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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 you need to ask yourself.
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How do you really feel when you use a script?
How do your prospects feel when they know you’re using a script? (And they do know.)
Most important, how many sales are you losing because you’re using a script?
When people call me and ask how they can throw out their scripts and cold call the natural way, the first thing I do is ask them whether they’re willing to role-play with me using their script.
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As soon as they start reading their script, a couple of things happen. I hear their voices go up in volume so they sound enthusiastic. They also talk faster, and their voice takes on a canned, robotic quality. All these things trigger the negative "salesperson" stereotype.
After a few moments, I gently stop them and tell them they’re sounding like a totally different person from the one who called me and talked with me so naturally about their sales issues.
You know what they always say? "Ari, you are so right. When I use a script, I feel as if I can’t be myself. I feel like a robot or an actor, and it’s very awkward and uncomfortable. Is there any way I can be myself again?"
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Here are 5 ways to throw out your linear selling script and be yourself again: