Cold Calling Scripts - Shocking Secrets for Success

There is a great cold calling scripts debate in the sales community. One group argues scripts make callers sound canned. The other side says if you don't know where you are going you are likely to get there and your script is the roadmap.

The anti-scripts camp does not want to sound like the telemarketer who calls during dinner, garbles your name, identifies him or herself with a rush of words that makes you go, huh?

The script-camp does not want to sound like a telemarketer either. Truth be known even telemarketers do not want to sound like they do. However, advocates of cold calling scripts argue if you fail to plan then in essence you are planning to fail.

What is a cold caller to do?

Know that a good script is vital to getting in to see prospects face-to-face. Why are cold calling scripts important? Because, successful cold calls come from successful habits. Find a pattern of presentation that works. Use that pattern for more success. When you do not feel like being on the phone, count on your script to bring success again and again.

Sure, a newbie may enjoy a short stint of beginner's luck. Excitement fueled by adrenaline associated with tackling a new tactic could transfer across the phone and get you invited in for a sales call. But, living on adrenaline can kill you. Do not count on that for the long haul. Do craft a few great scripts.

If you are worried about sounding more like a telemarketer than a sales professional calling about a valuable service know this, even the best script on the planet can be made to sound lousy. Do not knock the script. Odds are the problem is in your delivery. Do practice your delivery.

Did you know that the funniest comedians are tightly, tightly scripted? When on stage, a comedian may appear to be spontaneously shining the head of a bald guy and cracking a joke that keeps the audience in stitches. The joke appears to be effortless. But, that appearance is far from the truth. Behind the scenes that professional has spent hours and hours fine tuning the scripting and rehearsing his delivery so he sounds spontaneous. Before he goes live before a television audience, even Jay Leno, practices his script and delivery in front of a small live audience.

Successful cold callers do the same work as successful comedians. Craft every word and rehearse delivery. Do you realize at one time or another all cold callers make calls that fail? From that pool the callers who succeed work on scripting and delivering. They know the trick is to fail less often. Those who continue to fail do so only because they continue to use the scripts and delivery that bring failure.

At first the work required to develop and deliver scripts will feel awkward and difficult. That is normal. Expect it. Adult learning feels strange until you figure out the words that bring. Yes, count on fumbling around at first. Then, count on continued fine-tuning of your script and practice of your delivery to make your cold calling success appear effortless.

Leslie Buterin shares more cold calling scripts and more information on effective cold calling techniques on her site at Cold-Calling-Top-Dogs.com

Scripts Don't Sell But People Do!

If I had fifty bucks for every time someone has asked me to write a telemarketing script, I'd be wealthier than Bill Gates.

Ok, maybe not that wealthy.

I would think that readers of my best-selling books, You Can Sell Anything By Telephone! and Reach Out & Sell Someone®, could do it for themselves; at least a rough draft.

Anyway, what I've told these script seekers is scripts are next to worthless, if you don't know how to bring them to life. You need instruction in how to use them.

Today, I trained a telemarketer at one of my coaching clients' sites, and he is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. He's a typical READER.

What I mean by this is he sounds flat, bored, canned, and robotic. Isn't this how most of us sounded in English classes when we were forced to recite poems that we had to memorize?

(Longfellow may have been a great poet, but that experience taught me to hate the word, daffodils, ever since!)

My point is this: three things need to come together for a script to succeed:

(1) Text

(2) Tone &

(3) Timing.

I call this, no surprise here, The Three T's.

Leave out one T, and your script fails.

Of course the fourth T, the one that gets the other three into action, stands for Training.

People need training in precisely how to use a script, and this includes specific instruction in where and how long to pause. Hint: It's NOT at the punctuation marks!

You could have a wonderful script, but without the training in delivery it can fail, miserably; while excellent training with a mediocre script can support at least passable success.

So, please don't overvalue words on a page or a computer screen. In the final analysis, they do not and cannot sell for us; only we can!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Tele-Sales 4 Reasons to Hate Scripts and 5 Reasons to Love Them

To borrow from Shakespeare: to script or not to script, that is the question.

In the world of B to B tele-sales, minor wars have been raged on whether or not to script the call. There are those who love scripts and they have some compelling arguments to support their claim. Others would rather chew off a body part than script a call and they have some rather convincing reasons in their favor.

