Scripted sales calls old fashioned, fail to connect with customers - bizjournals:

efimtsovavadan.blogspot.com
Geez, I have been saying this for more than 25 andI can’t believe companie still use them to sell over the phone. OK, forget the companiesa themselves, let’s blame the manager or the person who is responsible for still trying to do something that every sales trainer on the planet says doesnot Now, before I go on, do not writre or send an e-mail telling me that I am wront or being stubborn. Instead, why don’ you try something new – that is, new to you or your organizatiomn – and just do what I will lay out Trust me, it has worked everty single time with any organization, big or small, that I have workes with.
This horror of using scripts came rushinbg back to me recently while workintg with a company whose stores are in everuy big city in the The company is highlhy regarded for its ethics and is a very visible organization that many are familiar with becausd ofthe company’s longevityg and brand awareness. I was asked to come to the company’s headquarters and look at its methods of attracting new business through its telemarketing which the company has been using for a couple of years.
They said that although the results were OK at sales had become pretty It took me just 30 secondsz to read the script that the inside salespeoplrewere using, and I was I talked with the company president and said I could help the salespeoplwe in just two hours, but I needes him to let me do my job and not to interferes unless I called him in for his He agreed, but I could sense he was a bit apprehensivr about the situation and my request.
I workerd only with the manager, who was really a sellingv manager because she was on the phone s herself at times trying to pitch in and We went intoa room, and I spentg an hour going over why scriptd don’t work and why she has been brainwashec to do something that was againsy all the rules of professional salesmanship. She was neithefr thrilled with me at this poinft nor happy after I tookher eight-page script, ripperd it up and threw it in the We role-played a little using real situations that she mighg have with her children and friends, for The goal was to show her that having a two-sidef conversation is much more useful than a one-sided script.
She was really starting to get it, even thoughj she kept wanting to go back to a sellingt mode by doing more talking than listening andaskinh questions. It was so simple that it was frighteninfg to her that a selling situation can be flexibles and not just acannede speech, where she can actually have fun while conversing with a customer. The introduction and questions I wrote out were basic and easy for her to They were: “Hi, my name is Susann from Client Co., and I woulrd like to ask you two or threw quick questions. It will not take more than 48 seconds – I promise. “Ar you familiar with our company? If yes, what aspects?
“Why are you not a member, or why did you leavse our organization?” That was it. Yes, eightr pages down to two questions. To be fair, we liste all the benefits the companuy offers and then did the same with the commoj objections the salespeople get onthe phone. Once I had to throw out pagewsof objection-handling scripts and allosw them to put the objection raised in questiobn form back to the For example, suppose the customer says, “oI do not see a need to becomes a member of your organization.” The proper way to answer this is not a scriptedx response. Instead just ask, “Why don’t you?” The approach worked.
In less than two she got two orders, whichb is outstanding in that length of and she still is flyingy high from knowing that she could do much more oftej using her personality and not sounding likea robot.