Cold Call Script for
making Sales Appointments
Stage 1. The Introduction
Create a cold call script for Sales Appointments starting with an Introduction Stage that prevents early objections and motivates prospects to listen to you.
This is stage 1 of the 4 stages of a sales appointment call: The Introduction. This is where you grab the prospect's attention and quickly communicate who you are and why you are calling.
Slide from Making Sales Appointments training courseWith this sales training you will:
- Learn all the steps of the Introduction Stage of an appointment setting call.
- Create an appointment call script that makes prospects listen and interact with you.
- Use your own words so you sound natural and make appointment calls with confidence.
- Prevent early objections with your clear, concise, benefit packed Introduction Stage.
- Be able to move prospects forward to the next stage of the call using techniques already proven to work.
Follow a proven process to create a cold call script that will fill your diary with qualified sales appointments by starting your calls with a great Introduction Stage.
Use the Techniques on all Types of Calls
The training focuses on creating a cold call script because they're the most difficult calls to make.
The techniques are just as effective on all other types of appointment calls, including: Information follow up calls, repeat customers, and responding to warm leads and incoming enquiries.
Create Your Sales Appointment Cold Call Script
The Steps of an effective Introduction Stage
Slide from Making Sales Appointments training courseEach stage of the sales appointment cold call script is made up of smaller steps. Here are the steps of the Introduction Stage.
The Introduction may only take a few seconds, but get it right and you will have given the prospect a clear understanding of who you are and why you are calling.
They will also know what's in it for them, the potential benefits they could gain by talking to you. The Reason for the Call is the most important line of your call script, it's worth investing in getting it perfect.
A good tip for your Introduction script is: Keep it brief. Only include what's necessary to achieve the objective of each step, nothing else.
Now see below for more detail on creating your cold call script for each step...
You – Name, Position, Title, Specialisation
It’s important to make a conscious decision on what you will say when you introduce you. Don't make it up on the call, look at the alternatives and select the best options. Decide if you will use just your first name in a friendly informal style or do you want to project a business image and use both your first and surname.
What you choose will depend upon how formal you want to sound and the type and position of the prospects you are contacting. Also, the etiquette and customs of the country the prospects reside in may also influence your choices. What's accepted in some locations is frowned on in others and would be a bad start to your appointment call.
The other choices you need to make are the words just before you announce your name, and any title or position you want to add. Are you going to use: My name is... or, I am... or some other lead in phrase? Every word leaves an impression, decide what you want the prospects to hear.
When asking for the prospect will you use Mr or Mrs. or just their name. There are no right or wrong choices, some work better than others and are more appropriate in different situations. The important point is: You are making conscious choices on what to say in your appointment setting cold call script.
Once you have given your name you want to say something about you that adds a benefit for the prospect. maybe your position in the company or your experience,. These could indicate you have proven knowledge that will help the buyer make informed decisions related to your sales offers. Consider the benefits you can offer to prospects, list them, and select which ones you will use when introducing you.
Now let’s look at how you introduce your company...
The Company – Name, Product
In the early stages of a sales appointment call the prospect is looking to make connections between what they know and what your call is about. The best way to help them is to give them points of reference. Decide what information will allow them to quickly understand who your company is and what it does.
Will they know your company name, the group it belongs to, or will your products be familiar to them? Does the name of your business explain what it does?
You have a limited amount of attention time the prospect is willing to give you at the Introduction Stage, make the most of it and get your message across quickly. Decide now what it is you want to tell prospects about your company when you introduce it.
Add a potential benefit your company can offer...
About the Company – A Potential Benefit
Slide from Making Sales Appointment training courseNow create a line for your cold call script, in your own words, that describes what the company does and also includes a very general benefit that most prospects will want.
The line should explain succinctly what your company or their product does. When you write your introduction line delete any words that are not needed to convey your message, keep it short and simple.
Think about your business angle, are you the cheapest, the most reliable, local, worldwide, or most experienced.
A real example of Introducing the Company
On the slide image is an example created while I managed and trained a sales team in the recycling sector. No waffle, a clear message, a benefit prospects want. This was used successfully on live calls for both telesales and sales appointment cold calls. If you are making cold calls take a look at the sales training on creating a stunning sales introduction
The next step of the introduction is the most important line in you sales appointment cold call script...