The truth is scripts can work for and against you. Knowing how and when to use them or avoid them is the key to better sales results. Regardless of where you sit on the scripting fence, here is a definitive look at scripts and the ultimate solution to help you maximize your calling opportunities.

The Case Against the Script

1. Scripts Lack Flexibility

Because scripts are highly structured, it assumes your client based is a homogenous mass that thinks, acts and responds in the same manner. You know and I know that just isn't true. Certainly in a B to B setting, a script tends to lack the flexibility that is needed in a client dialog. A sales rep has to be able to react and respond to the client depending on the situation and circumstances. Scripts don't allow that and that severely limits their effectiveness.

2. Scripts Sound Canned

For the most part, scripts tend to sound 'canned:' awkward, stiff, stilted, insincere, mechanical, belabored, rote, bored, lacking conviction and the list goes on. Unless your sales rep is a particularly good actor who can call effectively delivery his lines, the script rarely comes off as natural. Your clients pick this up immediately. They don't have the time or the inclination to suffer through a droning pitch. Put more simply, prospect know when a script is being read and don't like it. And rarely do they buy.

3. Scripts Burns Out Reps

Look at a script from your sales rep's perspective. In fact, why not give it a try yourself. Recite a script thirty or forty times a day, five days a week and four weeks a month and you'll clearly understand the impact it has on your rep. Mind numbing repetition will frustrate your reps in record time which leads to burnout which leads to turnover. And that costs you money.

4. Scripts Create Dependency

Once a script is in place and up and running, sales reps become hooked or dependent on them. It becomes difficult if not impossible for them to think out of the box when the client doesn't follow the script you've set. They recite; they don't think. Of course what this really means is that you can and will lose selling opportunities.

The Case for a Script

1. Scripts Creates Consistency

A script ensures that "everyone is singing from the same hymn book." In turn, consistency helps ensure call quality. This gives you peace of mind that your client base is hearing the same thing from all reps all of the time.

2. Scripts Shortens the Learning Curve

A script is easy to learn. Plunk it down on paper and you have a training document. In short order, your rep can be on the phone making calls and making money.

3. Scripts Reduce Call Lengths and Increases Productivity

A well written script gets rid of useless clutter that often accompanies a sales call. Because it is focused and structured, it gets to the point more quickly; messages are more succinct and better understood. This efficiency can carve seconds or even minutes off a call. Multiple those by the volume of calls and the number of reps and you have economies of scale.

4. Scripts Provides a Standard for Coaching

But perhaps one of the most significant benefits of a script is that it creates a standard by which a manager can coach. A standard is specific way something should be said or delivered. If a rep knows precisely what is expected, it becomes easier to support it through coaching and coaching is the key to sustained sales results.

5. Scripts Allows Testing

Finally, one of the strongest features of scripting is that it allows you to test various components of a call. For example, you could create two or three opening statements and test one against the other to determine which gets the higher response rate. You can do the same thing with offers. Does offer A out pull offer B? Because you can control the variables of a call, you can isolate and test one component at a time. In this manner you can determine the best mix of words to get the highest return on investment.

The Solution?

It's simple. Create a hybrid. Take the best of both worlds. Combine the good of a script and toss out the bad.

The trick is to use "scripts' in certain key parts of the call. For example, the opening statement should be scripted. Think about it: your reps are making sixty cold calls per day to the same target market. This part of the call should never have to change because your initial message should be the same from call to call. Scripting the opening statement creates a call standard. It creates a consistent message that can be coached and supported by you. Best of all, if your reps are using the same opener you can start to test variations and figure out what works best in garnering the client's attention.

Questioning, on the other hand, is something that cannot be scripted. Oh sure, you can have a list of questions that should be asked but once questioning begins the client can take you all over the map. Your rep needs the flexibility to move where the conversation goes. He needs to "think out of the box." Don't script questioning.

Voice mails can and should be scripted. Why? Because you can see what works and what doesn't work in getting a client to respond. And dare I say it: test!

If you are using offers as part of the selling process, they can and should be scripted. The offer typically doesn't change so why change the words? If you allow too much flexibility and free form at this stage you'll discover that sometimes your reps are eloquent and sometimes they sound like the village idiot. Don't risk it. The offer is the ultimate hook. Make it a standard, coach to it and watch it work. Or test it. Get half your sales team to present the offer in one manner and get the other half to present the offer in another.

