The effectiveness of sales scripts when making sales calls or presentations is really out for debate; some sales people swear by them, whereas others are adamant that they sound better when just speaking from the heart.
Whichever side of the fence you sit on, it is safe to say that sales scripts can help any sales person to stay on track, and to get across the right messaging to your prospect. A good, well written sales script, should help you to question the prospect perfectly, understand their pain points, and set you up ready to close the sale with your solutions.
Over the past couple of years, I have written sales scripts for hundreds, if not thousands of people and businesses around the world. What I always advise people to remember is that a sales script should only be there as a guide; if you come across like you are a robot just going over a script then you are most certainly going to put people off. If, however, you use a sales script as a sort of guide, a word map if you will, then you will be on the right steps to sales success; and this article will help you to write the most effective sales script.
– Niche It Down
When trying to sell, particularly over the phone, it can be very tempting to try to sell everything and anything that your business can provide. However this can be very damaging, simply because you are going to overload your prospect with too much information and you are only going to put them off.
Instead, look to niche down your offering, get your foot in the door and then you will have a better angle at cross selling further down the line.
The best way to look at this is from the viewpoint of an IT support company. Normally, IT support companies can do any awful lot; from hardware sales, to remote IT support, to cyber security, cloud hosting and much more. Now, if you were to call up a company in the hope of selling all of these services you are only going to panic your prospect and ultimately put them off.
If however you chose just one, or a couple of those services and focused on them you will be in for a much higher chance of success.
If you pair this tactic with some form of lead magnet or hook you can offer to your prospect then getting your foot in the door will automatically become a lot easier. Think along the lines of free audits, or free consultations, or perhaps free reviews to name but a few.
– Question, and then Listen
How annoying are those sales calls where you pick the phone up, and all the sales person does is waffle on until your ears bleed about how amazing their company is and what they can do for you? And how many times have you put the phone down on these people?
Instead of pitching and waffling on, why not just ask questions, and then shut up?! You see, what so many sales people forget is that many prospects will tell you what they actually want to buy if you ask them.
So when writing your sales script, think about the solutions that your offering can bring, and then use questions to highlight the pain points that you can solve.
If we were to go back to the IT Support company stated earlier, we could use questions like:
“How much time do your staff waste trying to solve IT issues?
“Are you worried about how a data breach might effect your client retention rates?”
“Do you stay up at night worrying about what would happen if all of your hardware stopped working tomorrow?”
– State the Benefits
Going back to the very basics of sales, you must always sell the benefits, not your features – remember that.
Now you have discovered the pain points of your prospect, now is the time to highlight the benefits to them so that they can understand how you can solve the problems. If you have asked the right questions, then this becomes the easy part.
When writing your sales script, have a list of all of the benefits that align with the pain points you have written down – that way you can work tirelessly to pitch the right benefit for the right pains.
– Look for the Close
It is always important when writing a sales script to remember to always to lead the prospect to the next steps. Now, normally this might not be a full closure of a sale on the first call. However, it could be that you set up a face to face meeting, or a video call perhaps. It could be permission to send an email with more information. It doesn’t really matter what it is, just make sure you are always looking to take the conversation to the next step.
And there we have it; how to write a sales script. Now is the time for you to get your pen and paper out and start writing. Just be ready to edit and rewrite the script where required – a sales script should never be written in stone and the more you use it the more you will understand what works, what doesn’t work, and what needs to change.
Of course, if you need help writing your sales script then the Paragon Sales Solutions team are always here on hand to help you!
Paragon Sales Solutions are Leicester’s leading sales consultants, offering:
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We cater for any size business, and what makes us stand out is that we truly care. Our services can be catered for your business and our sales professionals will work tirelessly to ensure your sales targets are met. Be sure to visit our website for more details on how our sales solutions can help your business.
