How to Write a Sales Script and Implement It

A sales script can significantly improve your sales results by preparing your sales team with lines to say and questions to ask. Let’s take a look at how to write a sales script, but first, a quick walk-through of a sales script itself and the problems it can solve.

What is a sales script?

Sales scripts are sets of prewritten phrases that sales representatives use in their conversations with customers. A sales script allows the representative to lead a prospect through all stages of the sales funnel and successfully close the transaction.

Sales scripts can be roughly divided into two types.

The first type is instructional, and presents all of the conversation lines almost verbatim and even suggests the tone and intonation to use. Instructional scripts are usually written for beginners or call center operators.

The second type of sales script includes sales scenarios. They suggest an approximate plan for the conversation and provide clues on how to overcome objections. This type of script is designed for experienced sales representatives to boost their performance.

Why do you need a sales script?

There are two main tasks sales script goals to address.

The first task involves improving the general effectiveness of your sales team. As a rule, sales scripts include best practices for successful sales conversations used in the company. They also outline winning sales techniques to be employed: overcoming obstacles, handling objections, and more. Working with effective scenarios helps representatives make more sales.

The second task presupposes that new employees quickly adapt to your needs. Usually, sales representatives find the best selling techniques in the process of their work by means of trial and error. Eventually they integrate what they have learned and become more effective. It takes about six months for this to happen organically. With sales scripts, a salesperson gets a set of relevant tools right away and can sell effectively from the very first days.

Pros and cons of sales scripts

Sales scripts can greatly benefit your business’s sales performance, streamline training, and save time. We highlight some more benefits below.

+ Sales scripts minimize human error

If a salesperson is tired or upset, they are prone to making mistakes. A sales script helps reduce the impact of employee’s emotional reactions on the course of the conversation. By adhering to the script, the sales manager will keep the issues of primary importance in mind, which will increase their chances of closing sales.

Another common problem is that sales representatives may forget or hesitate to offer more expensive or supplementary products. For example, the owner of a coffee shop may come up with some cool ideas, but it’s all for naught if the barista does not offer a client “our brand new latte a hint of juniper and sage.”

If an employee uses a sales script, they will always remember to ask a customer additional questions.

+ Sales scripts improve service quality

Standardizing conversations is one of the most effective ways to improve your company’s quality of service. With sales scripts, sales managers are less likely to forget to introduce themselves or the company, say goodbye, or correctly explain how the price of the product.

However, sales scripts have their own “darkside.” Among their disadvantages, we can single out the following:

– Sales representatives sound less natural

When a sales representative sticks exclusively to the script, it may sound unnatural to the potential lead, as though they were talking to a robot.

“Robotic” conversations are okay during routine operations, like placing an order or dispatching goods. However, they are unacceptable when it comes to sales, where it’s important to affect customer’s emotions and demonstrate expertise. Therefore, the more flexibility you need from your sales representatives, the less rigid the sales scripts should be.

– Sales representatives improvise less

When employees stick to a script, they have hardly any chance to improvise. Reducing improvisation can be good when you are testing your standardized script’s effects on your sales. However, talented sales representatives burn out if they do not have the opportunity to make use of their ideas.

Ready-made sales script templates vs. sales scripts written from scratch

There are loads of free sales script templates on the internet. Without a doubt, they may help you save time — because you only need to adjust the script a little, distribute it among the sales managers, and roll up your sleeves. However, such an approach poses several problems.

First, you never know the original source of the script. It takes a practicing sales representative to craft a good script, whereas free sales scripts from the internet were probably written by a person who has little sales experience or no experience at all.

Second, even though a sales script finds its way to the web, there is no guarantee that it suits your needs. Every company has its own peculiarities, so solutions that work well for one company may be a total loss for another.

Therefore, it’s more effective to develop an individual sales specific to your company. Of course, writing texts from scratch is not a quick process, and after that, scripts will need adjustments so that they work as expected. But with a sales script it is easier to make sense of the characteristics of your target audience, stages of the sales funnel, as well as your company’s tone of voice.

Who should write a sales script?

You can develop scripts on your own or delegate this task to a freelance script writer or agency. Let’s take a quick look at each option.

Your sales manager

Ideally, sales scripts should be developed by an active and experienced salesperson. If the company has a talented salesperson, who not only knows how to communicate with customers, but also can teach others, you can entrust the development of the script to them.

