Don’t use a cold call script….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 that you can use it more as a guide and not something that you need to read directly from.
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 is something that can immediately be 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 script in place of paragraph after paragraph. The outline format is a structure that is easier to memorize, and this can reduce the likelihood of the salesperson reading directly from the script while on 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 that should be asked to qualify the prospect and extract key information.
Regardless of the level of experience, having this list of questions on a piece of paper to use as a guide can decrease the amount of improvisation, and that will lead to an immediate improvement in results.
SalesScripter provides tools to help sales pros build a cold call script.