The rep who lost a deal over a payment method

Published: Wed, 10/16/24

Updated: Fri, 10/18/24

October 16, 2024

TOGETHER WITH

Welcome back to The Quota, the sales newsletter that sits patiently in your inbox until you’re ready to give it your undivided attention. In this week’s newsletter, we’ll take a look at sales scripts — which ones work, and which ones to ignore. We’ll also share a Sales Fail about a credit card fee, and give some advice to a rep who's heading out on paternity leave. Enjoy!

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

62% of respondents say that weekly one-on-ones are the most effective sales coaching techniques or tools at their company.

Source: Outreach

SALES ROUNDUP

Here’s what’s happening in the sales world this week:

A car dealership in Prosper, Texas is in hot water after sending customers out on test drives without any visible plates. The local police department got so fed up with the practice that they’re now ticketing the drivers out for a test drive. Even worse, the dealership allegedly offered to reimburse a driver for the ticket, but only if they bought the truck they were driving. You can read more about it here.
The CEO of automaker giant Stellantis says the carmaker is on track to fix sales problems after a poor performance this year. Carlos Tavares, who last week pushed out the carmaker’s CFO and the COO for both North America and Europe in a management restructuring, told reporters at the Paris Motor Show that he is responsible for the bad things that have happened at the company, but also for the good. You can read more about what’s happening here.

FEATURE

What makes a good sales script?

Sales scripts. Managers love them, but salespeople… not so much. Especially when the sales script doesn’t work like it’s supposed to. A well-crafted script can make the difference between closing a deal and losing a prospect. But what exactly makes a good sales script? Let’s break it down piece by piece to understand what separates winning scripts from the ones that get you ghosted.

The Anatomy of an Effective Sales Script

A good sales script is more than just a set of words to recite ad nauseam. It's a blueprint designed to guide conversations without constraining you (it shouldn’t feel like a cage). A good script should act as a foundation that lets you sound like a human, not a robot. Whether you're making a cold call, conducting discovery, or closing, your script should be tailored to the specific stage and objective.

Cold Call Scripts: Please Be Human (and Personalize)

The cold calling script is the most important, and the hardest to execute. The first few seconds of your first interaction with a prospect are crucial. A good script starts with a strong opener that immediately captures attention. For cold calls, data from Gong found that using the phrase "How've you been?" as an opening line makes cold calls 6.6 times more successful in booking a meeting. This helps separate you from the hundreds of other reps that open with “Hi [NAME], I’m John calling from [COMPANY]”.... *click*. A good opener should humanize you and your prospect and will help lead to a more natural conversation.

Generic scripts may have worked in the 80s. But today, if you don’t personalize and show the prospect you know them (shoutout #samsales) you won’t get far. Effective sales scripts should show you’ve done your research and understand the prospect's company (at the very least) and have already identified some problems you could solve for them. One of the best ways to show a prospect you’ve done your research is to mention a similar company (maybe a competitor) you’ve worked with before. This tells the prospect that you understand their business and industry and adds a layer of credibility. But be advised, win rates can plummet by 47% in early-stage deals if you mention the wrong company, as it shows the prospect you actually don’t know them.

Discovery Scripts: Ask the Right Questions & Start a Conversation

Discovery calls are all about asking the right questions. But how many questions is too many? Gong's research provides a clear answer: the ideal number of targeted questions per call is between 11 and 14. On a 30-minute discovery call, this gives you less than 3 minutes per question. Follow the 80/20 rule: you should let your prospect do 80% of the talking. A good discovery script puts meatier, more open-ended questions up front so there’s more time for the client to discuss. Save the one-word answer questions like budget, timeline and who the decision maker is for the end of the call in case the prospect is talking a lot about their problems in the first half (this is a good thing) and you’re crunched for time.

Closing Scripts: Ask Direct Questions

48% of sales calls end without an attempt to close the deal. Good closing scripts help reps get clear and direct answers from prospects by asking close-ended questions. You want to get yes or no answers. For each “no” or “maybe” you get, you should have follow up questions ready: “Can I ask why it’s a no?” or “What would get you from a maybe to a yes?” A good closing script covers all the necessary bases to get the deal signed. These include getting the prospect to agree on a target date for signature and kickoff, confirmation that the key decision maker (or makers) are on board, and understanding who the actual proposal should be sent to for signature.

