How to Build your own Customized Prospecting Script

Kevin Stitz, who is one of my colleagues here at AllBusiness, recently posted For Better Customer Service Lose the Scripts. It’s a great read and has a ton of good points. Kevin says “Lose the scripts” but he’s talking specifically about customer service situations. I agree completely but there is one place where scripts can help. That’s in prospecting for new leads for your home based business.

However, Kevin’s point about sounding like a robot is well taken here as well. You aren’t going to get anywhere by reading some long winded script and expecting the prospect to get excited about what you’re offering. The best prospecting script is one that you put together yourself based on your own natural way of speaking. That way you will sound natural versus sounding like a reading robot. But how you do get started building your own script?

Try some of the approaches found in the Prospecting and Closing Script Book by Dani Johnson. Dani’s resources take the holistic approach to using a script in a prospecting phone conversation. This resource will help you get some ideas to put your own script together – one that sounds right for you and fits your style.

There are clever ideas here too. For example, if you are calling for a John Moore, most scripts would have you say “Hello may I speak to John Moore please?”. This is the approach used by most telemarketers and cold callers. And guess what? People know it! Most people are suspicious right off the bat when you open this way. When they hear this, they immediately go on the defensive and close down.

Dani’s approach? Instead of that, try saying “Hi John, how’s it going today?” This approach disarms the ‘telemarketer guard’ and puts your prospect immediately at ease. Perhaps artificially at ease, but you can take it from there and at least leap over that initial hurdle of tension. Dani’s book is full of tidbits like that and you can easily use them to customize your own approach to prospecting. It’s a must have resource for anyone who must make cold or warm calls for building a home based business.

So don’t completely lose the script for prospecting; just use it as a guideline and put your own personality into the conversation.