Write an Effective Telemarketing Script
An effective telemarketing script, first and foremost, keeps the person on the receiving end of the call interested enough to stay on the line. To do this, the telemarketer must capture the attention of the potential client early, not losing them in the required legal language at the top of the call. Brevity, clarity and immediacy will most likely to keep a respondent on the line.
Instructions
1. Write a compelling lead. According to Diana Mey, a company that crusades against telemarketers, a survey revealed that 98 percent of respondents said telemarketing calls made them "angry." This overwhelming bias against the telemarketer makes it essential to prove within the first 10 seconds that the call is worth taking.
A lead is essentially the beginning of the call, in which the telemarketer introduces himself and reads any compulsory legal jargon. Because this portion is likely to be particularly uninteresting to the average person, it is important to put in some bit of potentially compelling information, a "headline" of sorts. This headline should have immediacy, justifying the timing of the call.
This could be as simple as mentioning a good deal that the company is offering, or, if you are calling for a cause, a short explanation of the cause. Quickly incorporate why the offer must be acted on now, or why the timing of this call is important. This will give the respondent reason to pause and think, rather than allow her to hang up without really knowing the purpose of the call.
2. Continue stressing the immediacy of easily-grasped issues as you move into the pitch. Many telemarketing scripts are overloaded with facts and figures that can distract the telemarketer in the moment. You should incorporate facts from a "cheat sheet," but the important thing is to continue driving home the reason why the call is being made at this particular time, and to do so in simple language. Include facts and figures as a resource in a section at the bottom of the script, but statistics generally bore people and signal that the telemarketer is reading a script.
3. Craft three rebuttals, each one shorter than the next, to objections from respondents. A saying in telemarketing is, "Your job starts with 'no.' " When 99 percent of the potential clients say "no" to the first pitch, the telemarketer must be able to bounce back with ease, and a script with a well-crafted rebuttal will help him to do so. Include a short acknowledgment of the potential client's objection (e.g., "I understand the hesitancy, but we're asking right now [Mr. Smith] because..."). Then, continue to hammer home the immediacy of the pitch, often including much of the same information phrased a bit differently. If there is a secondary, somewhat immediate issue, mention it within the first rebuttal.
Repeat this strategy for the next two possible rebuttals. If there is a common objection that the calling campaign receives (e.g., bad economy), it is useful to craft opening lines to those rebuttals that explicitly acknowledge and then refute that concern.
4. Conclude with grace. If the telemarketer fails to close the deal in four pitches, it will be time for her to move on. Writing a graceful sign-off for the telemarketer will leave the person on the other end of the line with a good impression of the company. Sometimes the telemarketer is flustered and frustrated by the conclusion, so it helps to have an official "thank you" to read at the end. Make the sign-off short but sincere, as the person on the line has the potential to be a future customer.
If the telemarketer closes the deal, an alternate paragraph should thank the customer in one short sentence, and then move to method of payment. Dwelling on the thank you, or overselling, could lose the sale.
5. Structure the script so that it's easily read. You may want to consider buying telemarketing script template software to help make the format readable.
The lead should be its own paragraph, with bracketed prompts for fill-in info, e.g., [telemarketer's name], [name of company]. Each pitch should be its own paragraph. The conclusion, whether it's a sale or a refusal, should be a separate paragraph. One option is to put the sale and the refusal paragraph in parallel columns at the bottom so that the telemarketer can easily jump to the proper one.
