Many salespeople believe that each sales call should begin with a pitch or a well-rehearsed description of the product, its benefits and affordability.
However, in the current work environment, sales no longer are mere transactions, they represent connections and increasingly, a certain type of commitment.
When it comes to sales calls and meetings, most salespeople typically love to stick to their tried and tested methods rather than experiment with unique and custom scripts. No one can blame them considering that 77% of salespeople experience physical symptoms caused by stress and 73% regularly suffer from psychological symptoms induced by stress.
In addition to that, sales regularly top similar charts of the most stressful occupations and professions, and it’s clear that salespeople need help.
With that in mind, we’ve decided to provide everyone working in sales or interested in sales with a few insightful, actionable pieces of advice that will hopefully make their work easier.
In this article, we will focus on how to write a cold calling script, which is ideal for beginners that need help guiding their conversations, as well as for experienced salespeople who noticed a drop-off in their conversions. Here, we will explain how you can capture the attention of your prospect and keep him on the line to eventually close the sale.
At the end of this blog post, we will leave a few tips that will help put your sales work in perspective and reduce stress.
If you’re looking for specific cold calling scripts and email templates, we invite you to check out our guide on the best performing scripts.
How to structure a cold calling script
Introduce yourself
Regardless of the research that you did to ensure that you’re calling the right person, you should always begin by introducing yourself and confirming that you’re speaking to your prospect.
We recommend that you use the prospect’s name and a brief description of their position in the company. The description works better than the precise job title, because it’s less direct and implies that you already have a connection with the prospect. This way, you can make the conversation a bit more informal and casual, making the prospect more relaxed.
Ask the prospect for his time
After the introduction, you should avoid posing the classic salesy questions such as: How are you doing? and How are you today? Unless you really know the prospect on a personal basis, these questions will seem meaningless and dishonest.
Instead, it’s better to ask them if they have a few minutes for you. Even if the answer is negative, you can ask them to schedule another call with you in the near future. Feel free to recommend a specific time and date if the prospect is reluctant to make appointments with you.
This allows you to remain respectful and schedule a call to make your pitch at a later date. Remember that most sales are not closed during the first call – if you manage to leave a positive impression and gather useful information, postponing the pitch is not a failure.
Explain why you called
After you introduce yourself and the prospect agrees to speak to you, you can jump right into the pitch and explain why you called. Communicate your value proposition and how you can help the prospect.
Keep in mind that this is not about you or your company. Do not go into depth about your own successes and failures, but demonstrate how your prospect can benefit from collaborating with you.
The harsh truth is that everyone is mostly interested in themselves. If you cannot illustrate how the prospect can improve their business and generate more profit for themselves, they will not be interested.
To make them more receptive, find a similar business that you’ve already helped or call on a mutual acquaintance. Simply sprinkling in a few familiar names during your conversation will make the prospect more likely to respond positively. You need to act as a professional who knows and understands the niche, its businesses and representatives.
Ask for feedback
Ask your prospect for feedback throughout your conversation. Most salespeople focus on their pitch so much that they forget that there is a real person on the other side of the phone.
If the prospect hasn’t said anything in a few minutes, ask them a question to keep them engaged in the conversation. In case you’re uncertain what questions you can pose, simply ask whether they believe their business can run more efficiently – the answer is almost always going to be yes.
Keep in mind that no one likes having phone calls in which they spend the majority of the time sitting silently, as the other side babbles incessantly.
Pose qualifying questions
After the prospect responds positively to your engaging questions, it’s time for you to move on to qualifying questions. This will ensure that the prospect is really your target audience, who can benefit from your product or service.
If you’re not sure how to pose qualifying questions, ask your prospect whether they have any specific weak points in their organization. No company is perfect and every business owner or executive will quickly be able to identify a few pain points – you just need to make sure that you can truly help them solve these weaknesses.
In case you can help their business, ask them whether they have a specific budget that they can allocate to solving their weaknesses. Depending on the available resources, the prospect may or may not be a qualified lead.
Salespeople often forget that companies are complex organizations which can have strictly defined roles and responsibilities. It’s important that you confirm that your prospect actually has the authority to allocate resources and operate their budgets.
If you receive positive responses, you can move on to managing their objections and scheduling a meeting. In case the answers are unsatisfactory, don’t get discouraged. Ask your prospect if there is someone else within their organization who could be interested in talking with you.
Manage the objections
Naturally, not every prospect will be equally receptive to your product or service. They may bring up valid objections and reasons against buying your product – they may not planned for additional expenses, their budget may be too low or they may not see the need for your product or service.
You need to manage all their objections and understand their point of view. Take notes of their comments and do not try to sell your product or service during the first call – it’s highly unlikely to happen.
Listen to your prospect and repeat their objections in their own words to show you understand their points. Tell them that you would like to hear more about their objections and open a dialogue about the issues that they brought up. Ask for a brief meeting to clarify uncertainties and discuss their options.
Schedule a meeting
Once you have determined the status of your prospect and handled their objections in a respective manner, you can move on and schedule a meeting to discuss the potential modes of collaboration.
It’s essential that you decide on a specific time and date. Ask your prospect to commit to a date and time that suits their schedule. If you leave things open, chances are the meeting will never take place.
In fact, even if your schedule is overbooked, it’s better to agree on a specific date and make arrangements with other appointments to make the prospect meeting happen at the agreed time. Do whatever is necessary to make the prospect feel valued and respected – this means arriving early as well as acting professionally during and after the meeting.
Script personalization
Before you begin calling your prospects, you will need to prepare yourself for the work. Go through your call list and research each prospect to find out more about them. Browse through their social media profiles or Google them to find mutual interests that will help you establish a connection with your prospect.
It’s essential that you store all your data in a clear and presentable way. When the conversation turns to your prospect, you need to be able to pull up a sheet with the most important information within seconds. You can store this information on notepads, excel sheets or use a highly specialized software solution like Simply CRM.
Simply CRM helps you organize your data and stores it in the cloud, allowing you to access it whenever and wherever you need it. This way, you will not have to worry about losing valuable information or forgetting about any qualified leads.
Keep in mind that your script needs to sound natural and believable. The more personal it is, the better its conversion rate will be.
If you’re unsure about your writing skills, you can hire a professional copywriter to help you with the script. However, it’s important to emphasize that copywriting can set you back significantly, if you opt for a highly experienced writer.
Tips on how to handle sales
As we mentioned earlier, sales is arguably the most stressful career path that you can take. If you decide to go down this road, it’s important that you learn to view things in perspective and manage your expectations.
Don’t take things personally – you will come across all types of people during your cold calling career and many of them won’t be welcoming.
Similarly, don’t get discouraged if you don’t get off to a good start. Remember the 80/20 rule and understand that most of your work will amount to very little, regardless of your profession.
Lastly, you need to understand that most scripts sound unnatural and scripted. You need to personalize them during each call and act in accordance with your prospect. Otherwise, you won’t perform any better than the average salesperson, who has a conversion rate less than 1%.
If you prefer to go with tried and tested solutions, we’ve compiled a list of the best cold calling scripts. Let us know how your cold calling goes!