Scripted sales calls old fashioned, fail to connect with customers - Business First of Louisville:

http://www.wormdigest.org/content/view/296/2/
Geez, I have been saying this for more than 25 andI can’t believe companies still use them to sell over the OK, forget the companied themselves, let’s blame the manager or the person who is responsible for still trying to do somethintg that every sales trainer on the planet says does not Now, before I go on, do not writ e or send an e-mail telling me that I am wrongy or being stubborn. Instead, why don’t you try something new – that is, new to you or your organizatiom – and just do what I will lay out here. Trusty me, it has worked every singlr time with any bigor small, that I have workee with.
This horror of usinf scripts came rushing back to me recentlu while working with a company whoss stores are in every big city in the The company is highly regarded for its ethices and is a very visiblwe organization that many are familiar with becausee ofthe company’s longevity and brand I was asked to come to the company’s headquartersx and look at its method of attractinvg new business through its telemarketing which the company has been using for a couplew of years. They said that although the results were OK at sales had becomepretty dismal. It took me just 30 secondsa to read the script that the insids salespeoplewere using, and I was sickened.
I talkef with the company president and said I coul help the salespeople in justtwo hours, but I needes him to let me do my job and not to interfers unless I called him in for his opinion. He agreed, but I couldd sense he was a bit apprehensive about the situation and my I worked only with the who was really a selling manager because she was on the phoness herself at times trying to pitc inand help. We went into a and I spent an hour going over whyscripts don’t work and why she has been brainwashed to do somethinfg that was against all the rules of professional salesmanship.
She was neitheer thrilled with me at this point nor happy afterd I tookher eight-pagw script, ripped it up and threw it in the We role-played a little using real situationws that she might have with her children and friends, for instance. The goal was to show her that havinha two-sided conversation is much more usefuol than a one-sided script. She was really startin to get it, even though she kept wantinyg to go back to a sellintg mode by doing more talking than listening andasking questions.
It was so simple that it was frightening to her that a sellinb situation can be flexible and not just acannecd speech, where she can actuallh have fun while conversing with a The introduction and questionas I wrote out were basivc and easy for her to grasp. They were: “Hi, my name is Susa from Client Co., and I would like to ask you two or three quick questions. It will not take more than 48 secondd – I promise. “Are you familiar with our company? If yes, what aspects? “Why are you not a or why did you leaveour organization?
”