Thoughts on Cold Calling Scripts

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 by Frank Rumbauskas

Cold calling scripts generate a lot of controversy, with some people saying they don’t work at all because you sound robotic, others saying they’re a crutch only to be used until you get good at cold calling, and some people swearing by them.

My opinion is if you have to use cold calling scripts, use them only when beginning, until you know your pitch and get good at comebacks to prospects’ objections.

Once you get the hang of it, cold calling scripts won’t be needed anymore, and then you’ll be on your own.

Eventually you’ll get so good you won’t even have to bother with cold calling anymore and will start getting tons of referrals, and you can learn new and better ways to get leads without cold calling!

Having said all that, there are ways to use cold calling scripts in such a way that they actually make some sense. Keep in mind, throughout this article, that when writing them, you need to always remember that they are a tool, and nothing more; furthermore, they are only a temporary tool, until you can be conversational on your own without the aid of a call script.

The first thing to remember is that you are a person, and you’re calling people on the phone. Unless you’re talking to one of those automated voice response systems, there’s no use in sounding like you’re obviously reading from a script! So as you write, keep this in mind, and after your script is complete, you need to record it and play back the recording. If you can’t stand the way you sound, or you obviously don’t sound like yourself, you need to work on your script and practice it until it’s more natural.

Another good point to keep in mind when writing cold calling scripts is that there is no such thing as “one size fits all.” You’re going to run into different personality types, and many different types of sales objections. Some people will just hang up and there’s nothing you can do about it, but others are going to have price questions, or tell you’re they’re happy with their current provider, or that they’d love to set an appointment but have no time… you get the idea.

As a result, if you follow your scripts to the letter, your prospects will feel like they’re talking to a wall and will never want to buy from you. If you want to make sales, you need to be able to have quick comebacks to common objections. And there’s no way to predict them to the point where you can build them into cold calling scripts.

In summary, remember that cold calling scripts are an outline and nothing more. They’re like the Power Point slides that public speaker use. They don’t read from the slides, but rather use them as a guideline to remember what to talk about in each part of the sales presentation. Do the same with your cold calling scripts and they’ll be far more effective for you.

Tagged: call people, call scripts, cold call scripts, cold calling, cold calling scripts, controversies, generated, human interest, love script, phone scripts, robotic, sales scripts, script, sounds, thoughts     Posted in category: Cold Calling Scripts