Cold Calling Scripts

To use cold calling scripts or not is a debate that has been raging in sales for years.  Many commentators and sales gurus put convincing arguments for both sides of the debate. Let’s discover the truth on their arguments.

Those Apposing The Use Of Cold Calling Scripts:

The traditional arguments gainst the use of scripts for cold calling tend to fall into the following categories:

• Makes staff seem robotic and they can appear as if they are just reading from a piece of paper without engaging the person on the other end of the line.
• It forces the caller to use words, tones and approaches that may not be natural for them which will make them come across as being unnatural and uncomfortable.
• It removes the caller from focusing on the other person becasue they can’t spend their call listening to the reactions of the other person and tailoring their answers based on the other person responses, their indirect communication.
• It increases pressure in the telephone call because it is forcing an unnatural dialogue where there is pressure for the telesales person to say what they have been told to say without letting the other person speak or engaging in a two way communication.

Those For The Use Of Cold Calling Scripts:

The main arguments for the use of cold calling scripts are:

• It enables new staff to hit the ground running far quicker than they ever would left to their own devices. They can start work and use the proven words and approaches that have made other people in the company succesful. This will allow them to get quick initial  success and stop them feeling the need to desert in the crucial first 90 days of a telesales role.
• The use of scrits for cold calling allows a uniform approach that has proven to work in that particular business. All levels of sales people can use the woeds and approaches of the top performing sales people to allow them to be far more succesfull than they ever could be on their own.
• It allows a way to test and measure different approaches to scientifically trach what is working and what is not working. By using cold calling scripts the company is actually allowing a way for innovation to be proven to be working or not.
• Sales is a science and few things are unique and have never been tried and tested before. By utilising script sfor cold calling you are benefiting from years and years of proven research around what is working in sales, sales psychology, buyer behaviour, influencing skills and negotiation skills.

Our stand point is that scriots are essential for many reasons. We dont see scriopts as the tip of the iceburg that is represented by such things as cold calling opening lines otr objection handling answers. The sript is the manifestation of the companies sales process, the way the company represents the value it offers to the market place – infact its whole sales success system.

Far to often we have consulted with companies who tell us thy are dead set agains using scripts for cold calling. When we ask to see their sales manual which outlines their sales process and the statements of value they bring to the market place, they rarely have them. New starters and olh hands alike, are generally told to get on with it with very little intervention from thr company.

This is wrong!

It is the companies responsibility to systemise and script out every sales interaction for the maximum returns from their salespeople. The arguments and proof of the successes are huge. The arguments against pale into insignificance.

If staff are robotic and appear to be montone in following a script then it is because:

• They have no passion for what they are doing
• They are reading the script rather than ‘being the script’. They should know the script off by heart so it is a fundamental part of their sales approach. This will give them to the confidence to listen to the other person, zig and zag in the call and to focus on providing value.

So should you Use Cold Calling Scripts?

Absolutely. If you are in sales and are not using cold calling scripts then you are leaving money on the table for you and your business.