Write a script that sells.

If you are new to cold calling and telemarketing, knowing where to start in writing an effective cold calling script can be a daunting process, especially if you are still experiencing call reluctance in picking up the phone. Cold calling is still one of the most effective forms of marketing with its' low cost and ease of implementation with unlimited scalability.

A good cold call script forms the 'rails' that the call runs along; it helps the agent control the conversation as well as ensuring every benefit and question that is asked from the telemarketer is relevant, engaging and adds value to the interaction. This does not mean to say that the cold call script should be 'read' verbatim, word for word, rather it should be a flexible guideline that its malleable to the prospect's unique situation and buying personality.

The beginning of the cold call script starts with the agent introducing themselves as well as their company along with a short WIIFM or 'What's in it for me?' statement to 'pay off', the introduction and thus gives the prospect a reason to continue the call.

A good WIIFM statement should be around these key areas that are interest to business owners:

Increasing sales
Reducing costs
Increasing operational efficiencies.

An example of increasing sales:

'Reason for my call is that we can help you increase the return on investment for your advertising, as well as lower your cost per acquisition for each sale. I'd like to ask you a few questions first, if you don't mind..'

Every B2B product that exists is launched out of demand for one of the above 'hot buttons', it's then the salesperson's role to discover which one of them to push that will increase the prospect's interest and desire to buy.

After the agent has established rapport and set the expectation that this call is of value to the listener, the next phase in the cold call script is to ask questions around the customer's situation and to probe for pain points around key result areas.
The questioning phase of the sales process is the foundation of the sale itself, done poorly and the salesperson can miss many opportunities for potential sales as well as the larger opportunity cost of the account itself. Good questioning leads to an open ended conversation where the customer feels relaxed and is investing their time with you wisely, it builds the requisite trust and harmony that is needed for the salesperson to make recommendations and ultimately, sales.

Good questioning at the beginning of the sales process involves asking open ended, engaging and relevant questions around what interests the prospect.

'How is your advertising performing so far?
Where else do you advertise?
How is that going?
What is your highest paying product or service?'

The objective at the start of the cold call script is to simply get the lead talking and engaged, once we have their interest and engagement we can then qualify them based on our product's unique requirements and then designate them as either a prospect or a suspect.

The start of the cold call process is sorting uninterested or unqualified suspects from the qualified and rarer prospects that will make up our future customer base. Most of the work can be done in qualifying leads before you pick up the phone, such as targeting the correct industry verticals and exclusively speaking with decision makers such as business owners instead of operations or middle managers.
Once we have the person on the phone, the next step is to ask at least one qualifying question that signals to the agent whether this is a potential sale or not.

'If we could show you how you could lower your printing costs by up to 20%, would you be open to looking at it?'

'If we could show you a better way to get more higher paying customers, would you be willing to invest your time in a free 30 minute webinar?'

The more qualified, motivated prospects we have in our sales funnel, the faster they are going to convert, which means a higher cashflow and bigger commissions for the salesperson. We do not want to pitch to ANYBODY, we want people with the means and authority to buy TODAY, not a month or a year from today.

Now what do you do once you have a qualified, interested prospect on the phone? You PITCH! This is where you can finally start 'selling', the benefits of your solution and all the wonderful things it can do for your prospects.

A good way to structure your pitch is to first paraphrase what your customer has said, propose your solution, describe it with features and then sell it on the benefits of your proposal.

'Thanks for that, John. I understand that your last Adwords campaign campaign didn't work so well which is why you are hesitant in investing any more into advertising. Based on this, I do believe we have an ideal solution for you, we have a readership of over 700,000 in our ABC times magazines that will be seen by an affluent and motivated audience. What this means for you, is that you will get more exposure and foot traffic into your jewellery store which will lead to more sales and revenue, which is what you want right?'

Talk more about benefits than features and make sure your pitch is relevant and demonstrates a product/need fit.

The close always comes at the end, ALWAYS CLOSE, no matter how disinterested or on the fence the prospect may seem, if they have made it this far down the path they are probably sitting on their hand waiting for you to simply make an offer.

This is where you pull the trigger and ask for their commitment, either by appointment, follow up email or otherwise. The close should be assumptive, leaving the prospect with an easy choice of saying YES and a harder time refusing your offer.

'Would you like me to come over at Wednesday at 6 or Thursday same time?'

'Do you prefer the $299 or the $199 model today?'

'Was that VISA or Mastercard?'

We can drill down each of these stages of the sales process further to get even more insights and psychology, but this is what makes for a simple and effective cold call script which is proven to get results.