Hal Becker's Ultimate Sales Book: A Revolutionary Training Manual Guaranteed to Improve Your Skills and Inflate Your Net Worth by Hal Becker & Nancy Traum

Author:Hal Becker & Nancy Traum [Becker, Hal]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Career Press
Published: 2012-09-20T14:00:00+00:00

LESSON 27

Why Scripts Don’t Work

I am still amazed that companies continue to train their salespeople to use scripts when making telephone sales. Scripts have almost never worked and almost never will. The very modest success you may have achieved with scripts is nothing compared to what you would have found using a finely tuned questionnaire.

When I say “scripts,” I am talking about the rigid text on a piece of paper or computer screen that tells the salesperson what to say, what to offer, who her company is, and so on. People can spot this one-sided type of conversation, and have never wanted it and never will. Who wants to listen to someone read from a script? Script selling isn’t old school or new school; it’s just wrong!

Here’s an example of the type of ineffective telephone sales call that some companies actually think works. This type of call is made by small companies as well as large Fortune 100 companies that continue to use it as part of their sales tactics. This example actually happened to one of my friends, a national training director for one of the largest jewelry store chains in the United States.

He received a call, the voice saying, “Hello, my name is Debbie, and I am from ABC Chimney Sweep Company, and we have a special today. It is only $35, and we come out to clean your chimney, oil the parts inside, put a screen on top of your chimney to protect you from birds or squirrels coming inside your house, and we will give you a total inspection for only $35.”

My friend Marv said, “Hey, that sounds great, but what kind of special do you have for me if I don’t have a chimney?” Pretty funny, huh? Instead, the call should have gone like this. “Hello, my name is Debbie and I am from ABC Chimney Sweep Company and I would like to ask you two or three quick questions and it will not take more than 45 seconds, I promise!”

Marv says, “Sure, okay.” Debbie now asks, “Do you have a chimney?” If Marv answers yes, the next question would be, “When was the last time you had it cleaned?” If the answers warrant additional conversation, Debbie could then describe the special she can offer.

The best conversations are two-way, not one-sided. Get the customer to talk by asking questions and getting information from him or her. That is how to sell. People don’t want to be sold to or forced into buying; they want to be helped and to feel they are getting something that is either of value or makes them better.

Believe it or not, most companies sell incorrectly over the phone. They think what they are doing is right, but it isn’t. Most of the managers who set up these scripts aren’t well trained in the science of sales to begin with. They think that they are until you ask the manager what books on sales he or she has read lately, or what courses have they taken during the last year.

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