product and service details out of your introduction, that gives you a good opening for inserting the value that you have to offer.

 

5. Don’t make your script too lengthy

Be cautious to not make your too lengthy. Realistically, you have between 2 to 5 minutes to work with during the cold call. When you run over that, you’re taking too much of the prospect’s time as well as trying to accomplish too much while on the cold call.

 

6. Don’t go into too much about your products and services

Don’t try to get into too much detail about what your products and services do during your cold call sales script. There is just not enough time to adequately do that, so save that for your first meeting with the prospect.

 

7. Don’t try to sell your products and services

Trying to sell their products and services during the calling script is the most common mistake by salespeople. There’s not enough time to really build interest or close the sale. The focus should be on closing the prospect on continuing to converse beyond the cold call and progress toward a larger conversation or meeting in your cold call sales script.

SalesScripter provides a sales script tool to help sales pros write their cold call sales script.