thank you for calling so scripter how
can I help you Michael my name is I work
for a company called I sent you an email
a couple of weeks ago and I would not be
shocked or floored if you did not
remember the subject line Michael just
said best-kept secret and it was a
blatant marketing email talking about
the benefits of using a P or
professional employer organization that
ring a bell by any chance mmm sure
doesn't all right well that's what we
try to make a memorable Michael my
company I'm a I know you weren't sitting
in your office waiting for me to call
but I'll make this extremely brief I'm
looking to try to spend maybe five
minutes on the phone with you to talk
about what my company is doing right now
for about 400 companies in 40 different
states helping them become more
profitable we're an outsourcing firm our
clients outsource things like payroll
and taxes and workers comp and benefits
like medical dental vision HR support
workers comp all kinds of stuff like
that
would you have based on what I just told
you but in a real hurry would you have
maybe five minutes to spend with me on
the phone I've been doing this about 15
years Michael I really I truly need
maybe five minutes to see I need to ask
you a couple questions about sales
scripture and how you're doing things
now share some stuff about my company
with you after a few minutes if there's
any interest at all we can schedule for
some further discussion and if not would
just go on down the road I mean I'm I'm
pretty busy I would imagine it's going
to be more than five minutes to cover
what you just outlined oh well I can
keep it extremely breather but I've got
a couple minutes right now if you do I
mean to be honest with you I mean we're
probably we're not doing anything in
that area we're not planning on making
any changes okay you outsource anything
now Michael I out is are you doing your
own pears everything I just mentioned
done in-house now we outsource payroll
okay to 80 like ATP or somebody like
that
somebody like that
so why do you out and this is a trick
question why do you outsource a payroll
we do not have to worry about any of
that right that's exactly what you just
said is exactly why we do everything
else we do it doesn't make money it's a
pain in the Fanny a lot of times there's
there's liability that goes along with
it
and it takes away from our clients focus
nobody goes into business to do payroll
and taxes and benefits and eight jars to
nobody goes into business to do that
it's just kind of the ugly side I start
to hire employees so that's what that's
why our clients outsource all that stuff
to us so they can stay on point with
what they went into business for I think
we've looked at PE is we have looked at
PE owes in the past and I it all makes
sense to me I get it I think that when
we looked at in the past we were smaller
than what most people don't I don't
think it probably makes sense for you to
spend your valuable time trying to get
us as a client right well giving it out
give me a ballpark idea we've got
clients right now from like seven
employees on up to a little over three
hundred so if you're in that met and and
you're right there definitely is a
break-even point where it makes sense
once you get to a certain level of
employees it may make sense from a
financial standpoint to bring it
in-house but you just ballpark it for me
would give me an idea how many employees
you have now full-time I don't really
don't want to get into specifics if you
want to shoot me an email happy to keep
your info on file okay we grow sure nope
nope that sounds good I appreciate
thanks for taking a couple of minutes
Michael that's really all I needed I
appreciate it okay hi buddy see you
right all right so let's review that
call I want to talk about what went well
what could have gone better and after we
do that I actually want to provide the
cold call script that I would recommend
this person uses on this particular call
so to get started regarding the
introduction and how he open the call I
think overall this guy I think said too
much
you only have a couple minutes to work
with on a cold call so you really need
to be as economical as you can with the
words you use similar to sending an
email you only have a limited amount of
time or space and every word you use is
use a very precious time you'll see in
the call script that I give you it's a
lot shorter and a lot tighter the next
part of a script I label as a value
statement because I think you should
open the call with some sort of value
statement or value proposition and this
is your communication to the other
person as to why they should either keep
talking to you right now or why they
should meet with you and talk to you in
the appointment you're trying to
schedule or the next conversation that
you're gonna propose so that this is
where and the call you need to do that
I put value statement but it's really
not a value statement it's just kind of
him telling me about him himself right
so there's no there's no value in that
he tells me about how many customers he
has he does mention a little bit of
value when he says help them to become
more profitable it's kind of a weak
value statement helping businesses
become more profitable doesn't mean much
right so if you you need a little bit
more meat on your value proposition you
don't need some huge long explanation
but to say you help companies become
more profitable that doesn't really yeah
every business wants to be more
profitable every business wants to
increase sales every business wants to
decrease costs but you can't just say
that that short little piece of value
you need to say something like become
more profitable by decreasing their
labor costs a little bit more leave a
little bit more meat on the bone then