Objections are a more troublesome. The problem is smokescreens: i.e., false objections. For instance, you can have all the right words and phrases to deal with a price objection but if that's just an excuse to get rid of the rep, then a script doesn't help, it hinders. Instead, you can develop a 'call guide" for handling objections. A call guide is a process for a given situation. For example, you could teach your reps a 4 steps process to handling an objection (emphasize, verify/isolate, respond and confirm) which would give you structure of a script but the flexibility of free form.

When providing a solution in a complex sale, your rep will likely need to have the flexibility of tailoring the message to a particular client. This is hard to script. However, like objections, a call guide can be used to craft a message that provides the client with key features supported by clear explanations and topped off with a benefit or two.

Script the close. You can have 10 different scripted closing lines if you want but you must ensure that the sales rep uses ONE of them. If you do that, you increase the chances that the sale will close.

Summary

The fact of the matter is this: most B to B tele-sales departments typically don't use scripting in the management of their calls. They give their reps license to do as they please because of the negative perceptions about scripts. Rest assured, sales and opportunities are being lost because a modicum of structure is not being applied. Script certain key parts of your call and you'll have added a degree of 'science' to the 'art' of selling.

And if you're not a script writer, find one. (see article below) The reps will learn faster, apply the knowledge more consistently and sell more. Period.

Jim Domanski is president of Teleconcepts Consulting and works with companies and individuals who struggle to use the telephone more effectively. Author of four highly regarded books on tele-selling, Jim has provided training and consulting to audiences, universities, and clients through the US, Canada and Europe. Visit his website at http://www.teleconceptsconsulting.com and download your FREE Special Report, "The 9 Voice Mail Blunders and What You Can Do About Them."

How Can I Convince My Sales Reps to Use Scripts?

I live within a few hundred yards of a legend in the advertising copywriting world.

This gent wrote the famous TV commercial: "This is your brain...And this is your brain on drugs."

The camera flashes to a frying egg.

It's a memorable ad, and it shows the power of simplicity in words and in imagery.

The same sort of economy and punch need to be written into phone scripts. Just as there are millions of forgettable ads, but few that stick with you forever, the odds are also stacked against someone who sets forth to ink a winning telemarketing script.

But I don't want to talk scriptmanship with you, which I do at length in my seminars, audios, videos and on-site training programs. I want to address another challenge that is even more daunting than developing a brilliant call path.

It is convincing your sales reps to use it.

Scripts are a lot like telephone headsets, which most people prefer not to wear, and then they end up a sunken cost, buried in a desk drawer. Given a choice, most sales reps will decline using a script.

But why, especially if scripts enable them to sound organized and credible, while saving time and engineering more yeses?

There are lots of reasons, besides ego, that voice inside a rep's mind that incessantly needles: "You don't want to sound canned, do you? You're a professional; you should be able to make it up as you go along!"

Simply put, most sales reps aren't sold on the necessity and inevitability of using scripts, and most managers are not prepared to make script compliance a part of the job, or else.

Plus, there are those "naturals" on sales teams that I've written about in my book, HOW TO SELL LIKE A NATURAL BORN SALESPERSON. They seem to wing-it in presentations all the time, yet their sales are first rate. No one can successfully imitate them, though everyone tries.

These champs and constant contest winners seem so spontaneous, so UNSCRIPTED!

"I want to grow up to be just like them!" your novices and laggards proclaim.

Most sellers take their cues from your naturals, your informal leaders. One frown from naturals and the script you just handed out will soon sleep with the headsets.

If you try to force your best salespeople to use a new script you risk having a showdown with them, and then losing them or firing them.

You need to introduce scripts with delicacy to say the least, and ideally, a new script should never simply be handed out without a thorough explanation of its mechanics, and necessity.

"Why does this beat what I'm using now?" is one of the key objections that must be overcome, and the answer isn't "Because I say it does!"

My preference is to train sales reps in a seminar setting, first. They learn various ways to penetrate screening and voice mail, how open calls smoothly, establish credibility, ask "perfect" questions inducing prospects to persuade themselves, along with closing tools and objection answering techniques.

Then, they get hands-on experience in a scripting workshop, putting together all of the pieces for themselves. Some do a great job, and emerge with a testable presentation.

