Most salespeople want to free flow through the process of sales. They don’t like the canned lack of spontaneity and personality that most scripts exude. They feel that scripts don’t allow for conversational interaction between the prospect and the salesperson.

We have all gotten that call at 8:00 p.m. at night where you answer the phone and there is that moment of silence. Then you hear this faint voice mispronounce your name and the busy clatter in the background of the telemarketer boiler room. We hear some guy stumbling over a script that he hasn’t learned yet and we are immediately turned off. As salespeople, we swear off ever using a script again.

Don’t leap to that conclusion. Scripts are a powerful part of selling if applied correctly, and if they are rehearsed and internalized so they come out naturally. It's practice that makes you effective with a script.

There are significant segments of your presentation that can be scripted. This scripting will allow you to achieve significant results that you can count on daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.

Here are the three key areas to script for your prospecting and lead follow-up calls:

1. Your opening statement: Do you “wing” your opening statement? You only have a few seconds to grab a prospect’s attention. Most of us make up this opening line over and over again. This doesn’t make sense since it’s the difference between your success or failure. Why leave it to chance? Once you find the right opening line it’s like magic.
2. Service descriptions: You need to clearly script your services. You need to also script the benefits that one receives from these services. You are going to do some customization of the benefits based on the needs the prospect has. You must have them dialed to be able to deliver them with power, conviction and authority.
3. Your closing remarks: You should have structured and well-scripted closing remarks. These closing remarks should be directed at recapping what was agreed upon: What the prospect will be doing before the next call or next meeting, what you will be doing before the next call or next meeting and what benefit they were most interested in that you provide. Also include key details of any agreement that we reached.

You will benefit with a more skillful and systematic process for prospecting and lead follow-up. Improve the level of your sales skills to enhance your income.

Published: August 27, 2002

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Dirk Zeller is an Agent, an Investor, and the President & CEO of Real Estate Champions. His company trains more than 350,000 Agents worldwide each year through live events, online training, self-study programs, and newsletters. He's the widely published author of Your First Year in Real Estate, Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies®, The Champion Real Estate Agent, Telephone Sales for Dummies®, and over 300 articles in print. You can get more information by visiting RealEstateChampions.com.