Scripted sales calls old fashioned, fail to connect with customers - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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Geez, I have been saying this for more than 25 andI can’t believe companieas still use them to sell over the phone. OK, forge the companies themselves, let’s blamer the manager or the persomn who is responsible for still tryingy to do something that every sales trainer on the planet says doesnot work. Now, before I go on, do not writ or send an e-mail telling me that I am wrongy orbeing stubborn. why don’t you try somethingy new – that is, new to you or your organization – and just do what I will lay out Trust me, it has worked everyh single time with any organization, big or small, that I have workedc with.
This horror of using scripts came rushing back to me recentluy while working with a company whose stored are in every big city in the The company is highly regarded for its ethics and is a very visiblr organization that many are familiaf with because ofthe company’s longevity and brand I was asked to come to the company’es headquarters and look at its methofd of attracting new business through its telemarketing which the company has been using for a couplw of years.
They said that althougb the results were OK at sales had become pretty It took me just 30 seconds to read the script that the insid salespeoplewere using, and I was I talked with the compangy president and said I could help the salespeople in just two but I needed him to let me do my job and not to interferse unless I called him in for his opinion. He but I could sense he was a bit apprehensivde about the situation and my I worked only with the who was really a selling manager becaused she was on the phones herself at timees trying to pitch inand help.
We went into a and I spent an hour going over whyscripts don’t work and why she has been brainwasheds to do something that was against all the rulexs of professional salesmanship. She was neithere thrilled with me at this point nor happyg after I tookher eight-page script, ripped it up and three it in the wastebasket. We role-played a littlr using real situations that she might have with her childrenand friends, for instance. The goal was to show her that havinya two-sided conversation is much more useful than a one-sidedc script. She was really starting to get it, even thougg she kept wanting to go back to a selling mode by doingb more talking than listening andaskingg questions.
It was so simplde that it was frightening to her that a selling situationm can be flexible and not just acannexd speech, where she can actually have fun while conversingg with a customer. The introduction and questions I wrote out were basic and easy for her to They were: “Hi, my name is Susan from Clientr Co., and I would like to ask you two or three quick questions. It will not take more than 48 secondsw – I promise. “Are you familiad with our company? If yes, what aspects? “Why are you not a or why did you leav eour organization?
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