Cold Calling: Is a Script Necessary?

As someone who received a fair number of cold calls (and has made a few), a script seems necessary to help people 'break the ice' on initial calls.

So many times I've received calls, and people break right into the sales pitch -- I have no idea who they are, why there's calling, or who they're working for. I usually just hang up.

I can't understate the importance of having a good, clear, and exceedingly polite introduction to a call and to ask if it's a good time to talk -- it's the difference between a hangup and sparking a conversation.

Jay

I think it is more important to consider whether you have researched your target audience. By this I mean both the company and the individual that you are speaking to,

It's important to build credibility first, in my opinion you have to earn the right to pitch.

Once you've built the right, make sure you have a structure to the way you approach the call i.e.

1. Introduce yourself
2. Ask if they are busy
3. Explain succintly who you are and perhaps how you've helped others in a similar vertical / situation.
4. Be prepared for obvious objections

So, in short, no script but prepare your pitch and know your prospect.

Regards,

Chris

use a script to organize thoughts and put a framework around what you are trying to accomplish. It should then be internalized and delivered very naturally so as not to sound like it was a prewritten script. While I agree its important to know product and services, you may never get the opportunity to show your knowledge in this area if you never get to the DM. Its all about Critical Business Initiatives in this age and how your company can help your prospect with those. Therefore your pitch needs to include known or believed CBIs for your prospect

Is a script necessary? No. It depends on how well you can deliver your message without notes. In my experience, I sound like an idiot without some kind of written framework to guide the conversation. On the other hand I have a colleague who is able to pick up the phone and talk to someone as though he had the entire conversation in his head before he began. As to how long the pitch should be, it really depends on how well the target is responding. I think a sales pitch should be a conversation more than a monologue. This helps you guide the conversation and pick up on the customers individual needs.

Yes and no. I used to work in a large retention sales call centre in the UK for a large network provider. We provided many aids/guides to the actual sales call itself but no script, I agree with most of the respondents here that scripts can end up sounding stilted, or worse boring, so agents were free to improvise themselves. Though during training we did provide some basic scripts for them to model from.

However for call closing, scripts are an excellent idea, once your customer has agreed to buy then covering all the terms and conditions and legal stuff in a precise way makes sense, and is fair to your customer too.

This also has an advantage for defending lost sales as the "I never agreed to anything" argument goes out the window when replaying a taped a call. And there's no grey area when paying commissions.

I say no script! An outline is a good idea to organize ideas and prepare for rebuttals/responses but a script often limits the individual who is using it. It it usually very obvious when someone is reading a script and is an immediate turn-off, at least for me, due to lack of personalization.