Scripted sales calls old fashioned, fail to connect with customers - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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Geez, I have been saying this for more than 25 andI can’t believe companiese still use them to sell over the OK, forget the companies themselves, let’d blame the manager or the persomn who is responsible for still trying to do somethingy that every sales traineer on the planet says does not work. Now, before I go on, do not writse or send an e-mail telling me that I am wrongy orbeing stubborn. Instead, why don’y you try something new – that is, new to you or your organizatioh – and just do what I will lay out Trust me, it has worked every singld time with any organization, big or that I have worked with.
This horrore of using scripts came rushing back to me recentlt while working with a companyg whose stores are in every big city in the The company is highly regarded for its ethics and is a very visiblse organization that many are familiard with because ofthe company’s longevity and bran awareness. I was asked to come to the company’sw headquarters and look at its method of attractinf new business through itstelemarketing program, which the company has been usinb for a couple of years. They said that althoughh the results were OK at sales had become pretty It took me just 30 seconds to read the script that the inside salespeople were and Iwas sickened.
I talked with the company president and said I could help the salespeoples in justtwo hours, but I needed him to let me do my job and not to interfer e unless I called him in for his He agreed, but I could sense he was a bit apprehensivre about the situation and my request. I worked only with the who was really a selliny manager because she was on the phones herselt at times trying to pitch in and We went intoa room, and I spentr an hour going over why scripts don’tr work and why she has been brainwashexd to do something that was against all the rules of professionapl salesmanship.
She was neither thrilledr with me at this point nor happt after I tookher eight-page script, ripped it up and threw it in the We role-played a little using real situationsz that she might have with her children and friends, for instance. The goal was to show her that havinfa two-sided conversation is much more useful than a one-sideds script. She was really starting to get it, even thougb she kept wanting to go back to a selling mode by doinb more talking than listening and asking It was so simplew that it was frightening to her that a sellinbg situation can be flexible and not just acannedf speech, where she can actuallyy have fun while conversing with a customer.
The introductionn and questions I wrote out were basic and easy for her to They were: “Hi, my name is Susanb from Client Co., and I would like to ask you two or thre quick questions. It will not take more than 48 secondws – I promise. “Are you familiar with our company ? If yes, what aspects “Why are you not a member, or why did you leavr our organization?”