The Reason for the Call
It doesn’t matter how good your sales skills are or how well you can gain agreement to a sales meeting, if you don’t have an effective reason for calling you will not get to the later stages where you can use those skills.
Have you thought about why you are calling the prospect? From your viewpoint, you want to see if they qualify as a potential customer and you want to arrange a meeting so you can sell to them and gain your reward. From the prospect's perspective, they are not interested in what you want, they want to know what's in it for them. In your appointment cold call script this is the line that gives them the reason, from their perspective, to have the conversation with you.
Here is a brief excerpt from one of the exercises in the training course: Making Sales Appointment Calls by Telephone:
Write down as many reasons as you can come up with from the second position, the buyer’s viewpoint, that will motivate the buyer to keep listening to your call and eventually agree to meet with you. Think in terms of benefits that your sales offer could provide. Then add the features of your products and services that will provide those benefits. Now choose the best wide ranging, general benefit to add to your appointment setting call and turn it into a Reason for Calling. State the benefit and the feature so the prospect knows what they could gain and how it will be provided.
Try the exercise now, list the benefits, select the best ones, turn them into a Reason for Calling and add them to your sales appointment call Introduction Stage.
Want to Know if Your Reason for Calling is Effective?
I've developed a test that checks that you're clearly communicating a benefit that works from a prospect's perspective. Try it out at Test Your Reason for Calling...
Choosing the Words for Your Appointment Cold Call Script
We’ve only covered the brief Introduction Stage of a sales appointment call and already you can see that there are a lot of choices to make to select the best words for your cold call script. To help my sales teams create a successful call script in their own words, I developed a sales appointment call training course.
This course has been used and proven by the teams I’ve managed and trained for small businesses and international organisations.
It takes you through an exercise program with detailed instructions for every step of each of the 4 stages of a sales appointment call.
The result: You will have a complete sales appointment cold call script in your own words and customised for talking to your prospects.
This course has helped sales people and full time appointment setters worldwide to create an effective call script to make their own appointment calls and have a constant flow of meetings with qualified prospects. It will do the same for you.
To see if this course is right for you click the image or take a look at: Making Sales Appointment Calls
A quick way to create a sales appointment script
Want to get to know us first before investing in the full course - Try this out first
Create your own sales appointment script today - The training is concentrated and can be put into action in just a few hours.
Add your own words and phrases to customise the script for your products and marketplace. From a cold call introduction through explaining why you are calling to gaining agreement to an appointment, survey, demonstration, test drive, or whatever the next step of your sales process is. Fill your appointment diary, grow your business, and quickly learn how to contact more potential clients and customers. Making Sales Appointments in a Nutshell gives you a quick training course that's easy to follow, so you get it in a nutshell.
See more information at: Making Sales Appointments in a Nutshell Or, get the eBook now for just £9.97 and put the training into action today by using the button below.
The Next Stages of a Sales Appointment Call
The Introduction we have discussed on this page is the first of the 4 stages of a sales appointment cold call script. The stages that follow are shown below so you can follow on from the Introduction Stage or jump to another point in the call.
Stage 2 Motivation to Answer Questions
The second stage of the call is a technique I developed to motivate prospects to move with you to Stage 3 where they answer questions so you can qualify them as a potential customer and someone you want to meet. I created this technique, the Motivator, as many appointment setters get objections and obstacles at this stage of the call because it's where the prospect decides if they will listen to you. The Motivator gives them a reason to continue with the conversation. You can learn this unique addition to the cold call script at: Motivate Prospects on Cold Calls
Stage 3 Questions to Qualify the Prospect
You don't want to waste your time arranging appointments with people that can't buy from you. Stage 3 of the call is where you ask the sales questions that will give you the information to qualify the prospect as someone worth meeting and spending your valuable time with. You can view this stage at Effective Cold calling Questions
Stage 4 Gaining Agreement to a Sales Appointment
Stage 4 is the fun part of the call, this is where you close, you gain agreement from the prospect to a meeting. If you get the first 3 stages right this stage becomes easy. Learn how to do it at Sales Appointment Agreement Gaining
And all of these stages are included, in detail, in the training course Making Sales Appointments by Telephone shown above...
To go back to the main page of the Sales Appointment section and see an overview of all the stages, visit: Sales Appointment Setting
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