The 4 Options For Creating A Sales Script…
Option 1:
I’ve hired many copywriters in the past.
And mostly, all I got was rubbish work.
The reason for this was for one very specific reason…
Not because they were “bad.”
…But, because I didn’t know how to hire people.
About 12 years ago I used to DJ, Emcee and promote nightclubs.
At the time I worked for a company that supplied entertainers to these clubs.
Their CEO was going through the Birthing Of Giants program from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in order to learn how to grow his company.
As he was going through the program, he was disseminating a lot of the learnings and knowledge to his staff.
That was a fantastic bonus for someone like me being involved in the company.
One of the books that was recommended through MITs program was called Top Grading by Brad Smart.
The book is all about how to hire, coach and keep what he calls A-Players (as opposed to B-players.)
I read that book and it was phenomenal.
But, what I’m about to explain is a summary of what I’ve learned from that book, particularly for hiring copywriters.
I read the book, I implement it by hiring people, I messed up, tried again and repeat.
Here are the 5 lessons I learnt during that period…
LESSON 1:
Find the required skill level for the sales script you want.
What I mean by that is look for copywriters in your niche or copywriters that know about your product, service or industry.
You also want to determine how much time the copywriter has spent in the niche or with about your product, service or industry.
LESSON 2:
The next thing is to ask for samples of their work, particularly before-and-after they touched it:
- What was the instructions they took;
- What did they do with it; and
- What was the difference between those two.
You’re not judging them based on if you think the copy will be effective or not…
…The only opinion that matters in that regard is what the market DOES, not what they think, you think or anyone else’s opinion of it.
What prospects do in reality, based on that script is the only thing that matters.
You also want to be happy with the language they use.
Is it congruent with who you are, the product you’re selling and your brand?
For example, the way I talk and the way I express myself is not the same as how others do — I look for samples that reflect me.
LESSON 3:
In general, copywriters charge rates based on:
- Per task;
- Per script;
- Per word;
- Per hour (retainer model);
- Royalty; or
- A combination of all of those.
There are pros and cons to all of these…
For example, if you hire per word, a copywriter may take 4 words to describe something that only needs 1.
The thing is copywriters are damned costly:
- You can pay $5–10,000s per piece;
- Or you can go to Fiverr.com and you can pay someone $5 to write copy for you;
- Or you can pay $0.10 per word to $5 per word;
- Or you can pay anywhere from $5 to $250 per hour;
- Or you can pay anywhere from 1–10% of total sales of that sales scripts generates.
LESSON 4:
Don’t expect a script immediately!
In terms of turnaround time, copywriting is a manual task and is going to take a copywriter time to get a sales script back to you.
Plus, they are balancing your need with other clients.
What I recommend is hire a copywriter initially for a single small task.
Get that task completed quickly (as it is small) to see:
- If you’re happy with it;
- If the before-and-after works for you; and
- If they use congruent language.
This doesn’t cost a lot of money and doesn’t take a lot of time to complete.
Then hire for the actual script that you want created.
LESSON 5:
Copywriters usually like to work to a similar process:
- You fill out a survey or form;
- They take that and write the initial draft based on that;
- You receive it back;
- You do any redrafting that is needed (there always is); and
- Repeat 1–4 by hiring for the actual script you want created.
The downside with hiring a copywriter is that a sales script is just once-off — you get your script and if you want another one done, you need to pay again-and-again-and-again, all with a time delay.
However, the process of you filling out a survey or form should only take about 15 minutes.
Option 2:
Now, if you don’t want to hire a copywriter, the other option is to become a copywriter.
I’ve done this also, because of all of the things that I said previously:
- Getting rubbish work;
- Cost;
- Time delay;
- And so on…
But, to become a copywriter, there are lots of things to learn.
