One of the most difficult concepts to teach new sales profession- als is the need for a script when they pick up the phone to make a prospecting call. For some reason, scripting carries a negative connotation. Yet, to me, scripting is synonymous with prepara- tion.
I often draw a comparison between professional sales and the Olympic Games. The Olympics represents athletics at the highest level, and that is what we should always strive for as professional sales people. To continue the analogy, there are three Olympic events in sales: making a new business prospect- ing call, holding a discovery sales meeting with your customer, and negotiating the close of the sale. Like an Olympic athlete who has prepared for many years for that Olympic event, you too must prepare for your sales events.
Making a prospecting call is not easy. I can tell you that from experience, and I can also tell you that by virtue of having ob- served clients try to make these calls during coaching sessions that we run. When you talk about the key elements of a prospect- ing script, every student in the class nods at the instructor, not- ing that they understand the concept and the rationale. Yet, when asked to make a real prospecting call, in the privacy of a closed office, even the most senior, seasoned sales professionals are often brought to their knees.
Many sales professionals know what to do, but the words just don’t seem to come out of their mouths. In the rare instance
that a seller can muster the courage to make a call, his or her words might come out like those in Figure 4.1.
FIGURE 4.1 A General Prospecting Script
Hello, Bob.
This is Paul Goldner of the Sales & Performance Group. I am the new account manager on your account and I wanted to come by your office to meet and introduce myself.
Also, I wanted to make sure you are up to date on the new products and services we have recently brought to market.
Please give me a call at XXX-XXX-XXXX.
The script in Figure 4.1 might not look all that bad—until you compare it to the script we propose you use, as shown in Figure 4.2.
I have stated unequivocally that there are better prospects
FIGURE 4.2 Illustration of a Model Prospecting Script
Bob Jones, please. [pause]
Hello Bob. This is Paul Goldner of the Sales & Performance Group. How are you today? [response]
Great! One of the chief concerns we are hearing from others in your position is the need to improve sales and sales margins while minimizing the opportunity cost of taking sales people out of the field. Is this the same issue impacting your business or are there other more pressing concerns? [Mr. Jones responds.]
Great! We have been very successful in helping companies like yours overcome issues very similar to these. What I would like to do is ask you a few more questions to better understand your needs and to help develop the best solution for you? Do you mind if I ask you these questions now?
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and there are less impactful prospects. In a similar fashion, there are better prospecting scripts and less impactful prospect- ing scripts. Figure 4.2 has the key elements for having an impact and so the figure serves as a model script.
A Nice Greeting
The first major element is the question, ‘‘How are you today?’’ This is much more than a nice question. It gets the prospect to join in your call. This happens to be the question I use, but you can ask a similar question at this point. The key is to ask a ques- tion that gets the prospect to speak. Once the prospect responds, almost no matter what is said, your prospecting call becomes quite a bit warmer, owing simply to the fact that the prospect is now part of a two-way conversation.
As I mentioned, ‘‘How are you today?’’ is the question I have used successfully for many years. However, when I make this recommendation in my seminars, I often meet resistance from
FIGURE 4.3 A Prospecting Script for Telesales
Bob Jones, please. [pause]
Hello Bob. This is Paul Goldner of the Sales & Performance Group. How are you today? [response]
Great! One of the chief concerns we are hearing from others in your position is the need to improve sales and sales margins while minimizing the opportunity cost of taking sales people out of the field. Is this the same issue impacting your business or are there other more pressing concerns? [Mr. Jones responds.]
Great! We have been very successful in helping companies like yours overcome issues very similar to these. What I would like to do is ask you a few more questions to better understand your needs and to help develop the best solution for you. Do you mind if I ask you these questions now?
those who feel it is not professional enough. As a result, I offer an alternative: ‘‘Our records show that you are the Vice President of Sales at your company. I just wanted to confirm that this is your actual title.’’ Using this question, you not only get the pros- pect to speak but confirm an important piece of information.
While I agree that the latter question allows you to achieve two objectives instead of one, I believe that the former fits better into the flow of a prospecting call. After all, the most important objective in making a prospecting call is to get to the sales discov- ery process going. Note, however, that if you do not begin with a trivial question, the remainder of your call will be difficult.
