Businesses both big and small struggle to find that one formula that’s going to catapult them into financial success. It’s a lot like weight loss or quitting smoking, we’ve done that ‘bad habit’ for so long it has become engrained into our very existence, yet we want the “magic pill”, that quick fix that’s going to make the bad habit go away instantly. Unfortunately, there is no magic pill that can make us instantaneously lose all the weight we want, nor make us stop smoking 40 cigarettes a day… it takes goals, dedication, commitment and hard work.
In canvassing, unlike trying to slay your personal demons, we have a much better chance of success. The biggest secret to canvassing success is in a six-letter word; something that by mere mention can make virtually every canvasser shutter with distain. Suggesting it will conjure up the idea of conformity in the minds of your canvassers. Though using it will take away all the excuses for not succeeding and put the control of the canvassing process in your hands. You can control your canvassing destiny.
What’s the secret? S-C-R-I-P-T!!! A presentation script to be more precise. Developing a presentation script for your canvassers is a powerful, concise tool from which you can train, they can learn and then go out and consistently and effectively generate leads. That’s what your goal of canvassing should be; develop qualified leads for your sales people before which they can make a sales presentations.
Scripts also are a way for you to more accurately track successes. Let me use this generic example to illustrate what I’m talking about. Imagine you have 10 canvassers working a neighborhood in an evening and each made presentations to 10 homeowners, but on each presentation the canvasser is just winging it… saying whatever comes to mind. That’s 100 presentations in that evening. And let’s say those 100 presentations generate 10 new leads. What is it about those presentations that were so effective that it spoke to the homeowners ‘hot-buttons’ and generated them as a lead? You have no idea because you’re not in control of the presentation, the canvasser is. Plus, how well are your canvassers prepared to handle objections?
Instead of 10 canvassers going out and making 100 presentations, arm them with a well thought out script. Now those 10 canvassers are making the same presentation to 100 households. There’s a methodology behind the presentations… something you can design, control and measure.
The three key components you should include in your script are:
- The introduction
- The rebuttals and
- Taking the prospects information
A professional stage actor doesn’t go out each night before an audience and ‘wing’ the dialogue, he or she has a script. A professional canvasser must never go into the field without a presentation script.
True success doesn’t happen incrementally, it happens in leaps and in some cases, it takes a leap of faith. Many of my readers have found the leap in their canvassing success has come directly from the presentation scripts. I guarantee you that a presentation script can turn your entire canvassing process around if you’re not using them now.
If you’re not using presentation scripts right now then I suggest you seriously consider it. Put everything on hold, shut the phones off and tell your secretary you’re unavailable. Sit down and draft a script. It will be the single most important thing you can do in bringing on significant change in your canvassing success.