Most do not, and they gladly embrace a script I've written for them, that I just happen to have at the ready. They hear me read it and then see, instantly, how I'm following all of the practices I've laid out in the seminar.

It's logical and suddenly, the whole idea of using a well crafted script becomes more acceptable, at least on a cognitive level.

"But will it work for me?" becomes the next and most critical question.

I stick around to find out, listening to reps implementing the script, and giving them real-time tips and coaching. Using tapes, they get to hear and rate themselves using my TEAMEASURES(TM) (Telephone Effectiveness Assessment Measures(TM)).

Knowing exactly how to bring the script to life, and when to improvise, and having already succeeded with the script before I leave, there is a strong chance they'll keep using it.

What if the script is rough in certain places or a phrase, a pause, or a question isn't working? By being on site I can detect and cure that, instantly.

This rollout sequence: (1) A seminar and scripting workshop; (2) Introduction of a customized script; and (3) One-on-one coaching and feedback represents the best way to bring structure and success to a telemarketing unit.

Above all, it addresses the universal question: How can I convince my sales reps to use scripts?

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top trainer, conference and convention speaker, sales, customer service, and negotiation consultant A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is also the best-selling author of 12 books, more than 1,000 articles and several popular audio and video programs. Visit Gary's web site for product information: http://www.customersatisfaction.com, or contact him directly at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

Cold Calling Scripts Are a Waste of Time

Let's say that you were a business owner or executive manager at a company and you get a phone call that went like this:

Good morning Mr. Decision Maker, this is Cold Caller from XYZ Corporation. The reason I'm calling you this morning specifically is so that I can stop by and tell you about our new product that will cut expenses for your company. I'm sure that you, like your competition, are interested in cutting expenses.

(Cold Caller now waits for a positive response from you)

That's great Mr. Decision Maker, let's get together. How's tomorrow morning?

This is a variation of a sample cold calling script from Stephan Schiffman's book "Cold Calling Techniques That Really Work" in which the corporate sales trainer discusses methods of cold calling to prospect for sales leads. You could find many more examples of free calling scripts by searching the internet. So how would you respond to such a phone call? "Well, golly gee, I certainly want to cut expenses. Come as soon as possible. I can't wait." A canned sales pitch certainly deserves a sarcastic reply.

I don't advocate cold calling as a prospecting method, but if you do do it and if you do use cold calling scripts, think about how you sound. Would you buy from someone that speaks to you like this? Of course not. You buy from salespeople that are empathetic and salespeople that you think are trustworthy. These traits cannot come from a canned sales pitch.

Don't even think that you can pull it off. You are not a Hollywood actor. If you were you would be reading scripts in front of a camera. You are a salesperson and you earn a living by closing sales and earning commissions. You won't get many opportunities to close sales without any sales leads. And, you won't get many sales leads by using a calling script that makes you sound like an emotionless computer.

Cold calling scripts are a waste of time

Be sure to check out the lottery winners blog, which features stories about big jackpot winners from around the world.

5 Reasons Most Scripts Suck

There is a perennial objection trainees raise against using scripts when cold calling, prospecting, setting appointments, and doing customer service, technical support, and telephone sales.

They say: "I don't want to sound phony!"

Fair enough, no one does.

But why is it that there is the very real tendency to sound canned, un-fresh, contrived, and artificial when using scripts?

There are 5 reasons most scripts suck:

(1) Most people who write scripts are not gifted writers. Gifted writers can bring words to life, making them sound REAL and vital. The great majority who write anything in business, from an email to a brochure to a thank-you note, sound stiff, as if they have ammonia running through their veins.

(2) Most people who write scripts aren't gifted speakers, either. Even if they are, they don't record themselves and TRANSCRIBE EXACTLY what they've uttered, which, with all of its imperfections, would actually sound REAL over the phone.

(3) Most scripts are written from the SPEAKER'S VIEWPOINT, and sound like an announcement, a spray-and-pray attempt to shower the prospect with so may features and benefits that the poor listener will drown in good reasons to buy.

(4) When scripts try to be LISTENER ORIENTED they err by expecting the prospect to do too much work, to answer endless questions. If you're a stranger to them, their self-preservation instincts will erect a barrier to responding to your probes, no matter how clever you think they are.