The Business Issue
The second major element in a prospecting script is the busi- ness issue. In Figure 4.2 (the model prospecting sample script), the business issue is presented as follows: ‘‘One of the chief concerns we are hearing from others in your position is the need to improve sales and sales margins while minimizing the oppor- tunity cost of taking sales people out of the field.’’ This is in stark contrast to stating that you are ‘‘the new account manager in the prospect’s region and want to stop by the office to introduce yourself.’’
There are several major points here. First, when you tell the prospect that you want to have a meeting to introduce yourself, there is no value in that statement for the prospect. You are not giving the prospect a compelling reason to meet with you. On the other hand, by telling the prospect that ‘‘one of the chief concerns we are hearing from others in your position’’ implies that you have some valuable information for the prospect. In- deed, one of the most powerful tools you have as a sales profes- sional is your familiarity with what others are doing in the
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market. The prospect clearly has a good view of what is going on in his or her own company, but cannot possibly have the same view of the market as does a sales professional. By sharing mar- ket trends with the prospect, you are adding value to the sales process.
Taking this one step further is the business issue itself. You are telling the potential customer that you can help them with a significant concern that has a high potential for impacting their business in a positive manner. Your ability to differentiate your- self during the sales process is very important. If you cannot differentiate yourself in a competitive market, you are likely doomed to compete on price alone. And competing on price is perhaps the worst basis because there is always someone who can provide the same product or service cheaper. So, by intro- ducing a business concern early on in your script, you provide the prospect with a compelling reason to act, as well as differen- tiate yourself from other sellers in the market. Your competition probably is using the script in Figure 4.1, not the script in Figure 4.2!
Sometimes we have gone so far as to compare the effective- ness of a script like the one in Figure 4.1 to that of one in Figure 4.2. There is really no comparison. The Figure 4.2 script typi- cally yields a 25 percent call-to-meeting ratio. Using a script like the one in Figure 4.1 diminishes the effectiveness of your com- pleted call-to-meeting ratio to as little as 10 percent, possibly even lower. If you return to your prospecting business plan pre- sented in Chapter 1, you will see the material impact this will have on your sales results.
The Open-Ended Follow-Up Question
The third major element in a good prospecting script is a larger, open-ended question that follows the business issue. The ques-
tion that we recommend is, ‘‘Is this the same issue impacting your business or are there other more pressing concerns?’’ The exact wording is not significant here—it is the question itself that is important.
When you pose the business-issue question in your script, you cannot possibly know if this matter is relevant to the person you are calling. The best you can do is research your prospects and pose what you believe to be a valid question, given the cur- rent market environment. It should go without saying that the business issue should be something you can resolve with your company’s product. If not, you will have little to sell at the end of the sales process. But because you cannot possibly know whether the business issue is relevant to this specific call, the follow-up question, ‘‘Is this the issue impacting your business or are there other more pressing concerns?’’ is extremely impor- tant.
First, this follow-up question gets the customer talking again. In sales, the customer should always do most of the talk- ing. I like to recommend that 80 percent of the time with the customer, it is the customer who is doing the talking. You should be listening and taking notes. This leaves you 20 percent of the time to speak, and most of that time should be devoted to additional questions that encourage the customer to talk even more.
Second, it doesn’t really matter how the prospect answers this question. If the prospect acknowledges that the business issue you posed is in fact a concern, you are well on your way to a sales discovery meeting. On the other hand, if the business issue is not a concern for the prospect, his or her answer will tell you what is of concern. Either way, you are well on your way to achieving your objective—a sales discovery meeting.
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Closing the Prospecting Call
The fourth major element of your prospecting script is the close. When you are prospecting, the close is your getting to the sales discovery meeting. If you are in field sales, you do this by using the last two sentences in Figure 4.2. If you are in telesales, you can use the script in Figure 4.3.
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In conclusion, the words you use in your script ought to be your own. The words that appear in these scripts are what I use and may not be appropriate for your product or situation, your cul- ture, or your personality. To review, the major elements are:
1. Ask a trivial question at the start of your script to get the prospect speaking and be engaged in your conversation. 2. Pose a business issue of likely concern to judge the rele-
vance of your approach.
3. Ask a clarifying, opened-ended question to either con- firm the issue or discover alternative concerns.
4. Go for the close, which is to get to the sales discovery phase, either a face-to-face meeting or on the phone.