Sales Scripts: Seven Secrets of Persuasion and Influence Secrets 3 & 4: Program Questions and Probing Statements, Benefit Bridges

sales_scriptsSales scripts are one of the most powerful ways to persuade and influence your prospects. Sales scripts can help transform you into a Master of Persuasion and Influence, only if you know the secrets.

Secret 3: Probing Questions and Probing Statements
Many salespeople agree that asking questions is a key component of discovering the prospect’s needs and making the sale. It is the level of detail and the types of questions asked that separates the average salesperson from a Sales Pro.

Sales Pros write out all the possible questions they would want to ask a prospect and then objectively choose the most effective probing questions and probing statements to use in their sales presentation. The probing questions and probing statements are then scripted for maximum impact. A Sales Pro decides what is the best order to ask those new questions.

Probing questions are fairly self-explanatory and Probing Statements encourage a prospect to reveal other important information that will help the salesperson to close the sale.

Here are two examples of probing statements:
1. “Tell me more about that.” or
2. “Describe to me your investment style.”

A Fundamental Principle of Selling is That People Buy Benefits

Secret #4: Benefit Bridges
A fundamental principle of selling is that people buy benefits. Sales-people, who have been selling for a while, sometimes fall into a trap and feel that the benefits of their product or service are so obvious and self-evident that the prospect will automatically “get it.”

Part of selling is education. Use Benefit Bridges to help the prospects understand how the product or service will help them. The structure of Benefit Bridge looks like this:
[Benefit]    [Benefit Bridge]    [Explanation of how the benefit helps the client]

Here’s how the Benefit Bridge works in action using the above format:
[Benefit]    ”What that means to you is…”    [Explain how the benefit helps the client]

John Kurth
Sales Script Writing Expert

Click here to read Seven Secrets of Persuasion and Influence Secrets Part 1 & 2

Sales Scripts: Seven Secrets of Persuasion and Influence – Secrets 1 & 2: Baseline Script & Scripting Syntax

sales_scriptsSales Scripts are one of the most powerful ways to persuade and influence your prospects. Sales scripts can help transform you into a Master of Persuasion and Influence, only if you know the secrets.

Secret 1: Baseline Script
You must be able to answer these three questions to begin unlocking the true potential of your script:
* What is a baseline sales script?
* What is your baseline script?
* What did your script look like and sound like when you first used it?

What is your baseline sales script?

A baseline script is a script you are using right now in your selling. The baseline sales script is a starting point from which you develop your main script. If you have not recorded your script and written it down word-for-word, you can’t improve the script. It’s that simple. Set a goal, right now, to record your script.

Sales pros consistently close sale after sale. Why? Sales pros have consistently improved their script over time, but every sales pros started with a written baseline sales script.

Sales scripts are living documents. You are always looking for ways to field-test your script to make it better. Every time you make changes to your written script, write the date down, which gives you time-series data to work with. Sales pros are always looking for ways to improve their scripts and you should too.

Secret 2: Scripting Syntax
Don’t let the term “scripting syntax” scare you. Scripting has its own language. “Scripting syntax” refers to the various component parts of the script and the rules governing script construction.
1. Identify the various component parts of the script.
2. Learn how these scripting pieces are used.
3. Now you can craft a Master Script of persuasion and influence.

What are the various component parts of scripts?
Many of you are familiar with “Objections.”  Objections are a normal component of a sales script. Here are just a few of the various component parts of sales scripts:

* Four (4) types of stories,
* Five (5) different types of benefits,
* Buyer Fingerprint,
* Nine (9) components of the Close (I’ll cover this in Script Secret #6)
* Outcomes and Chunks,
* Contrast,
* Testimonials,
* Probing Questions and Probing Statements.

The above list is not exhaustive, and there are many more script components to cover than we have space for.

Understanding the different types of scripting forms and how they are used makes the difference between an average script and a Master Script for persuasion and influence.

Be sure to read my next Blog post
Secret #3: Probing Questions and Probing Statements
Secret #4: Benefit Bridges and Magic Words