But the real secret sauce for sales scripts? Knowing when to stick to the script and when to riff. It's about having those key points ready to roll, but being human enough to actually listen and respond. Get this balance right, and you'll see your numbers climb.

HOW TO ACTUALLY INCREASE OPEN AND REPLY RATES

Tired of sending scaled-and-veiled emails that get low open rates and even lower replies?

Well, your buyers are REALLY tired of it.

The #samsales 'Show Me You Know Me'® methodology has become tech sales nomenclature because it works — it blows industry open and reply rates out of the water (7X!!) and gives you the tools to not only stand out in your prospects' inboxes, but to land meetings.

We wrote the book on it (okay, okay, our CEO, Sam McKenna, literally wrote the book on it), and we're giving The Quota readers access to our best tips!

Want a cheat sheet for her methodology that will send your open rates and reply rates soaring?

Grab it below and watch those rates soar.

Get the Cheat Sheet

MEME OF THE WEEK

Source: Instagram -- Sales Humor

QUIZ

How many users does LinkedIn have as of 2024?

A. 900 million
B. 2.1 billion
C. 700 million
D. 1 billion

SALES FAILS

Each week, we bring you the most cringe-worthy sales moments from across the web. To submit your sales fail story for consideration, click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

I was selling design services for a small firm that mostly worked with other startups. I was in the final stages selling a full website redesign project that was worth $20k. The prospect came inbound and had seen some of our work before and wanted to hire us. He was the founder of the company, so he was the decision maker, but he was also price sensitive; investing $20k into design was a big jump for him. I sent over the contract for signature and he emailed me back asking if he could pay with a credit card instead of our standard payment terms of ACH or wire. I assumed he asked because he wanted to earn points on his business credit card. I went to my boss (the CEO) and told him the deal would be locked in if we let the customer pay by credit card. The credit card fee came out to about $600, but my boss didn't want to eat it. Again, we were a small business, so I understood where he was coming from. He said we'd accept the credit card payment but the client would have to cover the fee. I emailed the prospect to let him know. He balked at it. He started talking about how much money he was already spending with us and that he wasn't going to spend another $600 just to use his preferred payment method. I forwarded the email to my CEO and he reversed course. He emailed the prospect himself and apologized, telling him we'd be happy to cover the fee. The prospect emailed us back and said he was no longer interested and didn't want to work with a company that was going to nickel and dime him over every little thing. He actually walked over the credit card fee. Lesson learned. Salespeople — just eat the fee and close the deal!

Anonymous Location withheld

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

Source: LinkedIn Poll -- October 2024

WORTH A PEEK

Is moving from an individual contributor role into a sales management position always the best move? This was the topic of conversation in a recent Reddit thread, when those who have done it weighed in with their thoughts. You can check out the whole thread here.

ASK THE QUOTA

Want to submit a question and be featured in our advice column? Click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

Dear Quota Team

I've been working for a SaaS company for the last two years, and I really enjoy it! My manager and teammates are great, the pay is solid, and I get good benefits, including 16 weeks of paid paternity leave. This also includes commission paid out at 100% for the 4 months that I am on leave. I recently decided it would be well worth my time to get another job while I am on leave so that I can make some more money and keep myself occupied outside of spending time with the baby.

I know it may be frowned upon to work two jobs at once while I'm on leave with one, but it would just be to make some extra cash on the side to help support my family. Am I making a bad decision here? What would you recommend?

Expecting in Location withheld

Dear Expecting,

Congrats on the new addition! It sounds like you've got a great job and the company treats you well — four months of paternity leave with full commission is quite generous. It's probably not worth risking your current job to maximize your income for just four months. You don't want to put yourself in a situation where you could lose your job. Our advice: spend this time with your family — you can always make more money, but you can’t make more time. Good luck!

Quiz Answer: D. LinkedIn has over 1 billion users as of 2024 (you can read the source article here)

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How did you like today's story?

Today's email was written by Ken Kupchik, Erica Furgiuele, Steve Rado, and Emily Hill.

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