Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of sales people around the world use sales scripts.  Used properly, sales scripts act as scaffolding or bridgework to earn us the right to have a meaningful discussion with our prospecting customers, members, donors or subscribers.  The sales script is a well constructed set of guidelines that support us when we prospect.

Good sales scripts:

• are purposeful – have a clear reason why you are calling someone;
• use language the customer understands;
• are designed for the benefit of the listener with it always being “the prospects choice” to accept or reject what they hear;
• are brief and allow for questions and conversations;
• aim to achieve a result – an appointment, donation, purchase, feedback, etc;
• are planned not canned –they are flexible, allowing the sales person to adapt to the different needs or queries of the prospect whilst maintaining the integrity of the call’s purpose;
• leave the prospect feeling valued and informed, even if they choose not to proceed with you in this instance; and,
• are pleasant, respectful and engaging.

However, too many organisations push sales scripting too far creating word-for-word scripts that end up being stilted and clumsy at best and one-sided and ineffectual at worst.  We had an experience recently with a telecommunications firm whose telephone sales and service people seemed unable to deviate from a scripted response as the responses they gave us had nothing to do with our issue.  The impression this gave us was that our issue wasn’t even heard let alone acted upon – it didn’t fit their script.  The number of times we had to request information to check that our matter would be dealt with made the whole experience cumbersome, time consuming and very frustrating.  We ended up doing all the work, while the telephone sales and service person simply read from a script, which, as it turns out, could not account for our matter in its design.

Sales scripts are not meant to be regurgitated word for word with no deviation, nor are they meant to be a one-sided affair.  This type of approach is called ‘canned’ scripting.   You would think that in this day and age we would have ditched these ‘canned scripts’ but they still happen.

The Cluetrain Manifesto (a resulting force that rose out of the discontentment people experience with businesses and how they fail to communicate with people) really nails it when it says:

“Learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about ‘listening to customers’.  They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.  While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happy talk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it.”

Building on this and taking the canned script one step further, some companies and political parties have even ditched the live person on the other end of the phone and opted for a recording instead.  And this is supposed to engage us?  This is free-to-air television advertising or junk mail in disguise.  At least with television we can choose what we watch and we can put a ‘no junk mail’ sign on our letter box but getting ‘canned’ advertising over the phone takes the biscuit in my opinion.  Yes there is the ‘do not call’ register which you can sign up to, however resorting to ‘recorded messages’ is lazy and only serves to create more angst in the already heated area of telemarketing.

If done properly, telephone sales is a very effective way of getting in contact with legitimate prospects.  But when scripting removes the ability to genuinely listen and respond to a customer, we all suffer.

If you want to create positive and memorable experiences for your customers, members, donors or subscribers then seek to engage with them in a meaningful way.  Don’t force your sales people to be rooted to the spot and limited by a one-size-fits all script.  Trust your team to engage with people in meaningful ways by giving them the guidelines and tools they need to communicate effectively with the wide variety of people they encounter on a daily basis.  The autonomy this gives your people puts back interest and challenge in the task of making effective prospecting calls and in the process might make the customers, members, donors or subscribers’ experience that much better.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

To our dear Barrett Sales Blog Readers

Some of you may not be aware that since February 2007 we have published over 160 articles on the sales profession covering topics on Sales Management and Leadership; Sales Skills and Process; Sales Strategy and  Sales Planning; Sales Tips; Mindset and Attitudes; Qualities of Elite Sales Performers; CRM; Ethics, Culture and Values; Sales Capability and Coaching; Self Promotion and Call Reluctance; Sales Trends and Research to name just a few.   We have made these articles freely available to anyone who visits our site or who subscribes to the Barrett Sales Blog.

Since the middle of 2009 we have been proactively distributing our articles via the Barrett Sales Blog to an ever growing subscriber base.  We are getting really positive feedback that these articles are very helpful and we are finding that many sales managers are using the topics in their weekly sales meetings.

You may also not be aware that, in addition to our Barrett Sales Blog distribution, we are also published on a variety of online business mediums, including www.smartcompany.com.au, Australia’s leading website for SMEs, where we have established ourselves as their lead sales writer since February 2007.

