Ari Galper asked:


Recently you may have received a cold call from someone using an old-style linear sales script. You probably recognized it as a cold call because the person sounded a bit robotic and kept talking without allowing the conversation to “breathe.”

If you’ve been selling for a while, chances are you’ve been asked to use sales scripts, yourself. And you’ve probably used them because they were the only way you knew to start a cold calling conversation.

But here are some questions you need to ask yourself:

How do you really feel when you use a script?

How do your potential clients feel when they know you’re using a script? (And they do know.)

How many sales are you losing because you’re using a script?

When people call me and ask how they can throw out their scripts and cold call the natural way, the first thing I do is ask them whether they’re willing to role-play with me using their script.

After a few moments of listening, I gently stop them and tell them they’re sounding like a totally different person from the one who called me and talked with me so naturally about their sales issues.

You know what they always say? “Ari, you are so right. When I use a script, I feel as if I can’t be myself. I feel like a robot or an actor, and it’s awkward and uncomfortable. Is there any way I can be myself again?”

Here are 5 ways to throw out your linear selling script and be yourself again:

1.Admit that scripts make you sound “scripted”

When you begin your sales script, potential clients detect the very subtle change from your natural voice to your unnatural scripted voice within seconds.

“Fine,” you might say, “I’ll just work on making myself sound natural.” But that in itself creates a conflict. You can’t “work at” being natural. Really, you either are or aren’t.

2. Start your cold call as a conversation, not a one-way pitch

 

If you’re used to scripts, you’re probably wondering, “How the heck will I know what to say without a script?”

You might want to ask yourself why you think you won’t know what to say, because the reason for that is important. It means you’re basing your cold call on what you have to offer, and not on what’s important to the prospect.

Pitching your solution as soon as you begin a cold call is one of the biggest problems with linear sales scripts. Because you trigger sales pressure. This causes potential clients to react with defensiveness or immediate rejection.

3. Create openings rather than forcing a “yes”

 

Selling scripts are designed to be linear and step by step so you can move cold calls in the direction you want them to go. From the traditional cold calling point of view, that direction is toward a “yes.” Because if you don’t get a “yes” at the beginning of the cold call, you’re not “selling.” But that’s the biggest problem with scripts. They give you only one path to follow.

 

If you can start a conversation that triggers a “What do you mean?” response from your potential client, then you’ll find you can explain yourself in a natural way. It creates a two-way dialogue, which in turn lets you learn what you need to find out. You flow with the conversation without feeling you’re getting off-track.

4. Tape-record yourself talking with someone you know. Then record yourself reading your script.

 

Have you ever heard yourself calling a potential client and reading your script? Probably not. That’s why most people who use scripts think they sound natural. They’ve never heard themselves. But if you do this simple exercise, you’ll hear the same kinds of differences I hear when people role-play with me.

In our day-to-day relationships, we simply want to get to know and communicate with others. But when we go into cold calling using scripts, we have an agenda, which is to make the sale. People sense this immediately and put up their guard. etween our hidden agenda and their reaction, there’s no chance to build trust through communication.

5. Set a new goal for your cold calls

Focus on simply opening the conversation rather than trying to control it, so that potential clients feel comfortable telling you the truth about their situation. We’ve been taught for too long that we have to control the process. We never stop to think that scripts make it impossible for us to be flexible in how we communicate.

Does surrendering your use of a script seem scary? But when you are able do this, you can begin to engage total strangers on the phone in ways that feel as comfortable as calling a friend. Yes, it’s possible, and don’t let anyone tell you it’s not.

 

http://www.senior-citizen-information-services.com

Craig Freshwater asked:


By: Craig S. Freshwater, Webmaster/CEO http://www.newcybertech.com

http://newcybertech.com/Blog/2006/04/15/using-php-for-website-navigation-explained/

