7 Tips to Improve Your Prospecting Scripts.
Simple Changes That Can Fill Your Pipeline and Boost Your Personal Sales.
2 examples of what these changes can do immediately are below.
When asked to review/improve a prospecting/appointment setting script my initial recommendation typically includes these “must do’s.”
Read them. Improve your scripts. Sell more stuff.
1. Give them immediate “cause for pause.”
Don’t let them lump you in with all the other morons who call them and waste their time. If they have a need you can fill, tell them, within seconds of “Hello.” You must say something that pauses their fingertip above the hang-up button. Typical intros get you cut off. You lose and the target loses because they never started to listen to you.
2. Use “you” a lot.
Big problem. Your scripts have 2 dozen “I’s” and “We’s” in them. Here is a news flash. They don’t care about you. It is about them. Use “You,” “You,” “You” repeatedly in your pitch. Change your orientation away from yourself and focus on them or what you have done for others like them.
3. Don’t say what everyone else says.
Let me see… you give superior service with competitive pricing and really care about your clients/accounts. I just fell asleep. If you could easily imagine your competitors saying what you say — don’t say it. You won’t break through appointment setting barriers unless you have a different approach.
4. Use a powerful credibility statement.
Why should people believe you or conclude you are worth their time? Tell them. Drop names of well-known accounts, mention a specific result obtained or relate something like ” More than 500 high net worth individuals in the St. Louis area selected us to….”
5. Specifics have impact. Generalizations mean little.
Relating specific results and benefits are very powerful. Specific amounts and percentages of results and benefits get attention and arouse curiosity. Think about specific results obtained for new accounts and how you can work them into your pitch.
6. Ask for what you want.
If you are not crystal clear you won’t get it. If there is any doubt or confusion in their minds — you lose. “I would like to introduce myself… provide you with some options and strategies that have achieved these results for others… would you have some time in the next week or two?”
7. And do all the above in…
less than 30 seconds. No more.
2 quick examples of what happens when you rework your scripts.
Coach client #1: Called me to thank me 2 days after finalizing her new scripts. She said she had just called someone who was in a meeting, but because her script was so clear and short, she got a next step. She never made progress in those situations before. And… she was getting more meetings and referrals to the right decision-makers as people “got it”.
Coach client #2: Telecenter hired me to help with a particularly tough account they were in danger of losing. Bottom line, with a new script approach they reduced the number of hours necessary to book a meeting from 12 to 3.
Best wishes for sales success,
Scott Channell
copyright 2006-2009 scott channell