These opportunities to publish our ever growing body of work have opened up a whole new vista for our business and our readers.  With that in mind, we would like to give you the opportunity to receive our very first ever e-book as a thank you gift for your ongoing support and loyal readership.

This e-book represents the next phase of the publishing arm of our business. The e-book is titled ‘Lessons & Insights’ and is about some of the key lessons and insights we have gained as a result of being in our own business at Barrett.  It incorporates a range of visual mediums as well as text and, if it were published in hard copy, it would resemble a coffee table book.   We hope you find it an enjoyable and inspiring reading experience.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you, our readers, for your loyalty and support of our work.  We hope that is has assisted you in being able to make the most of your career when it comes to creating healthy, ethical and productive sales cultures and teams, and becoming master sales practitioners yourselves.

So in the spirit of ‘everybody lives by selling something’ and the ‘Principle of Exchange’ – the ever present need and desire for people to exchange something of value with each other and to find meaning in our actions, we would like to spread the word and give more people the chance to be master sales practitioners.  With your support, we encourage you to forward this blog on to your peers and friends and offer them the opportunity to subscribe to the Barrett Sales Blog and assist them on their sales journeys.

We also welcome your feedback and any suggestions or ideas you would like to explore in further articles.  To send us your comments, ideas and suggestions, use our feedback form.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

There are many things written and said about effective sales people, effective leaders, successful entrepreneurs, great teams and so on.

Many descriptions are in circulation.  There is an overabundance of experts recommending this approach one day and that approach the next.

Those of us who want to be effective and successful often follow the advice of those experts however we are at risk of turning ourselves inside out and losing sight of what we are really here to do if we keep trying to bend to the winds and whims of the latest management trends, fads, findings, research, etc.

I am not against reading widely, continuous learning, adopting new ways and adapting to change as you have probably realised by now.

However, in recent times I have been feeling overwhelmed by too much information and instead found myself opting for a ‘less is more’ approach to life.

As I always do, I have been sifting through a lot of information and finding that I am beginning to distill some fundamental truths that hold true whatever the fad or trend of the day.

On my most  recent distillation process I have found that I was able to identify four valuable life skills that work very well for me in every situation I have found myself in.  You will recognise that these skills are essential to effective selling, and I am sure you won’t miss their relevance to all other roles we play, personally and professionally.

So in the spirit of ‘less is more’ here are my 4 valuable life skills which continue to serve me very well:

1. The ability to ask good questions
2. The ability to actively listen
3. The ability to receive and give honest feedback
4. The ability to reflect on my actions

I hope they serve you well too. Enjoy your sales week.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

• Are you finding that you are over servicing your existing clients and not bringing in new business?
• Are you running out of time each week to do the important sales jobs such as prospecting?
• Are you at risk of not meeting your sales budget?

In my many interactions with sales people I have found that many find they have problems prioritising their week.  They often get caught up in activities that do not produce revenue, leaving them vulnerable.

Let’s look at the key activities that should feature as priorities in most sales people jobs:

Revenue Generating Activities
Direct

• Prospecting (phone calls, etc.)
• New business client meetings (with new prospects and existing accounts)
• Account management
• Proposal development, submission and pitch
• Proposal follow-up
• Referrals

Indirect

• Advertising
• Networking
• Pipeline management

Support Activities

• Customer service
• Sales meetings
• Internal meetings
• Administration
• Professional development

Where are you investing your time?

Without a systematic method of finding clients you will rarely produce outstanding sales results.

In order for a sales person to be successful in their role they need to organise their week and their time.

This concept quite simply is called an ideal week.

An ideal week is designed to help sales people be more focused and more productive by chunking key tasks together.  For example, in many ways it makes sense for sales person to be in the office in the morning followed by appointments with clients in the marketplace in the afternoon.  This means that all administration and prospecting activities are out of the way early, leaving the afternoon to really focus on clients’ needs.

