Examples of real conversations using scripts (buying scrap metal and website promotion)

Starting a conversation with a client: establishing contact

Start the conversation with a greeting: “Good afternoon” or “Hello.” If you know the name of the interlocutor, be sure to address him by his first name, and to people older than you - by his first name and patronymic.
If the client is calling for the first time or you don’t know his name, ask how you can contact him. If the client calls you by name, address them by name. If you have a first and patronymic name, please use your first and patronymic names, without abbreviations. After introducing the client, be sure to say: “Nice to meet you.” The customer will be pleased.
Set the client up for positive communication. For example, at the beginning of a conversation it would be appropriate to say: “I’m glad to hear from you” or “I’ll be glad to help you solve a problem.” Speak in a cheerful, confident voice - it sets you up for a positive mood and constructive communication.
If the client addresses you on a “you” basis, do not rush to switch to “you” too. Say “you” until the client says that it is more convenient for him to communicate on “you”. Not all clients like being addressed on a first-name basis. This may be perceived as disrespect on the part of the performer.
If the client is new, be sure to ask where he found information about you. This is important to track the effectiveness of various advertising channels. For example, a client can find a contact on a freelance exchange or come through a recommendation. It is important to know where new customers come to you from.

We fix the agreements

After greeting and establishing contact, ask the client why he contacted you. Listen carefully to the client's problem, record the main details on paper
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If the customer speaks for a long time, do not interrupt. Let him speak out, because the client can formulate some thoughts for a long time, and there is nothing wrong with that. If you set aside a certain time for conversation, then try to allocate it with a reserve. It’s not like you only have half an hour and then you have to leave right away. If you plan to speak for half an hour, then set aside at least one hour for the conversation, because most likely you will speak longer. It’s best to set aside an hour and a half for the conversation. There is nothing worse than telling a client: “Sorry, I have to leave now, I can’t communicate right now” and run away. This is very bad. Therefore, always plan the conversation and leave a large margin of time so as not to interrupt the client if he takes a very long time to formulate his thought. Be sure to listen to everything until the end.
During a conversation with a customer, be sure to record all agreements on paper and speak them out at the end of the conversation. For example, you discussed the layout or changes to the text. At the end of the conversation, talk through the main points, for example, like this: “Ivan Ivanovich, I want to say again what we discussed and what conclusions we came to. Please listen, and if anything else needs to be adjusted, let's discuss it. Here we decided to correct the title, remove this option, accept this one. Here, in the first paragraph, we edit this, in this list we add this item, we remove this item.”
Speak through all agreements slowly, pausing. Make sure the client understands everything.
After completing the conversation, send all agreements to the client by email. If you want to be on the safe side, write to the client asking him to look at all the edits and write that he approved them.

Be sure to record all agreements that were reached in an oral conversation by email. This is very important, because situations often arise when, a week after the conversation, the customer forgets something, gets confused and says: “I didn’t say that.” If you send a letter to the client and receive confirmation from him that this is really what he needs, then such situations will not arise.

We continue the conversation about the key points of telephone sales. The next important aspect of telephone conversations is the ability to concisely and clearly inform the client the purpose of your call and quickly interest him in cooperation.

Alas, quite often, immediately after the presentation, sellers start a hackneyed and tired song: “We want to offer you...” and then a tedious listing of the characteristics of the product or service.

— My name is Tatyana, I represent the XXX information portal, we want to offer you to post on our portal, it costs 750 UAH. plus we will make for you a business card with a logo, price lists... People will come in, there will be a link to your website, in general, this is a profitable advertising... We also help you design a business card for free and give 180,000 impressions. If you know, the cost of 1 banner display costs 3 kopecks, and if you multiply by 180,000, you get about 5 thousand UAH. We do this on purpose so that clients come to us... (from the real practice of “cold” calls)

Of course, the first desire that arises in the client is to refuse and hang up as quickly as possible. This is understandable. None of us likes it when people want something from him very much. Moreover, if this desire comes from a stranger whom he has never even seen. And even more so when in order to satisfy this desire you need to pay a nth amount of hard-earned money. Remember your school physics course?

The action force is equal to the reaction force. © Newton's Third Law

So it is here. The more you persuade the client, the more he resists, even if your offer is actually incredibly profitable for him and can reduce costs and/or increase profits by one hundred and forty-eight percent.

How to be?

They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Therefore, it is extremely important to interest the interlocutor with your very first phrase, so that he wants to listen to you further, consider your detailed commercial offer, or meet (depending on the purpose for which you are calling).

