Just because you haven’t written down your sales presentation doesn’t mean you’re not following a script.
Think about your last 10 interactions with prospective customers. Did you answer the phone in 10 different ways? Did you use 10 different phrases to ask the customer to purchase a lock? Did you try to sign up your customer to automatic credit card payments with the 10 different invitations?
Face it, we all tend to get complacent when explaining things that are familiar to us. That leads us to having a “hidden script” whether we like it or not.
I’m not suggesting you mix things up for the sake of variety. What I am suggesting is that you take a close look at the language you are using and ask yourself if you are making the best language choices. Can you improve upon the words and phrases you have come to rely on?
Assuming you want to improve, here are a couple of exercises.
Exercise 1: Write Your Script
Write down a hypothetical conversation with a customer and circle, highlight, or underline your “standard phrases”. Look for the phrases you tend to use on a regular basis and say out of habit.
For each of your standard phrases, force yourself to come up with at least three other approaches to that part of the conversation.
- Maybe you ask another question.
- Perhaps you change up the order?
- Maybe you figure out a way to be more concrete and specific in a description (concrete details are more persuasive than generalities).
- Look for ways to build more urgency into your invitation (urgency gets people to act).
- Try to figure out a way to sound more likable and authentic.
The point of the exercise is to force yourself to thoughtfully and deliberately consider other approaches. Not everything you come up with will sound great, and that’s ok. It’s just part of the process. What you are trying to do is to unearth a lot of ideas and then choose the best ones. Undoubtably, you will find that you have some really good ideas and will want to shift your approach in some areas.
Exercise 2: Look For Patterns
Take a minute after each phone call and jot down some notes for yourself.
- Keep notes on when your well-worn approaches worked and when they didn’t. For example, when a customer declines to make a reservation despite your best invitation, write down your best guess as to why they declined. Do this for five to ten sales calls, then move to step 2, ‘look for patterns”.
- Look for patterns. Do you seem to have trouble building rapport? Do you find yourself hesitating or lacking confidence when it comes to inviting people to rent a storage space?
- Experiment. Take your best ideas and insights and make some changes. All of this self-analysis and introspection does no good if you never try anything different.
- Short circuit the whole process. If you already know you are weak in a particular area then forget all of this self analysis and get to work on improving the trouble spot. Find a co-worker or manager who is willing to practice with you and put in some practice repetitions. One of the reasons call center representatives improve so quickly is because they handle so many more sales calls per day than the average on-property self storage manager. If you want to get better, you have to practice.
Jump Start Your Thinking
Let me know what you think in the comments. Are there some places your “hidden script” may be getting in the way?