I’m not going to go through all of them, but there are lots-and-lots of types of sales scripts you should know how to write:
- Headline Scripts;
- Ad Scripts;
- Third Party Recommendation Scripts;
- Cold Outreach Scripts;
- Press Release Scripts;
- Exhibition Stand Scripts;
- Door-To-Door Scripts;
- Referral Scripts;
- Birthday Invite Scripts;
- Networking Scripts;
- Manifesto Scripts;
- Self-Introduction Scripts;
- Elevator Pitch Scripts;
- Investment Scripts;
- About Me Scripts;
- Rapport Scripts;
- Needs Analysis Scripts;
- Market Research Scripts;
- Qualification Scripts;
- Lead Capture Scripts;
- Registration Scripts;
- Application Scripts;
- Offer Scripts;
- Features And Benefit Scripts;
- Upsell Scripts;
- Down Sell Scripts;
- Impulse Buy Scripts;
- Solution Presentation Scripts;
- Guarantee Scripts;
- Value Translation Scripts;
- Story Scripts;
- Trial Close Scripts;
- Calls To Action Scripts;
- Close Scripts;
- Follow-Up Scripts;
- Product Launch Scripts;
- Case Study Scripts;
- Customer Service Scripts;
- And many, many more…
But, how do you learn these?
For me it was through book.
Lots-and-lots of books!
And cross-referencing and trying suggestions out And messing up ad nauseum.
All-in-all, here are the 3 lessons I learnt on the journey to becoming a copywriter…
LESSON 1:
All sale scripts have the following 7 components:
- Your Goals;
- Problem Awareness;
- Buying Temperature;
- 5W’s & 2 H’s;
- Price & Length;
- A.I.D.A.; and
- Delivery Location.
And you need to get yourself up-to-speed with all of them.
Let’s go over each of them…
1) Goals
Every sales script has should fit one of four goals:
- Generate a lead;
- Create a customer;
- Upsell that customer; or
- Follow-up with them.
2) Problem Awareness
In order to know which goal to concentrate on, you need to know where the customer is in their journey from problem to solution, particularly are they:
- Unaware they have a problem;
- Aware they have a problem;
- Aware there are solutions; or
- Aware of your solution.
3) Buying Temperature
Based on that, you’ll know if they:
- Don’t know you;
- Know you, but don’t like you, or trust you;
- Know you, like you, but don’t trust you; or
- Know, like and trust you.
And this will give you the related Buying Temperature:
- Frozen;
- Cold;
- Warm; or
- Hot.
Boiling is when they become a customer and they love you (but we’re not talking about that here.)
If someone is a customer one of those four goals have been achieved!
4) 5W’s & 2 H’s
Now every type of sale script has the 5 W’s and 2 H’s, that is:
- Who are you;
- What do you have on offer;
- Where can a prospect get the offer;
- When can they get the offer and for how long;
- Why is the offer important;
- How do they get the offer; and
- How much does the offer cost.
5) Price & Length
Price usually dictates how long the script length needs to be.
There are some exceptions but, in general, so the longer the sales script the higher the price.
And more importantly the higher the price the longer the sales script.
6) A.I.D.A.
All sales scripts need to get:
- (A)ttention;
- (I)nterest;
- (D)esire; and
- (A)ction.
E St. Elmo Lewis has been attributed with the acronym AIDA.
This usually translates into:
- Bait;
- Story;
- Offer; and
- Request.
The offer is the most important component that cause prospects to take action.
If you offer something for $1 you need to be offering value of $1.01 more.
For example, if I offer something for $100, but I only ask for $1 in return, that’s going to be an easier sale for that offer, than me asking $1 in exchange for me giving $1.01 in value.
Likewise, if I ask for a $1 and I give a $1,000 value in exchange, that’s going to be a far easier sale for that offer.
The offer creates desire or want.
The story (or reason) creates the interest in the offer.
The Bait gets attention for me to be able to tell the story.
Bait gets attention.
Story creates interest in the offer
The offer creates the desire or the want or the sale.
