Throwing Away the Script
Throwing Away the Script
I knew right away that he was using a structured sales script, and that triggered the negative “salesperson” stereotype in my mind.
I didn’t want to hurt his feelings so I let him continue with his pitch for a few minutes. Then I gently said, “Hi, Steve.” He was so startled that he completely stopped speaking. He had no idea how to react to my simple, normal greeting.
Why? Because he was totally focused on his selling script and not on my reaction to it.
If you’ve been selling for a while, chances are you’ve been asked to use sales scripts to make cold calls. And even if you feel scripts are unnatural and impersonal, you’ve probably used them anyway because they were the only way you knew to start a conversation with prospects.
Maybe you’ve even made some sales using scripts.
But here are some questions
