Why those who focus on just finding a good script always fail.
Good scripts are not enough.
Good scripts don’t get it done if you aren’t talking to the right people.
Good scripts don’t get it done if you aren’t talking to enough of the right people.
Good scripts don’t get you maximum value for your work if you have no “Plan B” offer to get people touched by you consistently and automatically, even if they won’t meet.
Many people call me looking for “good scripts.” Most of those people never develop a cost-effective prospecting process that consistently leads to closed deals with desired accounts.
Why?
Some examples…
I do a lot of consulting and training for tele-centers. Sometimes I am asked to turn around a troubled campaign. Recently, I did an evaluation to discover that 93% of the people being called were far far outside the profile of a potential good account… and never should have been called in the first place. Plus, there were enough easily identifiable suspects that looked just like the great accounts they currently had and wanted to clone, to keep them busy for eight months.
It doesn’t matter how great your scripts are if you are investing 93% of your calling resources with people who should not be called at all. This “cast the net too wide” syndrome is actually very common. I was on a conference call yesterday discussing what companies to call on a particular campaign when someone uttered the words that guarantee prospecting failure every time…”But we don’t want to cut anyone off the list.” Not too delicately I piped in “That is exactly what we do want to do.”
Deciding the best suspects to call at any particular time also means deciding whom not to call at any particular time. Getting that strategic decision correct is far more important to prospecting success that “good scripts.”
Get that decision right and you can have great success with scripts that are mediocre.
Get that decision wrong and great scripts won’t save you.
2nd example.
Earlier in the week I wrote about a coaching client that closed a $500,000 deal with an account that he had been chasing for years and had always been blown off very quickly. But a few months ago when he called, just before the decision-maker rushed him off the phone, he got permission to put him on his automatic follow-up Plan B email auto-responder system. Weeks later, Mr. Big CALLED HIM to inquire about an email article he had received. A meeting was scheduled, then another, then a $500,000 contract gets signed.
Now my coaching client had great scripts, but that is not what got him this deal. If he didn’t have a Plan B follow-up system, that money would be lining someone else’s pocket.
My point? There are a lot of people working hard at prospecting with good scripts, but if you don’t have a Plan B strategy and method to start touching people regularly who don’t agree to meet right away, you are doing all the hard work but losing out on opportunities that could be yours.
So remember… good scripts aren’t enough.
You need to work a system, an overall process.
Call the right people.
Have a Plan B option.
Best wishes for great selling,
Scott Channell
Copyright 2007-2011 scott channell
