If you are going to be cold calling potential customers you need to create a call script that sounds natural yet achieves all of your needs. A call script can be broken down into four actions: Introduce, excite, probe, and seal. Each one of these steps needs to be done in order to keep the other party on the phone and make the most out of your chance to get a sale.

Introduce

Introduce is the section where you are going to introduce yourself. Start your phone call by confidently yet friendlily giving your name and business. Don’t make it sound like a sales pitch off the bat. A good introduction with a friendly voice will get you in the door quicker than most other tactics.

Write down your introduction and read it aloud to yourself, if it sounds corny, unnatural, or too much like a sales pitch rewrite it. Do this as many times as needed to get it sounding as natural as possible. This is the part of the phone call that you are most likely to lose someone on during a cold call so it needs a good deal of attention.

Excite

Excite, this is the stage during the call that you use to make the customer excited about your product or service. Let the potential customer know what your product (service) can do for them. Specifically, talk with the customer, identify problem areas in their life that your product or service solves. Share those exciting features that people have been looking for but also let them know what makes your product different from all of the others.

This is not the section where you want to add any gimmicks or other iffy tactics. Remember you have made it past where most people hang up but you still have a ways to go. This is the second most likely stage for someone to terminate the call.

Like with the previous step you are going to write down this part of your call script as many times as you need. When writing down the script make sure that you aren’t just copying what the side of your product’s box says, people want new information.

Probe

Many people will call this section the qualify step. Instead, it’s best to think of it as a probe step. Your primary mission during this step is to see if the potential customer will be interested in your product and to see if they have the means to purchase your product. To do this you should be as unobtrusive as possible, people don’t want to be asked about their income or personal life by a stranger. Try asking your questions without sounding like you are prying.

While you are asking the qualifying questions you are also looking out for things that you can use in the next stage. Often people will let out things that they don’t have or may want during the probing stage. This is a continuation of the Excite stage but more concrete. Use these to find reasons why the person may want to buy your product in the next stage.

Write down some probing questions that you could use for your questioning. While reading these questions aloud might help you catch questions that you would rather not ask at this stage you might want to consider asking a friend or coworker if you can read them your questions. What might be unobtrusive and non-offensive to you might be extremely offensive to other people.

Seal

This is the stage at which you are going to seal the deal. Take what you have used during the last two stages and convince the person that they don’t just want your product but they need it. This is also where the extra probing you did during the last stage will come in handy. Give them a personalized reason why they need your product (what problem they now can’t live with) and they will be a lot more likely to buy.

Final Note

Once you have your complete cold call script you should read it over several times to make sure that you can use it smoothly. Then get a friend to let you record yourself asking them the script. Treat the recording as a real cold call. This will allow you to review the script multiple times without having to read it every time. Once you are done reviewing and making your final changes you will be left with a perfect cold call script. With practice you will become fluid and adaptive. You will be able to have a conversation that is engaging. You will close more deals.

Watch for our blog on Inbound Call Scripts…