Then all you need to do is make a request for them to act and buy.
7) Delivery Location
All sales scripts have a delivery location.
It could be live:
- Face-to-face; or
- Phone/Video phone.
It’s in critically important that when you are delivering sales scripts live, you should not read it word-for-word because you sound like a robot.
I learnt this from cold calling for charity sales.
It could also be canned:
- Video (watching);
- Audio (listening);
- Text (reading); or
- A combination.
It’s not so critical, but you also don’t want to be delivering them word-for-word.
Everything should sound natural — just like you’re talking another human being.
Which you are!
Delivery location could also be:
- 1-To-Many; or
- 1-To-1.
1-To-Many, might be you talking to an audience, either live or canned.
1-To-1, might be you talking to an individual, either live or canned.
LESSON 2:
Next you need to select a sales script.
Then you need to apply those 7 components to the sales script:
- What goals do you have;
- What Problem Awareness is the customer at in their journey;
- What Buying Temperature does that translate into;
- What are the 5W’s & 2 H’s in terms of how you are going to apply that to;
- What is the price & length of the script;
- How are you going to get attention, interest, desire and action; and
- How are you going to deliver it and to who are you going to deliver it.
LESSON 3:
The problem is writing is damn hard & time consuming!
I teach and lecture undergraduate university students and even for 2,000-word essays the vast majority find the same.
There are a few reasons for this:
Blank pages by definition has no framework or structure.
When you see a blank page, you don’t know where start:
- Do you start at the beginning?
- Do you start at the end?
- Do you start in the middle?
- Do you start with specifics?
- Do you start with broad context?
What do you do?
Well, you just stare at a blank screen and procrastinate — you do all the other things except sit down and do the task of creating a sales script.
It all takes time to learn…
You have to learn:
- Structures;
- Lengths;
- Temperatures;
- Pricing;
- Trust required;
- Format; and
- Delivery locations.
And once you have leant that, again, just like hiring a copywriter, it takes time to do yourself because it’s manual work.
Option 3:
There is a third option….
Combine both:
- Hire a copywriter; and
- Become a copywriter.
Hiring a copywriter means they ask you questions, and you fill in the blanks.
Those questions give you the framework or the structure — a broad overview of the sales scripts.
It is like a game of connect-the-dots and once you have answered them, you the delete all the questions and you’ve got your sales script.
Or you can write the sales script and then give it to a copywriter to redraft and edit it for you.
Option 4:
But is there a better way than option 1, 2 or 3?
I’ve done all 3 before, and yet, I still want a shortcut.
I don’t want to have to hire copywriter.
I don’t want to have to write to copy myself.
So, I’ve created software that writes all of your sales scripts within 15 minutes.
It instantly creates a draft sales script so I can then edit that draft.
No more staring at a blank screen with Writers Block.
All you have to do is enter a few keywords in some input boxes (just like you would if you hired a professional copywriter), hit submit, then then software instantly writes multiple draft sales scripts for the following:
- Cold, Warm and Hot Prospects Ads;
- Cold and Warm Content Ideas; and
- Sales Scripts for Lead Generation, Lead Follow-up and Sales Conversion.
You get 8 sales scripts it total from 1 input form!
This software has:
- Regular updates so you can get new and revised sales scripts, which means you don’t need to create or do any sales script testing yourself;
- A Request Feature so you can get a specific sales script you need for your business, which means you don’t need to hire an expensive copywriter to do it for you each time you need one; and
- Script instructions so you know the purpose of each sales script, which means you know where to use each script.
Now, I am giving away 5 lifetime copies of this software for $50 so I can test that the software works for other people’s business, not just mine, before I raise the price and put it on subscription.
Now is your chance to get it at a heavy discount.
If you want to be one of those 5, you can be here: https://rebrand.ly/f38f0
And the cool thing about this very sales script is that it was created with the software.
How meta and #inception is that!