Freelancer

You can also delegate the development of your sales script to a freelancer. At best, this should be a person with experience in sales rather than just a copywriter. Of course, scripts composed by freelancers are cheaper than those designed by agencies. However, there are more risks as well. First, a freelancer may not grasp some of the company’s processes and overlook important details. Second, many freelancers find it hard to meet deadlines or are unavailable when you need them.

Third-party agency

Having sales scripts written by an agency is far more expensive. But, all of the work will be fully outsourced to professionals: they will develop a sales script for your company, draw it up in a document or program, teach sales managers to work with scripts, and adjust the scripts within the agreed time frame whenever necessary.

How to write a sales script: The main stages

The process of designing a sales script can be broken down into the following steps:

1. Study recorded conversations of your sales representatives and analyze your competition

At this stage, it is essential to study the ways sales managers communicate with your customers. Analyze the recorded conversations of your best sales representatives and point out the most effective aspects of their approach.

At the same time, study the competition. Ask your employees to call or chat with competitors and describe strong and weak points of the conversations: which tricks can you borrow and which should you avoid.

2. Analyze the stages of the sales process

Each business objective needs a tailored sales script. Therefore, identify separate stages of the sales funnel and single out your goals for each stage. Here is an approximate course of events that can take place during a cold sale:

1. Identify the decision-maker. Bypass the gatekeeper. Talk to the decision-maker and send them a proposal.
2. Call the decision-maker and suggest a meeting to identify the requirements and calculate the expenses.
3. Call the decision-maker again and confirm the order.

Make sure that you develop a script that is specific to each stage.

3. Analyze the target audience and segment your customers

While composing scripts, it is important to single out the main segments of your customer base and come up with comprehensive customer profiles. Speech lines, arguments, and objections should be tailored to each type of customer. For example, if your company sells software, you may have both small SEO agencies and large corporations in your clients. Each of them will react to your offers and make decisions differently.

4. Make scripts for each stage of the sales process

To write effective sales scripts, you need a list of company’s strong points and the benefits of its products, a list of the most common objections, and possible replies. With all this information at hand, you can start working on the scripts.

While composing scripts, use a set of blocks. For example, for a cold call, break your conversation into five blocks:

1. Greeting
2. Determine customer’s needs
3. Present the product
4. Respond to objections
5. Close the deal

For incoming calls, the structure of the conversation will differ slightly. For instance:

1. Greeting
2. Consent to provide the required information and a question, such as “How would you like me to address you?”
3. Answer the client’s questions with detailed information
4. Identification of needs and proof of the expertise

5. Test the scripts inside the company

When the drafts of the scripts are ready, take some time to read them aloud to check if the speech flows well. This will help you identify heavy sentence structures and awkward phrases. By eliminating them, you can make your text sound natural and pleasant for your customers.

6. Test and improve the scripts while working with clients

Even the most proficient scriptwriters hardly predict all clients’ questions and reactions. Therefore, the scripts should be tested not only before the launch, but also after it.

First, it is important to analyze the point in the conversation that frequently ends calls, fix it, and boost your conversions. Second, take note of clients’ questions and objections, analyze them, and adjust the script accordingly.

As a rule, two months is enough time to notice the strengths and weaknesses in your script’s performance. Because your sales script is used everyday, it is critical that it is constantly evolving to meet the needs of your customers. Don’t be afraid to make tweaks and test them, a sales script should be an ever-changing tool.

Summary

Sales scripts help increase sales. There are instruction scripts that should be followed precisely and scripts that serve as hints and allow salespeople to improvise. Rigid scripts are best suited for beginners or those who need to standardize the conversation, for example, call center workers. On the other hand, flexible scripts allow more experienced managers to employ their best sales practices.

One of the disadvantages of sales scripts is that salesperson’s speech may sound unnatural. To avoid sounding robotic, sales associates should memorize the script and remember that they are talking to another human being, a relaxed and confident tone goes a long way. More experienced sales representatives can find successful new approaches, and feel confined by rigid scripts, should use more flexible scenarios.

Developing of sales scripts is not cheap and it takes time because there is no one size fits all approach to sales. Ready-made sales script templates found on the Internet are still not worth downloading: you never know if they were developed by a sales professional or a copywriter; moreover, most predesigned sales scripts fail to be specific enough for a successful company.

Implement sales scripts into your everyday operations to boost the effectiveness of your team’s work and use SendPulse to help your products sell on their own with email campaigns.