We’ve been struggling with getting our service coordinator comfortable with selling products and services over the phone. When I started Livewire, all the calls went to my mobile phone. I spoke to everyone and managed to upsell over the phone just fine. When we transitioned to a proper business phone system and others answering the phone, cracks began to show themselves in the model that worked so well when I was doing it. What was I doing wrong? I’d been telling our team what I wanted, but not how to get there.
Shame on me. I decided to change things up by becoming more prescriptive.
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Any sales training veteran will espouse the virtues of using scripts in sales calls. Most of them are corny and cultish sounding, but they have their place and give us all some good guideposts to refine our selling skills. We’ve certainly spent a lot of time working with our sales team on script-driven roleplay and power statements. How much time have we spent helping our service and installation teams with the same challenges? Not much.
I decided to document my last few customer interactions over the phone and use them to create a pretty good hypothetical script. We’re working with our service coordinator to refine it and hope he’ll make some suggestions to personalize it based on his actual experiences.
Here it is for you to do whatever you’d like with it (full disclosure: this script refers to 24/7 support and I’m a co-founder of Parasol):
Sample Service Phone Call Script:
You: Thanks for calling Livewire, this is <YOUR NAME>, how may I help you?
Client: My system’s not working. I need you guys to come out and fix it.
You: I’m so sorry to hear that. Can you tell me a bit more?
Client: I have sound but no picture on my TV.
You: Understood. That’s a common issue we hear about and very frustrating. I can walk you through the steps to reset your system, but it may require getting behind your system rack and unplugging some wires.
Client: I don’t want to mess with that rack. I’m scared I might break something.
You: I totally understand. We can schedule to have someone come out to do the reset. While we’re out there, we could also set you up with an app you could use to reset the system yourself from your smartphone the next time this happens. Would that interest you?
Client: Yes! What’s involved?
You: It’s easy. We now offer 24/7 remote support to our clients. In addition to giving you the app to reset the system yourself, we can also proactively monitor your entire network and everything connected to it to ensure small issues don’t turn into big problems down the road. We’ll also be able to diagnose and fix most problems remotely, driving down the need for you to wait around for one of our technicians to show up.
Client: Sounds good. How much?
You: We offer two flavors. Our proactive support subscription (where we’re keeping an eye on your system for you) is $49.99 monthly and reactive support (where you’re able to self medicate and contact us when you need it) is $27.99 monthly. If you decide it’s a good fit today, I’ll be able to waive our normal service call rate of $159.
Client: Sounds good. Let’s do it.
You: OK. I’m sending you a link (https://www.getlivewire.com/service/invision/) right now explaining each plan in more detail. Pick the best fit and click the button at the bottom of the page to sign up. We’ll make sure to get everything taken care of in one visit when we come out.
Client: Thanks so much!
You: You’re welcome. Let’s go ahead and get you scheduled.
If we’re only tell our employees we expect them to win without describing how to win, we’re doing them a huge disservice. I look forward to updating this post in a few months to let you know our results.
Do you use scripts to win?
Stay frosty, and see you in the field.
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