Can We Agree It Is Better To Be Scripted Than To Be Unscripted

Writen by Dr. Gary S. Goodman

There is a threshold idea that you simply need to embrace if you are going to consider yourself to be a professional on the phone, whether you prospect, sell, set appointments, perform customer service, or collect past due accounts through this medium.

You'll perform better, get more done in less time, and reap greater rewards when you use a top-notch script than when you try to improvise from call to call.

If we can agree on this, we can accomplish wonders.

If not, we simply don't have a future together, at least where I serve as your consultant, coach, advisor or trainer.

You can be an utter communication genius, a wunderkind, a savant on the phone and still do worse than an average communicator who brings to life a carefully crafted and already proven call guide.

I know this is hard to believe, and I deal with phone folks who just don't get the fact that on their own they don't sound as good as when they've been directed by someone else.

Why, they should ask, are most actors not their own directors? Why don't the best athletes coach themselves?

In a word, they can't be OBJECTIVE about their own performances. They need instruction and feedback to bring out their best.

Moreover, what athletes and actors know is their audiences, their publics, their CUSTOMERS aren't buying THEM. Customers are buying an image of them or their functionality or effectiveness as performers.

For example, one of my college public speaking instructors was the dramatic swashbuckler, Sheldon Hayden. A former Captain in the Navy, and one of Dale Carnegie's handpicked clones, Mr. Hayden was fond of repeating this statement:

"I'll take a phony smile any day, over a sincere frown!"

Applied to phone work, this says customers don't want the REAL YOU to communicate with them. They could care less about that being. They want a helpful, cheerful and efficient communicator who will make them feel important and appreciated.

Most phone folks don't come close to reaching this ideal, call after call. Scripts enable them to do it, time and again, independent of their fluctuating moods, foibles, and personalities.

Understand the usefulness of scripts and have the wisdom to subordinate your ego.

Channel the desire to be loved and appreciated for who you really are into your personal life, not your professional one.

Best-selling author of 12 books and more than 900 articles, Dr. Gary S. Goodman is considered "The Gold Standard"--the foremost expert in sales development, customer service, and telephone effectiveness. Top-rated as a speaker, seminar leader, and consultant, his clients extend across the globe and the organizational spectrum, from the Fortune 1000 to small businesses. He can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.