And in order to gain the client’s attention and interest, you should remember a few simple things:

Firstly, give up this “garbage” phrase “We want to offer you...”. This is the same as the “favorite” and rather annoying question of sales consultants: “What can I tell you?” The answer immediately suggests itself: “I don’t need anything.” After all, such a “frontal” remark puts your interlocutor “against the wall” and forces him to make a decision “here and now” when he is not yet ready.

The formulation “We would like to find out the possibility of cooperation...” sounds much “softer” and more effective. Agree, talking about possibilities does not oblige you to anything yet, and therefore causes much less tension.

For example:

— We know that your pharmacy is located near the maternity hospital. And we just sell products that are in demand in such places, for example, pacifiers, bottles, baby powder, etc. We are not working with you yet, so we decided to clarify how interested you would be in working with us.

Secondly, don’t tell the client anything – NOTHING! – about the characteristics of your goods or services. Most people are simply not able to immediately perceive by ear so many details and details that are new to them. Remember that it is you, not your customer, who interacts with your product/service every day. And what is familiar and obvious to you may be incomprehensible and tiresome to the client. At the same time, it is much easier for your interlocutor to refuse than to make efforts to comprehend the flow of (unsolicited!) information that has fallen upon him.

Instead, be prepared to immediately - in the first sentence following the introduction - name the MAIN benefit of working with you.

— The sage says that there is only one rule in the world: a tiny question on which our luck depends. The more often this question is asked, the stronger we will become. Do you understand what this question is, Mr. Green? What does this give me? © From the film “Revolver”

Think about what is the main “headache” of your potential client that you can eliminate if he purchases your product or uses your services? What is the maximum benefit he can get if he agrees to cooperate? Increasing sales, saving money, reducing staff turnover, reducing risks, expanding business, eliminating equipment failures, increasing productivity, putting things in order, reducing costs?

One million quarter-inch drills were sold not because people wanted quarter-inch drills, but because they wanted quarter-inch holes. © T. Levitt

Look at the situation not through the eyes of a seller who has a super-duper product/service, but through the eyes of your client. What will he get in the end?

Moreover, here, as nowhere else, it is not the quantity of arguments that is extremely important, but their quality. Save buyer time and thinking! Speak to the point and only about the main thing. Remember, you only have 30 seconds to impress and hook your interlocutor. Use them effectively!

For example, the first time I talk to my prospects on the phone, I don't tell them that I can develop a workflow for the sales force or provide sales training. But I always say in the first sentence that I can help them increase sales. Almost all companies want this. And this stated benefit is quite enough for the client to continue listening to me, start asking clarifying questions and ultimately agree to a personal meeting.

By the way, if the purpose of your call is to arrange a meeting, try not to reveal the essence of your proposal in all details over the phone, keep the intrigue (remember the “bitten candy” effect). After all, if you tell everything over the phone, the client simply will not be interested in meeting with you.

Or here's another example. Several years ago, a colleague and I developed a Cold Calling Script for selling outsourced contact center services. In this script there was this phrase:

— We can help you increase the number of daily contacts with clients several times, without “inflating” the staff of your company.

In addition, as a “yummy” when collaborating with your company, you can offer the client the provision of some exclusive information about the market or the opportunity to receive privileges from your business partners:

— We have a certain influence in this market, and cooperation with us can help you gain additional income. For example, we have competent suppliers who provide our company with certain benefits, and if we characterize you as our partner, you will also enjoy these benefits.

At this point I interrupt the story and leave you room for imagination :-). Read the continuation of the topic in the following articles.

You can also purchase a ready-made verbatim Telephone Script and significantly increase the efficiency of outgoing calls in your company within the first month of using this tool.

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How to properly end a conversation with a client?

When the conversation comes to an end, be sure to thank the customer for getting in touch. For example, say: “It was a pleasure talking with you. The conversation was constructive. I will now send you a letter with a list of improvements and agreements that we have reached. Please look at it again and confirm that I understood everything correctly, and I will make all these changes. On such and such a date I will send you the final result.”

Try to be polite. Use the word "please." Behave the way you want to be served. Never be rude. Even if the client allows himself some liberties, then it is completely inappropriate for you, as a specialist, to use non-business expressions. It is necessary to position yourself as a professional, specialist, to speak correctly with the client, and even if the conversation takes a difficult turn, to be constructive.

