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Should You Tape Your Sales Script?
Reaching out to potential customers (shippers) is both an art and science. Many of my clients have concerns about this issue.
“How do I get started in a conversation? What do I say? Do you have a script for me to use?”
These are common questions and I’ll give you my perspective on this.
First, a short story – I knew an older friend years ago. He was a super salesman. Drove a nice, expensive car. Lived in a big, beautiful house. Dressed for success, impeccably. Here’s how HE did it:
He used to tape his sales pitch. He would then spend hours and hours replaying it, fine tuning it and honing it down into simple messages, probably ending up with “May I place an order for you?”
Do YOU need to do likewise? It depends.
You normally don’t want to start a conversation with “May I take your order?” unless you’re working the counter at McDonalds. No, you build up to it but in a very efficient way. If you don’t build up to it, you might as well just start out by saying, “Just give me some money?”
Your approach depends on you and what you are comfortable and proficient with. If you are so inclined to tape your script, go ahead, knock yourself out.
But most people will not do this. I didn’t. But what should most people do for a sales pitch?
My idea is to be “conversational” when speaking with potential customers. Ask questions. Be ready with questions because you probably won’t get grilled as so many of my clients think.
Knowing the right questions will set you apart from other brokers who don’t know what they are doing. If you have the “gift of gab”, this might help – but it may also hurt if you don’t know how to use it.
If you DON’T have the gift of gab, don’t worry. Ask good questions, be natural, and converse with them as if you’re speaking to a friend. You might be surprised at how nice most of these people are.
Personally, the idea of trying to “sell” over the phone never did appeal to me. I’ve always thought that I couldn’t sell bread in a concentration camp.
But I found the experience of talking with customers VERY pleasant – and rewarding. You can too.
During live training in El Paso, IF we have time on the third day, we place a few calls to potential customers. My clients LOVE this because they can listen to the conversation AND learn about some of the obstacles as well.
So if you think you need to “sell” yourself in the “traditional” way, come on board with my training and learn a completely new skill.
Contact me below to discuss this further.
P.S. I just realized that in writing this message, I read it and reread it MANY times, fine tuning it to say what I want to say in a, hopefully, efficient way. I don’t want to bore anyone (the big “sin”). I’ve been training for over 18 years now and part of my success is fine tuning my message with relevant and useful information. That’s what you can expect with my comprehensive training too – plus much more.