what he does is he goes on to list out
basically all the services he provides I
recommend against doing this for two
reasons first of all this is a very
product selling product pushing type of
message I sell this and this and this do
you need what I sell right so that's not
real compelling that doesn't create a
lot of interest if someone is guarded
and doesn't feel like dealing with the
salesperson it'll push someone away so I
don't want you to sound like a
salesperson and truant that is trying to
sell something and that's exactly what
that statement does but the second thing
that's where
with that or that's not optimum with
that statement of listing out all the
different things you do and sometimes
sales people will do this in an email
is that your if you give an inventory
list of everything that you sell you
make it extremely easy for the prospect
to go well I don't need that I don't
need that and I have something for that
and I'm not interested in that so
there's no reason for us to talk and not
only are you making making that decision
easy for the prospect but it's not even
the right decision to put in front of
the prospect because your goal should
not be to sell your service your goal
should be to sell the conversation and
the fact that they don't need or don't
and all already use someone or aren't
looking to buy one of those things
doesn't mean that you shouldn't talk or
it's not a reason to not talk it's a
reason to not buy what you sell today
but it's not a reason to not have a
conversation the next thing the the
salesperson does is he goes for the
clothes and in my opinion he goes for
the clothes too early right he hasn't
asked me any questions about me and he's
basically closing for the appointment
he's saying would you have five minutes
I want to ask you a few questions and
share some stuff about me basically is
what he's doing now he's basically
closing for the appointment my argument
would be he's not being honest with me
right because he's saying I want to
close you for five minutes either he
knows that he needs more time and he's
misleading me on what that next event is
going to look like in order to close it
or he doesn't really have a clear
picture of what he's trying to do next
and and that's what I think is probably
the case which is experienced
salespeople think you know I know if I
can get the conversation started or if I
can get the meeting I know what steps to
take someone through and I figure it out
in that particular moment in terms of
what to do next but I recommend having
some having a picture of the steps
you're going through at the very
beginning because that can impact what
you try to close for and what you say
and these are three steps that I
recommend you go through step one is the
initial contact step two is the meeting
and step three is the presentation the
initial contact this is the cold call so
we're having the
contact right now with this salesperson
and he's trying to close me on five
minutes to ask me some questions and
tell me a little bit about him my advice
would be dude that that what he's
suggesting closing before is the initial
contact so either he's adding another
step where he's Co calling me to
schedule the initial contact and if he
genuinely wanted to limit that to five
minutes then what he's gonna schedule me
an appointment he's gonna schedule an
appointment after that so he's either
adding an extra step or he's confused as
to what steps he's he's trying to close
for and move me through my advice would
be you have me on the phone try to
complete the initial contact and have
two to five minutes right then and so
the goal of the the initial contact is
basically to prequalify the prospect and
so this is to ask a few questions learn
a little bit about me to determine if it
makes sense to schedule a meeting you
know if if I'm not a qualified prospect
then it doesn't even make sense for him
to send an email and put time on my
calendar maybe come out to my office and
whatnot get all that out of the way when
he has me on the phone and we actually
end up doing a little bit of that and
we'll talk about that in a minute but
the goal of the initial contact the goal
is not to sell the product and he kind
of did a little bit of that or kind of
headed in that direction the goal of the
initial contact is to sell the meeting
and the meeting is basically an
appointment of deeper conversation it
could be over the phone it could be
face-to-face but it's anywhere between
ten to sixty minutes and this is where
you ask more questions it's about half
the time on the prospect half the time
on you and the goal of the meeting is
still not to sell the product the goal
of the meeting is to move the prospect
to the presentation which is where you
can go into more detail on how it works
and what you have to offer and present
the options now of course for some
companies this might sound might be a
formal demonstration presentation thirty
to sixty minutes but for many for many
salespeople that saw something very
simple simple this could just be simply
opening up a brochure or showing a
couple slides or explaining something
for five to ten minutes so that's the
presentation step and again I think that
this guy would have had a better
if instead of trying to close me for a
meeting or an initial contact in his
cold call have a real initial contact
where we exchanged questions and
information and based on what we
discussed then try to close me for a 15
to 20 minute meeting and I think he
would have most likely in this call he
would have disqualified me that would be
a better way to manage everything and I
think the call leading up up leading up
to the close would have been better
organized for this guy let's talk about
some objections that came up so I told
him when he tried to close me I told him