(5) Written scripts place PUNCTUATION in all the wrong places. They make you breathe at the end of sentences, causing you to sound like you're reading from a manuscript. That's precisely when most people will object, when you come up for air. When we engage in spontaneous talk, we run right through the punctuation, breaking many rules of the written page.

These drawbacks are not immutable. We can devise scripts that sound genuine, that create predictable and reliable outcomes that you can take to the bank.

But we really have to know what we're doing. Like successful Hollywood screenwriters, we have to make mere words on a page seem like real life unfolding before us.

For every excellent scriptwriter, in the movies or in sales, customer service, technical support, or negotiations, there are zillions of hopeless hacks, wannabes who think "A script is just a script."

If you would like help with your script, or you'd like to attend or sponsor a speech or seminar or find great audios or videos, contact us.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top trainer, conference and convention speaker, and sales, customer service, and negotiation consultant. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is also the best-selling author of 12 books, more than 1,000 articles and several popular audio and video programs. His seminars are sponsored internationally and he is a faculty member at more than 40 universities, including UC Berkeley and UCLA. Gary brings over two decades of sales, management and consulting experience to the table, with impressive academic credentials: A Ph.D. from USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a J.D. degree from Loyola Law School, his clients include several Fortune 1000 companies..

His web site is: http://www.customersatisfaction.com and he can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com. His blogs include: YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS! and ALWAYS COLD CALL! at: http://www.alwayscoldcall.blogspot.com

Scripts Are Essential, But You Need The Three T's to Bring Them to Life

When I write scripts for customer service and for selling, I test them, tweak them here and there, and then I deploy them at my clients' sites.

Minimally, it's a systematic process of validation, and once my scripts have been proven in dozens, hundreds, thousands and even millions of conversations, I can say, very authoritatively, that they work.

From my standpoint it is important to be as scientific as possible, not only to be dispensing solutions that are assured of producing sales and customer satisfaction, but to overcome the perennial cynicism that salespeople, customer service reps, and their managers bring to scripts.

There is always the question, "Will this work?" but an even more pertinent one is, "Will it work for me?"

And the answer is always the same: Unless you're an alien from a distant galaxy, of course it will work for you!

But this isn't the whole story, as you might imagine. As a trainer, manager, and consultant I've seen that scripts are only part of the answer. They're helpful and even necessary ingredients of success, but we need more to succeed.

Specifically, we need DIRECTION in bringing them to life.

This is where mere vendors of scripts miss the mark. They might advertise a script for getting insurance appointments, but without the appropriate instructions for breathing vitality into them, it's like showing words on a page to an 8 month old: they're gibberish.

Let me give you a quick example of a way of getting through call screening that I invented that should double the frequency with which you succeed.

Instead of asking, "Is Bill Smith in?" which launches secretarial countermeasures, starting with the universal, "May I tell him who's calling?" we shift the dynamics, entirely.

"Hello, Gary Goodman, Customersatisfaction.com, for Bill Smith please, thank you."

I invite you to reverse engineer this winning gambit at your leisure, and you'll see many fascinating, non-traditional facets to it. But for now, let me point out that a script needs 3 T's, and not one T, to succeed.

It needs the proper Text, Tone & Timing.

(If the Three T's are new sounding, I forgive you. I invented them, along with THE NEW TELEMARKETING (TM) that they are part of.)

Let's just look at how one of the T's--Timing--affects the delivery of the screening line I provided.

Purposely, I don't pause before uttering the words, "Thank you," because I want those words to be FINAL, for the screener to fetch the person I'm requesting. If I pause before saying thank you, the screener will interpret this as a relinquishing of the call to her, and will encourage her to ask another disqualifying question.

(You're unlikely to figure this out on your own because we normally pause at punctuation instead of talking through it.)

My first generation trainees, the ones whose companies bring me in to speak, to consult, and to write scripts, receive this instruction, but their imitators don't. That's why those I haven't directed sound canned and their scripts "aren't working," or so they claim.

To be accurate, they should say, the scripts aren't working FOR THEM.

Again, scripts are essential to success in selling and in providing top customer service, but they need to be accompanied by the proper direction and training so reps can use them, effectively.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top trainer, conference and convention speaker, and sales, customer service, and negotiation consultant. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is also the best-selling author of 12 books, more than 1,000 articles and several popular audio and video programs. His seminars are sponsored internationally and he is a faculty member at more than 40 universities, including UC Berkeley and UCLA. Gary brings over two decades of sales, management and consulting experience to the table, with impressive academic credentials: A Ph.D. from USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a J.D. degree from Loyola Law School, his clients include several Fortune 1000 companies..