PHP can be very useful in your webiste design, I use PHP for my websites difficult functions such as forums, blogs, chat, user forms, and shopping cart interface. But did you know you can use simple PHP for your website navigation systems?
The use of PHP for your websites header, left side navigation, and bottom of page information can be a great asset. Now I know what you are thinking, PHP can be complicated and intimidating to many of you, but first let me explain.
Using simple PHP include commands is a method any webmaster at any expertise level from novice to expert can implement with ease.
Most find editing PHP a frightening endeavor, but never fear, I will show you how.
A lot of us still use tables when designing our web pages instead of CCS, below is a veiw of the basic setup I will be discussing in this article:
Go here to see Image http://www.newcybertech.com/images/Artica1.jpg
As you can see from the image above, all the content surrounding the main content of each page will be shown in PHP and this is what this article is all about. The benefit of this technique will be when you update any of the surrounding PHP files, the results will be reflected on every page on your website that you have setup in this fashion. This sounds great right, but hold on, there is one more benefit.
You may say the same thing can be accomplished with robot include commands, but there is a catch to that.
The problem with the robot include command is that this content can not be seen by search engine robots. We all know that content is king to achieving high search engine rankings, so why hide the content you have? That’s why what I am about to teach you and using PHP for your website navigation is so important.
“All the information and links included in your navigation PHP can be seen and indexed by all the search engine robots for higher rankings.”
Now on to how it all Works:
Please read below if you need this information, if not browse down to the steps to generate PHP navigation on your website.
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor, better known as PHP, is a highly popular, server-side scripting language that can be embedded directly into HTML coding.PHP can do anything that CGI can do, such as process form data and auto generate dynamic content, but PHP can do much more.It can be used on all major operating systems and supports most web servers.PHP is used by inserting PHP code inside your web page’s HTML code. When the page is called, your server automatically executes the code. What’s more, your visitors don’t need any special plug-ins for the code to run, as it will be displayed just like your HTML coding.As PHP is a server-side scripting language, although your visitors will not need to install any new software, PHP must be set up on your server.
Following is a very simple script that will test your server to ensure PHP is installed. It is a standard PHP function called phpinfo, which instructs the browser to print out information in regard to the set up of your server.
To use the script, simply copy the following three lines of code and paste them into a plain text editor, such as Note Pad.
Save the file as phpinfo.php and upload it to your server where you store your HTML files.
To run the script, simply point your browser to the script address. It should look something like this:

http://www.yourdomain.com/phpinfo.php

If PHP is installed on your server, you will be presented with a page of information about the PHP installed on your server.
If PHP isn’t installed, you will be prompted to download the file. In this case, you’ll need to contact your web host and ask them to install it, as it is free to download and install.
You can learn more about PHP and download it at

http://www.php.net/.

Steps to generate PHP navigation on your website.
First of all you need to enable create a php file with html includes using the php include function. This is easily done by adding one line to your .htaccess file for your apache driven site and have php parsed in html files. To do this logon to your websites FTP account, go into the .htdocs file, find the .htaccess file, edit it to add this one line of code to the file:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .html
With that, you can have php blocks parsed in your html files so long as you put the php code in php tags. Example below:
php Code:
We will get into how to use the above command a little later in this article .
Now on to the steps:
Step 1.
Build the the following pages in your favorite HTML editor:
A. header.html
B. left.html
C. bottom.html
D. right.html (optional)
Or you can name these files what ever you like, but I will be referencing them as the above for this article. Once you have these pages built to your liking, we now start implementing with PHP. First build a new Index.html page, you can name it TEST or something until you get it the way you want it. Set it up with tables to look like the page below:
Go here to see Image http://www.newcybertech.com/images/Artica2.jpg
Step 2. Now here is the trick, rename each HTML page you just built, “header.html, left.html, bottom.html, and right.html (optional)” to the .php file extension. You can do this by opening each .html file in a text file editor such as Notepad and save as .php to the same directory as the .html files on your server. You will now have a copy of each file in HTML and PHP format.
Step 3. We are now ready to use the new PHP files, in each table around your main content we will insert the Command functions.
See example below:
Go here to see Image http://www.newcybertech.com/images/php.jpg
Step 4. Open your new index page in your favorite browser and you will now see all the HTML pages you built come together as one page by using PHP.
Go here to see Image http://www.newcybertech.com/images/newcybertech.jpg
Step 5. Editing the new PHP navigation pages is easy, all you need to do is edit the HTML file you built in you favorite HTML editor. When your are done just copy the pages HTML and then paste it into the corresponding PHP file. To do this open the PHP file with a text editor and replace the HTML with in it with the edited version of HTML and save it as .php again. Now your PHP file is updated to match your edited HTML file.
In conclusion:
Now when ever you update your website header and navigation pages the results will be reflected on every page on your website that you have setup in this fashion. And as a added bonus all the information and links included in your navigation PHP can be seen and indexed by all the search engine robots for higher rankings.
You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines below are included.

http://www.certainscripts.com