I'm pretty busy and he said I can keep
it brief I have a couple minutes right
now if you do I
I would give his response to this
objection maybe a C or B - because he
kept the call going right so if you go
back and listen to the recording we did
keep talking
the next objection that came up is we
are not making any changes I think he
did a really good job of responding to
this so he basically deflected the
objection which is what I would
recommend so if someone says we're not
making any change right now
ask a question to keep the conversation
going so he said do you outsource
anything at all today who do you
outsource to so I think that was really
good
kept the conversation going I gave him
another objection which is we are too
small and he responded how many
employees do you have I think that was a
good way to respond to that so we're too
small is the type of objection where you
know if it if you get an objection
that's a showstopper sometimes instead
of just trying to get around it or
ignore it or deflect it sometimes you
want deal with it head-on right so like
the types of service he sells sometimes
needs like a minimum of 10 15 20
employees and if if we're too small for
that then that's good information
because why does he want to schedule a
meeting by the way this is an objection
and a question that he asked after he
tried to close me for an appointment
this is a great example of why you would
want to have this discussion in the
initial contact get this out of the way
this would be a good initial contact
question that he could ask before trying
to go for the close even if I don't give
the objection of work
you small all right so that's my
feedback on what he did now let me show
you what I would do if I was in his
situation right because it's only fair
if I criticize him I show you what I
would do you can see here I've scratched
out his text and replaced it without
what I would say to for the introduction
this is Michael Halpert calling from
sales script or have I caught you in the
middle of anything so you could see here
just on word-count I've shortened what
what he opened with a lot and I then I
mentioned he should open with some sort
of value statement so the next thing I
would say is great the reason for the
calls we help small business owners to
decrease the cost and time they spend on
areas like HR and payroll so that's my
value statements one sentence
it doesn't necessarily clearly explain
the services that I sell which is good
and bad it's good because it doesn't
necessarily give the prospect something
to say oh I don't need that or I don't
want that and it kind of tells the
general angle that I'm coming from and
it communicates why they should talk to
me
then what I do after my value
proposition I do a small little takeaway
which is to say hey but you know I'm not
sure if you're a good fit with what we
do so I have a question or two so a
little takeaway kind of decreases the
guardedness and then then I would ask
some questions so this is changing his
call from right here on his call he
would go he was going for the clothes
right so now instead of going for the
clothes I'm gonna ask a few what I call
pain questions these are questions that
probe for some of the pain points that
he should be looking for here are also
some current environment questions you
saw him ask some current environment
questions I refer to current environment
questions as questions that basically
identify what's going on today now the
current environment questions could also
uncover pain but they're more directly
trying to figure out what are they using
today what's going on what's not working
well but these are the types of
questions when he asked me how many
employees do you have so that's a sizing
question you can see down there at the
bottom and and so who are you currently
outsourcing today what do you outsource
those are examples of current
environment questions the goal of
current both your pain questions and
your current environment questions are
basically to
if I that things aren't working well or
could be working better and and to find
a reason to talk a little bit more right
if everything is great in the area that
this guy has something to offer then it
doesn't make sense for us to talk so
you're trying to find out are things not
great or things could things be better
and when you figure that out then you
have a reason to close for talking more
now your your pain questions or your
current environment questions might not
uncover that things aren't working well
and if that happens you can always just
give them the pain points that you are
looking for so hey oh well it sounds
like you guys are doing pretty good let
me ask you when I talk with other small
businesses they often have challenges
with and give a couple pain points and
say hey are you concerned about any of
those areas this is basically the same
thing as like a doctor who asks you if
you have some symptoms right if they're
trying to figure out what's wrong with
you and they ask you does this hurt does
this hurt if does it hurt if I poke you
here and if all their questions if you
say no I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine
then if they just say well I don't know
maybe you don't have anything wrong with
you let me ask you do you have this this
or this and they just give you the the
the problems that they're looking for so
it's kind of a last-ditch effort and you
can do it at the end of your cold call
or you could use this as some as a way
to respond to some of your objections or
something to bounce back to if you can't
close ideally if you identify that they
have some pain then right before you try
to close for talking more which would be
trying to close for the meeting you want
