Telemarketing Script
Contacting potential customers for the first time; intruding into their day and stealing their time while you try and grab their attention to make an impact. Enticing them to listen as you try and push the point across of the product ideally compelling your potential customers to want to know more.
Ideally establish a lead, that will ideally turn into your next sale.
Too much of the time I hear telemarketing / telesales scripts that are too long, linear with no room for customer interruptions - that also require too much concentration from the telephone rep as they concentrate more on getting their words out rather than focusing on getting the most from their prospect.
As everyone's budgets get tighter, with the increase in telemarketing people have even less interest in a telephone presentation as people have heard the same things from a competitor. You could bore a prospect with all the benefits of your service without actually realising if it is a benefit to your prospect!!
A powerful script is one that engages the prospect to get the most out of the conversation, through intelligent questioning techniques this is achieved..
Naturally, whatever you say will create a natural response from your whoever you talk to. Hopefully you want those to be good ones.
Establish Name of Your Decision Maker
To start with you need to establish a name for the contact, the person who would make the decision about purchasing from you. Trawl through the Internet or just ask the gatekeeper. It's fine... as long as they don't feel their superiors will be bothered by sales calls they will be more helpful to you; try saying it is for some information you have and you need to address it to the right person. Of course nowadays the most common objection you will get is "we can't give out names, it's a no names policy". In this situation just ask to be put through to that department. The others in that team may be more helpful, plus you may get lucky, and the decision maker picks up the phone. If you get put through to someone's voicemail, note their name on their voicemail greeting message, ask for them directly next time.
Get Hold of your Prospect
Secondly you need to get through to them. At this point you may need some good answers or be prepared for a voicemail. In this situation I would try and get hold of someone else, maybe an influencer as you could waste time leaving voicemails to the wrong person after all (the real decision maker may be based abroad).
To avoid voicemail you could keep calling back, or get hold of another person in that department. A good line to use if you speak to a colleague is: "can you give me the direct line for Bob Smith (if you have name) as I keep getting his voicemail.". You might get a better number, or more information on a best time to call back.
Compelling Voicemail to get your Call Returned
If you really need to leave a voicemail you need a message that will compel them to call back. Leave a short message clearly about a benefit that may be of interest to them, followed by "which I thought might be of interest to you. Please give me a call on 0** **** *** so I can give you more information, Also I would be keen to understand other areas of your (IT/Marketing/Finance...etc) as I have some other ideas which I think you'll appreciate in the future. Please call me on 0** **** *** and see what you think.
At this point you don't have control - so speak clearly and accept that lots of your calls won't be returned... however, it definitely will NOT be returned, if you don't leave a compelling message!
Establish Interest, Customer's Situation and Generate Interest
This part of the conversation is where it all happens. As a sales person you need to understand all the benefits the service you are offering bring, but appreciate only some might be relevant to the customer. This is where you need to ask them questions!
This part is the best. Through intelligent questioning you build the foundation of the sale, whereby when you come to the close you have all the information you need to make the close easier - or at worst, know when to back out!
Trying to handle objections works up to a point, but does not really win rapport and to be honest can just get people's backs up as they get defensive trying to justify to you why they aren't interested, however if they feel like you are helping them - you will find this less of problem.
Fundamentally you want to know what they have in place at the moment, how do they feel / think about their current solution, and what they are hoping to achieve. Maybe understand why it is like it is; what has stopped them changing before. Interest is generated as you are taking the trouble to understand your potential customer so they feel that at the end you will be helping them find the best product to fit their needs - rather than trying to sell anything.
Depending how this part goes you will be talking about a product with relevant features and benefits, or agreeing a time to call back in the future when it is more relevant. You be given a better contact name or realise that what you're offering isn't a good fit for the prospect after all; just be direct. Not only will that keep your attitude positive, but it will keep your prospect content as they may still buy from you in the future. Nothing to gain by misleading people with false promises - that only works in recruitment, apparently...;-p
