Being a small business I sometimes have to pick up the phone and do some prospecting for new clients myself . Even though in the past I have had experience in a telesales environment doing it for yourself is a whole different kettle of fish then doing it for someone else.

A telemarketing script is a great way to did your toe in the water in telesales by giving yourself a structure to follow and not end up with the awful situation of silence with you not knowing what to say

Telemarketing is, for many company’s the first contact they make with new clients. Done correctly, it can be the fastest way to build a business from a standing start. Done incorrectly it can alienate many potential clients and create a not so welcome reputation.

Telemarketing scripts are best used as a framework, a way to structure a call to provide the route to your goal by simply following a few simple steps

Know your Goal

A goal, is the end result you wish to achieve. Do you want to sell a product or service directly over the phone or is it to set up an appointment. Like a map, knowing the final location allows you to plot the best path.

Talking to the correct person !important

When you have made contact you need to be talking to the the right person if you are not, you are wasting selling time. The correct person is known as the decision maker, the decision maker is the person that can authorise you to get paid.

Names

Find the persons name and title depending on the context of the call you can either address them as Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms. or by there first name. As a rule of thumb try to gather how they would be addressed in the organisation

Step One

Assuming you are speaking to the correct person you should introduce your self and your company this can simply be,

“Hello Jenny, My name is Bob I’m calling from ABC Marketing”

Step Two

The reason for your call. Why are you interrupting these busy people. This is the hook part of the call, It needs to be punchy and concise; the reason why they should listen to the rest of what you have to say.

“Jenny ABC Marketing help businesses like yours to get more clients.”

There may be times when you have been given the contact name by an existing client so you can work this into the conversation.

“Jenny ABC Marketing help businesses like yours to get more clients. Bob Proctor gave us your name as we have done such a great job for his marketing he thought we could do the same for you”

Step Three

Open Questioning
Open questioning is about asking questions that can not be answered with one word answers such as yes or no.

Open question examples

“Jenny how do you currently market your company”

“Jenny how successful has your marketing plan been in the past”

Questions that can be answered with a single word are known as closed questions. In the opening stages of a call they can kill it dead by giving you no-where to go.
Using open questions you will get your prospect chatting about the company giving you a more rounded overview prompting you to ask better questions to establish a need for your product or service.

Active listening
To be interesting you have to be interested, show you’re listening to what your prospect is saying be repeating back key terms and delving further in.

Building Rapport

Building rapport is about being liked and liking who your talking to. People buy people, building a business relationship is as much about personalities as it is about the product or service. I find the best ways to build rapport is to be interested in the other person not just pretending but to have a genuine interest in people and what they are doing. I work with someone who has an amazing knack of building rapport with someone very quickly by doing this she increases her sales without even trying.

When you write your telemarketing script use these pointers to build an effective framework to hang your personality on and make it yours.