I was talking with a former Sales Scripter customer this week. She mentioned that they no longer needed Sales Scripter because, in her view, sales scripts are really only for new salespeople, and they did not have any new salespeople. She mentioned how she and others on the team have 18-plus years of sales experience, so they really don’t need to use a script.
As she was saying this, I was thinking how strongly I disagreed, but I chose not to get into a philosophical discussion with her or try to change her mind. There are so many reasons why I believe she does not see things correctly, but trying to outline them or change her mind during a quick phone conversation would not have led anywhere.
My response was to let her say what she wanted, and I then canceled her subscription. But here are some of the reasons that I disagree with how she sees things:
Does experience always help someone to know what to say and ask?
Yes, an experienced salesperson may never be at a loss for words when talking with a prospect. They can go on and on about their company and their products. And they usually are good at keeping the conversation going with the prospect.
But this does not mean their sales pitch is good, or that they are asking the right questions, or that they are going down the right talk tracks. I have found myself in conversations with experienced salespeople who would not stop talking about their products and never stopped to ask me questions to learn anything about me or to really determine whether I needed what they were trying to sell.
Yes, it can help a new salesperson who has no idea what to say. However, they can also help an experienced salesperson stay on track with their pitch and questions.
Is what you are saying working?
Do you feel what you are saying is working when you talk with prospects? Are you always able to extract the key information that you need? Are you always able to keep conversations going? Are you able to easily identify the prospect’s problems? Are you able to separate the good prospects from the bad? Are you able to easily close prospects?
If you cannot answer all of those with an extremely confident “Yes,” adding an element of sales scripts could improve your efforts.
Do you know exactly what questions to ask?
You may have 10, 20, or 30 years of sales experience. But do you always know exactly what questions you should ask in all the different prospecting situations you find yourself in?
Whether you realize it or not, there are different pre-qualifying questions that you should ask when talking to different prospects. The questions should change when you change the product you are trying to drive demand for and the type of prospect you are talking to.
I find that the more sales experience someone has, the fewer questions they usually ask when talking with prospects.
We are not completely scripting conversations out. They can be more of a list of key questions to ask in different situations.
Are you able to consistently get around objections and gatekeepers?
There is one guarantee in sales: you will face both gatekeepers and objections when prospecting. These are difficult for salespeople of all levels of experience. Do you feel like you know how to consistently get around them?
The good thing about this area is that you only face a handful of objections and gatekeeper situations consistently. With that being the case, it is fairly easy to stop and think about what responses you need to consistently get around the different roadblocks.
If you try to have all of these different responses in your head and improvise without any type of sales script, you might not always be ready with the right thing to say.
The alternative we suggest is simply to create sales scripts that outline how to respond to gatekeepers and objections. This will help the most experienced salesperson improve their results.
Do you find yourself having difficulty closing deals?
One of the most common areas that experienced salespeople want to improve is being a better closer. This is interesting because they feel like their pitch is fine, but then it is difficult to close.
Closing should actually be the easiest step in your sales cycle. The reason it is not easy is that their pitch is off and they are not saying or asking the right things during the sales process.
Let me give you a quick example. If you improve your ability to ask good pre-qualifying questions, you will do a better job of screening out the bad prospects that don’t fit well. By simply doing this one thing, you will immediately improve your close rate, as it will be easier to close the prospects you pursue because they will fit better.
But if you don’t use any sales script, it can be tough to know exactly which pre-qualifying questions to ask. Yes, an experienced salesperson does not need a script that tells them everything to say. However, a document that simply lists out the key questions to ask can help a salesperson of any level to stay on the right track when talking with prospects.
