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Scripting. If you have spent any time in telemarketing then you know all about scripting. Scripting in sales is exactly what its name implies, a script. The employer provides the salesperson with the exact words to say when they are talking to a customer or prospect. Typically the scripts apply to outbound telemarketers, but you see them in all phases of the sales cycle and in all types of selling environments.

I think it is without a doubt one of the worst things to ever come out of sales training. Scripting is really only a slight improvement on automated calling machines. The problem with scripting is that it wrongly assumes the following:

1. That every customer or prospect is the same.
2. That the salesperson’s personality must be suppressed at all costs.
3. That the salesperson that was just hired is not smart enough to put together a dialogue with the customer or prospect.
4. That the customer or prospect is always 100% predictable.
5. That the customer or prospect will actually not know that the salesperson is reading from a script. Think of those scripted telemarketing calls you get at home.
6. That the salesperson will really be able to shine and be comfortable when reciting someone else’s words.

One argument for scripting is that it’s difficult to find salespeople that are good enough to navigate the sales process without scripting. Here’s a response to that argument; spend more money to get better sales people and train them better. This will result in a much more effective sales force. In short, even with fewer people your total sales will probably skyrocket.

Does the basic idea of scripting have any merit? Well, yes. Just don’t write a dialogue word for word. I have no problem with sales managers and trainers providing guidelines for a sales dialogue, but don’t remove the salesperson and their personality from the selling process.

Tags: script

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