The scripted sales presentation is as old as sales itself, but great customer interaction transcends the transactional, the scripted, the rote, says Micah Solomon, a customer experience consultant and regular contributor to Forbes magazine.
Solomon spoke with Sara Kearney, a senior vice president at Hyatt, which uses a significant amount of role play to prepare frontline service and salespeople, but allows them to operate without a script. Says Kearney, “If we’re trying hard to hire people who display a lot of personality as applicants, why would we then want to train that personality right out of them starting the day they’re hired, along the lines of, ‘We like you, we love your personality, we feel a real connection with you, but now, we’re going to give you a script and we’re going to change your behavior and we’re going to put you in uniform and essentially suck the life out of what we liked about you in the first place?’”
Doug Carr, an executive vice president at FRHI (Fairmont, Raffles, and Swissotel), adds, “The most valuable thing, other than hiring, is to provide employees with training and tips on how to find the factors that should lead them to adjust their approach.”
Tiffany daSilva, founder and CEO of BrightFire Women’s Business Network, a sales coaching service for women, recommends swapping scripts for “conversation sparkers” — statements that can open up discussion and address common concerns with prospects while avoiding canned questions.