There is no one ‘right’ ideal week, however having a structure and focus in how to set up your appointments, administration, and prospecting time will be one of the keys to you becoming rapidly successful.

Experienced sales people may need to come back every 3 to 6 months and review their ideal week to ensure that it’s delivering a great result.

A Systematic Method

A systematic method of finding clients is critical for a Salesperson’s success.

We need to ensure that time is put aside each day to prospect, so that we can continue to feed our pipeline of new clients.   Importantly, we need ensure that we have a consistent and ongoing focus on finding new clients.

Our ideal week needs to include personal time, finding time, and selling time, so that our time is filled with $ productive activity.

Example of an Ideal Week 1

In this example the sales person has chosen to have three days in the marketplace with Monday and Friday being focused on setting up for the current and coming weeks.  Monday is reserved primarily for prospecting and Friday is reserved for planning, administration, research, and catch up, as well as some sales management support*.

Example of an Ideal Week 2

In this example the sales person has chosen to have mornings in the office and afternoons in the marketplace. examples can and will work well. Both of these examples can and will work well. The key is having an ideal week and using this as a benchmark for faster decision making. It’s important to understand that the week will probably never work out 100% like this, but it gives us a benchmark for how to structure our week for maximum productivity.

* Sales Management Coaching and SupportIt is unlikely that an experienced sales person would have a one-on-one coaching session every week, especially highly experienced sales people.  However, do not forget to spend regular time (say once a month at least) with an experienced sales person as they too can benefit greatly from personal development.Whereas, new sales people should be having a one-on-one coaching session every week to get them up to speed as quickly as possible.

Sincerely, your advocate for selling the right way.

Everyone I am speaking to, at least, are aware they are working in a softening market.  Some businesses of course are counter cyclical, meaning they can make money in these tougher times i.e. outplacement firms for all the obvious reasons, but they are more the exception.  If you market is softer or heading or a down turn it doesn’t have to be all gloom and doom.  It’s true now you have to earn your real money through proactive sales practices.

So with on the agenda, one of my clients in regional Australia kindly sent me a great article on “The three basic sales strategies in a softening market”.  It was presented at the client function of a regional accountant firm he had attended.  The article is by Robert Miller, who wrote Strategic Selling and set up Miller Heiman group.  Here the excerpt from the article:

“Here are three strategies proven by winners to work in a downturn:

1. Count your chickens.   Make sure that you are looking after your existing customers better than usual (if that is possible) because there’ll be plenty of hungry competitors out there to do anything to steal them from you.  If you step up first, and raise service levels when everyone is talking doom and gloom, you’re going to be a beacon in the dark, and attract both old and new customers alike.  You’ll also raise the bar so high your competitors will waste a lot of valuable resources trying to jump over it.
2. Find your lost chickens.  Lost and lapsed customers – and ones you just plan mislaid, are still more likely to buy from you again, than a new client.  So it makes sense to go back, find those lost chickens, apologise, crawl over broken glass if need be and win them back into your pen.  We all lose customer in good times for the simple reason that sales people like the thrill of chasing new customers more than the drill of looking after the old ones, so there will be lost chickens on your books.  If you dropped them because they would not meet your price, see if there is a way you can meet their price point profitably with and economy offering.
3. Steal someone else’s chickens.  With competitors cutting service levels you have the perfect opportunity to raise yours (having first done if for your own customers, you should be good at it!) and steal their chickens.  If you’ve retained all of your sales force when the market is rife with lay-offs, you’re in the perfect position to ask your entire sales and service teams to step up to a new mark and secure their company’s future (they know they are thereby securing their jobs, so you don’t need to raise this as a threat).

The odds are in your favour
Here are some interesting odds calculated for four types of sales behavior.  They might not be precise for your industry, but I’ll guarantee their relativity is accurate regardless of your market:

1. Sell a current customer a current product: 2:1
2. Sell a current customer a new product: 4:1
3. Sell a current product to a new customer: 8:1
4. Sell a new product to a new customer: 24:1”

I found this to be a true in most situations and a useful guide to keeping your sales pipeline fresh and full in these softer markets.

Happy counting chickens and selling.