Friday Success Tips

Many people recoil at the word “sales”, and may even say that they do not like sales. Yet, for the majority of people in business you are selling something unconsciously everyday because there is ‘Sales’ in a direct way and there is indirect sales.

If you are a coach, consultant or speaker, you are selling your services and yourself as well, because regardless how well you’re knowledgeable on a topic, people have to feel they resonate with you-with your personality-to want to take time to learn from you.  On the other hand, there are millions of people who overtly sell products and services online and offline.

In any type of sales situation you recognize the importance of communicating effectively so that you capture the attention of your audience of one or many at the outset, and be able to close the sale at the end of your presentation.

When you create a script or scripts to use as a template, this will be one of the finest business communication tools you can use to practice honing your skills. ‘Winging it’ will not achieve the same results.
James Beeson, co-author of “22 Keys to Sales Success: How to Make It Big in Financial Services” noted that, “Scripts give you a seamless way to move through a presentation.  Memorize and rehearse a script thoroughly enough and it will sound spontaneous.”

Misconceptions about using scripts:

Belief: “They don’t feel natural”; “They’re not my style.”

Fact: Practice! Practice! Practice!  It takes practice to make scripts take on your own voice and personality to that they sound natural and spontaneous.

Belief: Only beginners need scripts.

Fact: Tops sales people use a script or scripts that they’ve memorized but because of their experience they are able to decide when and how they can move away from the script

Belief: Scripts are too structured.

Fact: Creating a script that sells means that you can use a template that’s proven to be effective, but you can modify it to suit your style and your market.  How structured your script is rests on you.

I recall that when I first became a Skin Care Consultant I felt that none of the scripts sounded like me, and I could never use them because I’d sound fake.  I quickly learned that my success depended on practicing those scripts to make them my own because they worked; and there was no need to reinvent the wheel. They were designed to keep me on track so that three areas of my business could be covered in a short phone call or one-on-one contact.  Whenever I decided to ‘wing it’ I invariably forgot one point and couldn’t very well call back my customer to say, “Oh! There’s one more thing I forgot….”

An essential part of communicating effectively with your audience is to be authentic; be yourself.  Don’t be afraid to include stories of how you were affected by whatever your topic is.  Including illustrations or even results your clients have had in the past will be an added benefit because people remember short stories and illustrations more than facts and figures.

If you’ve read this far you may be saying, “I don’t do live presentations. Most of my marketing is done online, so this does not affect me.”  Yes, it does.  Creating a script that sells can be used effectively in Teleseminars, on your Opt-in Pages, Sales Letters, in e-mail marketing to name a few.

Do you have a collection of swipe files? Then you have a collection of scripts. What are your thoughts on the value of creating a script that sells?