One nuance of communication with the customer that decides everything

Communication is the transfer of some idea across a distance from one spiritual being, so to speak, to another. Communication does not take place through the mouth, but through the ear to another interlocutor, as is often depicted in pictures. Well, if you type “Communicating with a client by phone” on the Internet, you will see that some kind of sound is coming from the mouth through the phone through the wires and penetrating into the ear.

In fact, communication comes from a spiritual being to another - directly. The means of communication simply simplify and facilitate this process. But anyway, the key thing that happens is that you want to communicate something to the other person. And already the phone, this is a smartphone, Skype, WhatsApp, Viber - whatever - all this just helps you do it more pleasantly and comfortably.

Because now we don’t really know how to use telepathy, but in fact, what’s cool is that it’s there in every conversation. If a person really wants to offer something good and valuable to another, then it can be felt. This is captured in the subconscious.

And even in ancient times in Rus' they did not use any contracts or signatures, but there they took their word for it. They just felt very well what the person was saying. They just see that the person is not lying, he is sincere, he is telling the truth. And it is valuable to him that his word is reinforced concrete.

And he knows that if he doesn’t keep his word, he will be completely ignored. Who will do anything with him... That’s how it used to be. Now, in many ways, in Russia this is all preserved, and all these agreements and so on - they serve more as a formal way of consolidating agreements.

But real contracts are concluded in personal communication, and by the same telephone, by the way, too, and simply face to face. Not necessarily one-on-one. When people meet, they look at each other, drop a few phrases, see that everything is fine, and do the deed.

The instinct of experienced entrepreneurs is evident in communication

And the same thing happens over the phone. How sincere a person is, how much he really wants to do something normally - you can feel it even on the other end of the line. It feels normal to feel that way. And if this is an experienced businessman, then his sense of sensitivity is amazingly developed, and he will know how much to trust the one who speaks to him.

It’s just that otherwise his business wouldn’t be normal if he didn’t feel good about his interlocutor. This is a very important thing, when you are talking on the phone with a client, it is very important that you do not intend to sell him something, etc. But they really wanted to sincerely solve his problem. And then, for sure, your business will be very successful.

Because bad people, in fact, are very inveterate bad people, there are only a few percent of them in society. Of course, they exist: vile, vile. And they are everywhere, there are such infections, but don’t be afraid of wolves in the forest. So it is here.

Although there are bad people, there are many more good ones. And it is honest work that guarantees prosperity. And if you play around and be cunning, then really the best clients are those who understand their business.

And, in fact, those who understand people very well will hear falsehood subconsciously. And that’s it – nothing will happen. There, no matter how hard you listen, they still won’t recognize you. And even if by chance they slow down and start interacting with you, then sooner or later it will still come up and they will leave.

What to do if a client calls at the wrong time?

If the client calls at the wrong time, politely explain that you cannot talk now for such and such a reason and offer to call back. Ask when it would be convenient for the client to receive your call, and call the customer at that time.

Sometimes clients call with an urgent question. In this case, if possible, listen to the client, ask him to briefly formulate the essence of the problem and promise to quickly solve it. Naturally, you need to follow through with your communication and start solving the problem as quickly as possible.

Two calls to purchase scrap metal.

Having a script in front of your eyes is more than half the success for an inexperienced call manager. He does not need to remember all the benefits of the offer, complex numbers and names; there is no need to understand the product in detail and figure out how to attract a buyer - all this is already spelled out in the script. But what a call manager really needs when working with a script is to navigate it well and listen carefully to the client.

In the first video, the client initially refuses the offer, without accurately stating the true reason. Our call manager is not at a loss, asks a few simple questions, and comes up with a more specific reason. Having recognized her, the bell ringer processes the objection and seeks a meeting.

Objections:

We work with others;
We work through a tender.

Result: meeting with a specialist

Second video on buying scrap metal

also demonstrates the good work of the call manager using the script. See how quickly the manager gets his bearings and answers the client’s clarifying questions without hesitation.

Clarifications:

Where are you?
Will you travel far specifically because of us?
How will you weigh it?

Result: meeting with a specialist

Before implementing a cold calling project, train the call manager to navigate the script and talk without awkward pauses. This is when you will get the maximum effect and experience an increase in sales from the implementation of such a useful tool as a script.

Useful speech modules in the script that help you overcome a strict secretary and a negative client.

Summary

Listed above are the basic rules for communicating with customers by phone and Skype. Often, after a telephone conversation, it is necessary to prepare a commercial proposal. You can read how to do this correctly in our master class on writing a commercial proposal in three steps.

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