Scripted sales calls old fashioned, fail to connect with customers - The Business Review (Albany):

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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 companies let’s blame the manager or the person who is responsibled for still trying to do something that every saleds trainer on the planet says does not work. Now, befor e I go on, do not write or send an e-mailk telling me that I am wront orbeing stubborn. Instead, why don’rt you try something new – that is, new to you or your organizatio – and just do what I will lay out Trust me, it has workexd every single time with any big or small, that I have worked This horror of using scripts came rushingg back to me recently while working with a company whosse stores are in evergy big city in the nation.
The companh is highly regarded for its ethicsw and is a very visible organization that many are familiaer with because ofthe company’s longevitgy and brand awareness. I was askef to come to the company’s headquarters and look at its methoed of attracting new business through itstelemarketing program, which the company has been using for a couple of They said that although the results were OK at sales had become pretty dismal. It took me just 30 secondz to read the script that the inside salespeoplewere using, and I was sickened.
I talked with the compan y president and said I could help the salespeople in just two but I needed him to let me do my job and not to interfere unless I called him in for his He agreed, but I could sensew he was a bit apprehensive about the situatiobn and my request. I worked only with the manager, who was reall a selling manager because she was on the phonesa herself at times trying to pitch in and We went intoa room, and I spent an hour going over why scripts don’t work and why she has been brainwashed to do something that was against all the rules of professional salesmanship.
She was neither thrilled with me at this point nor happy after I tookher eight-page script, ripped it up and thre it in the wastebasket. We role-playee a little using real situationes that she might have with her childrenand friends, for instance. The goal was to show her that havingta two-sided conversation is much more usefulk than a one-sided script. She was really starting to get it, even thoug h she kept wanting to go back to a sellinh mode by doing more talking than listening andaskinhg questions. It was so simple that it was frighteniny to her that a selling situation can be flexibler and not just a canned where she can actually have fun whild conversing witha customer.
The introduction and questionsw I wrote out were basic and easy for her to They were: “Hi, my name is Susan from Client Co., and I would like to ask you two or three quick questions. It will not take more than 48 seconde – I promise. “Are you familiarf with our company? If yes, what aspects? “Whyu are you not a member, or why did you leavw our organization?”