Zoom has more than 300 million daily active users. Many are sales professionals who are making their pitches to potential buyers with a video call. If that’s your job, then you may sometimes struggle to come up with the right strategy for some of your prospects. Having a standardized script for video calls can aid that.
That’s why we’ve put together this article. It highlights three top sales script examples for your next sales call with a prospect and how to use them to your benefit.
Sales scripts remain important for virtual calls
Historically, many salespeople have used scripts to fine-tune their phone-based sales calls, but it’s impossible to use a sales script during an in-person meeting. Since virtual calls are a hybrid of these two sales experiences, it’s hard to figure out whether you should use a script during one or not. Scripts should be used for virtual sales calls, and here’s why.
Relieves much of the stress of the sales rep
Sales calls can be extremely challenging for your sales reps without a script to fall back on. They want to make sure that they’re covering the right topics, using the right tone, and keeping the prospect engaged.
When a salesperson has to focus on all of these at once, it can be very difficult for them to maintain a natural, conversational tone. They may come across as unengaged, awkward, or just downright rude.
With a script fed through a virtual teleprompter, it becomes easier for your salespeople to connect with every prospect that they speak with. They’ll be able to read from a script while maintaining direct eye contact. This makes it much easier for them to hit all of the right notes while still having a natural conversation with their counterparties.
Keeps your message consistent across the company
There’s also value in consistency when it comes to sales. If you want to ensure that every prospect receives a pitch with the same main points, then you need a sales script to make that happen. Consistency is valuable because it generates more meaningful insights from sale process data.
For example, you might notice that your sales performance has dipped during a certain month. If every salesperson on your team is using their own strategies while talking to clients, then it can be really difficult to pinpoint what’s working and what needs to be changed.
The more consistency that you have throughout your sales conversations, the easier it will be for your leaders to identify and implement the best opportunities for improvement. Also, when you nail down the right message, everyone can operate on the same level of success.
Duplicate the success of your best salespeople
Speaking about equalling the playing field, there’s research that suggests only 24% of salespeople are high performers. That means only one in four sales agents at your company may have the internal skills necessary to perform at a high level during every sale call on their own.
If you want to replicate that level of performance across your whole team, using sales scripts is one of the best ways to do so. With a sales script, even your newest and most inexperienced salespeople will be able to speak with their prospects like a high performer.
The simple truth is that some sales tactics and techniques will work better for your company and its products than others. If you want to make sure that only the best strategies are used, you need sales scripts to make it happen.
Sales script examples for any situation
Use the 4-step approach
The 4-step approach is a type of sales call that was made popular by Gabrielle Blackwell. It breaks the sales call down into four distinct components:
- Introduction
- Relevance
- Value
- Launch
The idea behind the script is that if you can do each of these four steps well, then there’s a very good chance that you’ll do well with the sales call overall.
The first step is your introduction. It’s a classic opening line such as, “Hi, my name is [Your Name}. Do you have a quick moment to chat?”
Next, you want to get relevant. This means explaining why you’re calling them. For example, you might mention that you were doing some research and wanted to reach out to them based on their company and needs.
At this stage, you want to get straight to the value that’s available to them in the sales call. Tell the prospect why they should care. Can they save money? Save time? Improve performance? Get explicit and try to use real numbers if possible.
The final stage of the call is the launch. This is the step that involves inviting the prospect into the conversation. Your value point may be that you can save the prospect money with more affordable accounting software. Your launch could be something like, “How is your current software working for you?”
The benefit of this approach is that it gives you a guide to get the conversation started. Blackwell says that if you can the customer talking in the first 30 seconds, you’ve won. You’re building a connection and rapport, which softens the landing of your pitch.
Focus on their pain point
Josh Braun is the sales expert behind the so-called “Poke the Bear” approach. The idea behind this sales script is to find your prospect’s pain point and adapt your approach to meet it. It leads them to their problem and allows you to provide a solution.
Now, you may already know their pain point—otherwise, why would you have a Zoom call with them? However, getting them to name it makes your approach more effective. The best way to influence a decision is to make them think they came up with it, right?
For example, you might say something along the lines of:
“My research shows that organizations of your size tend to spend days adding and optimizing sales commissions to Excel Sheets. Is that something you experience, as well?”
If the prospect says yes, then your next move is easy. You ask them if they would be interested in learning about an alternative approach that could add and optimize sales commission tracking instantly.
This is typically enough to launch the conversation. At that point, the following dialogue will progress based on the answers provided by the prospect.
The key things to keep in mind with this approach are getting to the pain point as soon as possible in the conversation and showing that your company may be able to address it for the prospect.
The Alternative Close
Jeff Hoffman is a sales specialist who says that salespeople should have a close in mind every time they interact with a prospect. For this sales script, your goal isn’t to make a sale. It’s to achieve some other goal that will help you take the next step toward that overarching goal.
The idea is to begin the call with an alternative closing idea. It might be:
- Getting five minutes of the prospect’s time
- Getting them to complete a free trial
- Scheduling a follow-up meeting
- Getting past a gatekeeper
- Establishing a rapport
- Identifying the prospect’s unique pain points
A call might begin with a standard greeting. Once that’s successful, you can pivot into a statement that will help you achieve the alternative close that you’ve set for yourself.
If it’s to get five more minutes of a prospect’s time, this step may be as simple as saying that you can save them time or money and asking if they’d like to learn how.
If your goal is to get past a gatekeeper, then you might mention a referral from a trusted colleague or ask for a better number to reach a decision-maker on in the future.
This approach is all about getting creative with what closing means for that particular conversation and then choosing a strategy that will help you reach that goal instead of immediately closing the sale.
The strategy is good for more difficult prospects or those on the fence. Your goal is more narrow, meaning you’re only taking small steps and meeting attainable milestones. Using this approach, you cultivate relationships that turn into sales down the line rather than pushing too hard from the start.
You can’t have a script without a teleprompter! Try out VODIUM
Having a good sales script is an essential part of getting as much value out of every prospect conversation as possible. We hope that you’ll be able to put some of the examples from this article to good use.
To use a sales script effectively on a Zoom call, you’ll need a virtual teleprompter. With VODIUM, you can read sales scrips on live video calls while still maintaining eye contact with your prospect. Our tool will help you get every word right without showing your prospect that you’re reading from a script.
Sign up for a free trial of VODIUM today to get a first-hand look at how we can help.
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