to build a little interest on their side
and what you have to offer so this is
where you could talk just a little bit
about what you sell so this is where you
might say well it might make sense for
us to talk to more detail the reason why
as we provide HR and payroll outsourcing
it includes this and includes this we
can help you to do this we can help you
to do this we're different from other
options or the option you're using in
this way this way in this way a quick
example a company just like you we work
with them we we help them to decrease
this and this and we were able to do
that through this service that we
offered them that ultimately helped them
to decrease the
this particular area so but you know
I've called you out of the blue I I'm
not sure if this is the best time to
continue to discuss this do you want to
keep discussing this a little more
probably a 15 to 20 minute meeting would
be best and I can share with you some
examples of how we've helped other
companies to improve this and improve
this and improve this you do you want to
talk about you want to schedule that or
you know if you if you're free right now
we if you have 15-20 minutes we can we
can talk about it right now if you're
interested so that's the close so
basically so hopefully that gives you
some ideas of maybe how you could
structure your cold calls if you like
that and you want more ideas and more
help what we offer is the smart sale
system basically smart stands for sales
messaging and response tactics basically
everything we do focuses on on improving
what you say we believe that your best
sales tool you use all these different
sales tools emails computer social media
mobile phone email automation you have
all these different tools the most
powerful tool you you you have are the
words that you choose to say and we are
the only sales training methodology
software platform sales tools set out
there that not only improves what you
say but actually in many cases tells you
exactly what to say in a lot of the
different common situations that come up
when you're prospecting
the way it works is basically we first
start at level we would call this level
one and we help you to build your sales
message so this is identifying the
product you want to sell the buyer
you're going after your benefits your
pain points your questions customer
examples once we identify and basically
collect a few bullet points in those
areas and that's actually what I did for
this guy's example when I was creating
his script I basically went through and
basically organized four or five
different bullet points in each of those
areas once you have all those bullet
points then you can feed those into week
you can use those to create call scripts
email messages voicemail scripts
objection responses reading scripts
sales presentation
we actually have a software platform
called sale script or we could do all
that manually like if you wanted to work
with us in a consulting manner we can
help you to build your points and then
build those documents we also have a
software application called sales script
er that gives you the place to build
your message and then it it dumps your
message and fills your message into all
these different documents and sales
tools and sales scripts and then the
level 3 which is above that are all the
sales tactics and processes so once you
have your objection responses in your
call scripts and your email templates
how do you use those how do you put
those together into a methodology and
and use it in a way to get into accounts
so that's the level 3 and that put
brings everything together and basically
that is what we call the smart sale
system and that in in many ways it's a
two-part system where part one is a
methodology and and you can access our
methodology through our books training
videos coaching consulting and we work
with salespeople we also work with sales
managers to help them train their
salespeople and then level 2 is the I'm
sorry and then the second part of this
system is the software platform of sales
scripture and the two parts completely
aligned so that's basically what we have
to offer and if you want more
information on sales script er the
software application it is basically $49
per user per month you get a 40 percent
annual discount if you sign up for the
year the training and the methodology
for the smart system you can access it
all on YouTube at no cost of course you
can buy our books and download our
ebooks and purchase consulting and
coaching but the training is all
available on YouTube for free a service
that's very popular is a lot of our
customers will get the the monthly
subscription of the software and then
you can purchase a sales script or
walkthrough which is a two hour
engagement where basically we will go
through the software with you and help
you to answer all the questions and
build your sales message so we basically
help you to build to go through level
one and build your first sales message
and then we do that in the saw
we're and then your message then
populates a whole library of documents
and sales scripts and email templates
and sales tools so you then get level 2
filled out by the software and then
level 3 which is the training you can
then access in parallel on YouTube for
free so basically for 240 not $49 you
get a library documents pretty much
written by me not only did I write I'll
create all the templates and the
software but it with the script or
walkthrough I'm actually working with
you to build your message together with
you and and so it's a pretty good value
and probably one of our most popular
packages that people buy if you have any
questions here's my direct contact into
a foe feel free to reach out to me
directly and I hope this video is
helpful to you and good luck and happy
hunting