The following is a short list of what you should and shouldn’t do when using phone call scripts.
Use some type of phone script.
You’re likely to see more benefits than when not using a script by improving your preparation, by having a script. Also, you’re likely to make a better impression, get more out of each sales call, end up with longer conversations, and generate more leads.
Don’t make the phone script long.
You’ll have challenges with using a sales script that is a full page of one paragraph after another. A script like that can be designed so you do most of the talking. Setting up the call so the prospect does most of the talking is one way to improve sales calls. This helps you extract more information and get the prospect more involved in the conversation.
Another challenge is that this type of phone script can be tough to embrace and learn. Does anyone really want to memorize a long page of things to say? Salespeople will either skip using a script or revert to reading it directly during prospecting calls, making these types more difficult to incorporate. Neither are good outcomes.
Use more of an outline.
Alternatively, when using a call script, you can build it so that it’s more of an outline than a page of paragraph after paragraph. Key goals, statements, and questions to cover during a prospecting call can be listed in a call outline.
The key benefits of this type of structure are that it can be easier to learn and use. Memorizing a list of paragraphs is much harder than learning an outline. Also, it’s easier to use on a call because it’s more flexible, allowing the salesperson to move to different parts of the outline as the call takes unexpected directions.
Do not read your phone call scripts.
Many people view sales scripts negatively. Part of that is driven by the picture of a salesperson reading a sales script word-for-word while on the phone.
Reading from phone call scripts gives off a very negative and amateurish impression, which makes this perception correct. The correct way to use a phone script is to use it as a tool to prepare for the sales call, as a guide, and to be prepared enough so that we don’t need to read it directly.
Focus your script on the prospect.
Commonly, salespeople write scripts that highlight all the great things their products can do. You should design your calls so that 80% of the call is on the prospect and only 20% is on you when phone prospecting. Including many questions in your phone script is key to achieving this balance.
SalesScripter provides a call script tool that helps sales pros build phone call scripts.
