Telesales… Writing Telesales Scripts

There is not quite so much demand for telesales scriptwriting these days, but the telephone still has its place as an effective communication marketing tool. Now, I’m not talking about cold calling old ‘Joe Smith’ and trying to sell him cheap car insurance, whilst he’s busy trying to fix his garden fence. Or, bothering little old ‘Mabel Riley’ about signing up for a bingo membership account, when all she wants to do is get on with her baking. In fact, I have refused to write any of these types of B2C telesales scripts because I know just how irritating it can be to get an unsolicited call at such an inconvenient moment.

However, I must admit, I have written telesales scripts for charities as this is big business and it pays well. I can spin a real sob story… but my conscience is clear on this because these scripts are for targeting existing subscribers who love to donate to charity.

The only cold call telesales script wiring I have agreed to do has been for business to business and the majority of those have been for recruitment agencies. The rest will have been for call centres. So, whether it’s B2B or B2C, the cold call script has to be fairly short and to the point. The reason being… the recipient of the call doesn’t want to willingly speak to you. They don’t know you and they will automatically or even instinctively assume that you want to sell them something. And in many cases you do…

My telesales script writing has delved into all kinds of ‘tricky’ techniques in the past, just to test what works and what doesn’t. So here is my most successful example.

The (Pretend) Follow Up Call – best for recruitment companies.

Although this script works best for recruitment agencies who want to introduce their services to local businesses, it has proved to work well for many other companies for promoting their products or services.

This is based on the idea that your company has already sent some introductory information to the prospect company, about your services. The fact is you haven’t, but chances are after this call the recipient will want to see what you have to offer.

So the telesales agent calls up the company, introduces themselves and then says they are following up from sending them their information brochure last week. You then ask the recipient whether they have had an opportunity to read through it.

The response is… the recipient doesn’t recall seeing it and so this allows you to quickly explain what it is all about. You’ve now opened the door. In some cases, the recipient might feel a little guilty that the ‘brochure’ has been mislaid and so be quite willing to listen to your ‘sales pitch’. Worst case scenario? They don’t have time for you right now, in which case you ask if it’s okay for you to send the brochure again. Then you’ll obviously follow this up next week with the same pitch. Only this next time it will be a little ‘warmer’ because you will have already spoken to the prospect.

Writing telesales scripts for following up leads is much easier, especially if you have already met or spoken to the prospect. I have written many successful scripts for following up trade show leads and for those who have attended a business get together like ‘speed leads’, product launches or seminars.