Telemarketing Software Featured Article

It’s not unusual for companies training sales professionals to begin new hires on inside sales, or telemarketing. The thinking is that sales people should cut their teeth over the telephone before they begin the complex, multimedia process of face-to-face sales. While it’s generally a good idea, there are times when it means putting important prospects on the telephone with raw recruits, which isn’t always a great idea. For this reason, many companies that rely on inside sales with new hires choose to use scripting to ensure that trainees are hitting all the proper elements.

The problem with many scripts, however, is that they lead to robotic sales people who are less responsive than they need to be when they have a prospect on the phone. Since it’s impossible to predict exactly how a call scenario will go, static scripts don’t work very well. Many inside sales organizations would benefit from a dynamic script to handle different call scenarios that might come up during the conversation with a prospect or customer. Dynamic scripts allow the call to “branch out” to effectively handle different call interactions to increase the possibility of a sale. They allow sales reps to have the right tools at their fingertips for different situations, according to telemarketing software solutions provider VanillaSoft.

“A well-written script can transform the average sales rep into a sales guru in seconds,” according to the company’s blog. “It alleviates embarrassing lapses in clarity of what to say next. So, why do companies let their sales reps wing it by making up their own sales pitch on-the-fly? In many cases this is because of a lack of knowledge about the effectiveness of a good sales script, or an inside sales process that doesn’t have the capability to distribute consistent messaging to the team through logical branch scripting.”

It’s an old adage, but it’s true: you never get a second chance to make a first impression. In business-to-business selling, the difference between success and failure comes down to a matter of seconds. In most cases, inside sales people have between seven to 10 seconds to grab the prospect’s attention to continue the call.

A static script will sound robotic, and no script at all will sound unprofessional. With logical branch scripting, inside sales people – even inexperienced ones – can answer questions and overcome objections successfully.

“Make your sales script sound real like the way you actually speak,” VanillaSoft advises. “After all, you don’t want to sound like a pesky sales rep! You want to sound like a trusted advisor — someone giving important information to help improve their business. Don’t make prospects feel like prey. Just like dating, if you reek of desperation, prospects will recognize and avoid you like the plague.”

Subtle persuasion is the best approach, and this begins by putting prospects at ease in the first 10 seconds of the call. They will feel less guarded and more likely to continue the call and close the deal. Ensure that your script sounds conversational (but not TOO informal) and confident, and make sure that inside sales reps have all the tools they need at their disposal to continue the conversation successfully.