It can often be the difference between success and failure for a salesperson when determining how to write a phone script. The following are a few do’s and don’ts to assist with that.

Do: Script out some of the questions and statements ahead of time that you want to make when you reach the prospect. This helps ensure you get the most out of each interaction as well as makes you come across as more prepared and polished.

Don’t: Don’t create a script that includes every word you plan to say and read from your script when on the phone. It is helpful working from a script, but you don’t want to read directly from it because it makes you sound like a junior-level salesperson, which can have a negative impact on the impression you make.

Do: Plan ahead before the call by performing research and gathering some details on the target contact, their company, products, industry, etc. When determining how to write a phone script, it can help you tailor your script to your prospect.

Don’t: Do your best not to make calls without any knowledge regarding what the prospect does. It might be tough when there is a long list of prospects to call. Try to at least visit the prospect’s website so that you understand what they do.

Do: While working on how to write a phone script, attempt adding some qualifying questions, which are questions that screen the good prospects from bad.

Don’t: Don’t attempt selling to everybody. You could spend your valuable time with low-quality prospects when your phone script doesn’t screen the prospect.

Do: Try including questions and statements in your script that help uncover pain that the prospect is experiencing. Knowing the pain you fix and having those examples in your sales script is a great way of doing this.

Don’t: Don’t sell to prospects who don’t have pain. There is no reason to change when there isn’t pain.

Do: Instead of talking about you and your products, try focusing more on the prospect when figuring out how to write a phone script. Do this by focusing on the pain that they’re experiencing and how your value assists them.

Don’t: Getting in-depth with details about your products too soon in a call or in a sales process should be avoided. The prospect has no valid reason to listen to you or be interested in what you’re saying if you haven’t triggered interest or found pain.

Do: Instead of one long paragraph after the next, use an outline structure for your script. This makes it easier to learn your script and makes it more flexible where directions can be changed, and you can move from one section to the next instead of having to go straight through it.

SalesScripter provides a phone script generator, and this can help with how to write a phone script.