My youngest daughter, Madeline, recently took a job working for Hibooks, a start-up competitor to Audible that’s using the Netflix model to build a following. She’s in customer service (no better place for Farquharson sarcasm, she tells me). Madi says this new job has given her a new appreciation for the patience necessary when working with people who are somewhere between ignorant, ill-equipped and impatient. She’ll give people the solution to their problem and they return with the same issue days later, asking the same questions.
Madi, I feel your pain.
“Hey, Bill, do you have a script I can use when selling print?”
I get this question from clients frequently. It’s not that the request is “stupid,” it’s just that the pitch made to a prospect is based on the purpose of the call. That, in turn, comes from the pre-call research done prior to picking up the phone. No research, no quality call.
But still, they persist. Even after the lesson on how important it is to know something about the client prior to the start of any prospecting process, I still get asked: “Hey, Bill, do you have a script I can use when selling print?”
Okay, fine. Here is your phone script if your goal is to sell print: “The purpose of my call is to either lower the usage cost of your documents or increase their value. May I speak to the person interested in benefiting from this service?”
Here’s the thing: This is still a lower quality sales call than what’s possible, but at least you have a small chance of getting into a decent conversation about solving problems and it’s lightyears ahead of, “Who buys your printing?”
I’d much prefer you learn how to peruse a prospect’s website or learn how to become a Subject Matter Expert in a vertical market, but if you must make a call without doing any kind of preparation, those words are the best you’ll do.
P.S. – Madeline tells me the #1 complaint she gets from people using their audio book service is that they can’t see the words they are hearing. Don’t over-think it, kids. It’s every bit as stupid as it sounds.