His web site is: http://www.customersatisfaction.com and he can be seen on CNBC at: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=417455932# and reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com His blogs include: YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS! and ALWAYS COLD CALL! At: http://www.alwayscoldcall.blogspot.com

The Utter Truth About Telemarketing Scripts

"This telemarketer phoned me the other night and it was obvious he was reading from a script. He sounded so CANNED!"

You've probably heard this complaint in casual conversation or even uttered it. I've heard it in numerous seminars I've conducted as well as from readers of my best-selling books: REACH OUT & SELL SOMEONE and YOU CAN SELL ANYTHING BY TELEPHONE!

Scripts and telemarketing go together like Mother and apple pie. Well, not exactly. We LIKE Mom and apple pie! But we love to hate telemarketing and those that do it, especially the ones that struggle through their poorly crafted presentations.

I'm here to tell you that scripts (and telemarketers that use them) get a bad rap. Working well together, these can be pillars of your overall sales success.

Why Do We Use Scripts in Any Walk of Life?

Actors follow scripts because they lead to better performances that reliably produce positive effects in audiences. Companies, and their managers, use scripts in selling and service because they're supposed to produce consistent and profitable sales and contribute to customer retention.

When management sage Peter F. Drucker studied doctors as they performed medical diagnoses, he stumbled upon a cruel fact of life, and death. Some practitioners buried their patients much more frequently precisely because they DIDN'T USE SCRIPTS, systematic procedures for deciphering maladies. Like the simple washing of one's hands before surgery, when the proper protocols for diagnosis were introduced, survival rates soared.

In a word, physicians became more productive in achieving their main mission: the prolonging of life.

If Scripts Are So Vital, Why Do They Suffer From Such a Bad Image?

Most people don't object to the use of scripts if they are UNDETECTABLE.

As a rule, we don't leave a movie or legitimate theater singing the praises of the screenwriter or playwright. Their well crafted lines are essential, but the better they are, the less noticeable they tend to be to the audience. Moreover, actors and their directors are expected to make the words they've been provided sound natural, as if they're being uttered spontaneously. When a script is well written and performed well, it rises above the ranks of the "canned" talks that so many disdain.

But audiences and customers are unforgiving when subjected to poorly constructed and delivered scripts that sound "phony." When scripts don't ring-true, they compromise the suspension of disbelief or light trace state that is vital in a smooth theatrical performance and in sustaining a productive sales or customer service encounter. Hearing a bad script is a lot like crunching down on an eggshell in one's breakfast. Suddenly the mystique of eating a wholesome meal vanishes, and with it our appetite.

Before You Jettison Scripting, Try to Improve It!

I was brought in to consult to a major manufacturer of consumer electronics.

One of its products consistently broke, and this evoked thousands of calls per day from irate purchasers.

To its credit, the company executives asked me this question:

"Is it possible to turn conflict calls into selling opportunities?"

After giving it some thought I said it was, and I undertook the development of a script that would:

(1) Defuse the anger, and (2) Sell an additional product, all during the same inbound call.

My strategy and the training program I devised to implement it, resulted in add-on products being sold in 50% of the conversations in which the script was used. This turned the customer service function, a cost-center, into a profit center.

So, before you dismiss or derogate the idea of scripting your sales and customer service calls, think again. You, too, might make 100 million customers, and your accountant, sing!

Are you looking for a customized phone script, top training, and the best seminars and audios and video products in telemarketing? Contact the author.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top trainer, conference and convention speaker, sales, customer service, and negotiation consultant, and attorney. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is also the best-selling author of 12 books, more than 1,000 articles and several popular audio and video programs. His seminars are sponsored internationally and he is a faculty member at more than 40 universities, including UC Berkeley and UCLA. Gary's sales, management and consulting experience is combined with impressive academic credentials: A Ph.D. from USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a J.D. degree from Loyola Law School, his clients include several Fortune 1000 companies.

His web site is: http://www.customersatisfaction.com and he can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com

His blogs include: YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS! and ALWAYS COLD CALL! at: http://www.alwayscoldcall.blogspot.com