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Some people say use scripts when talking to prospects. Others say scripts make you sound stiff and well, scripted.

Some say get a good ice-breaker, and you're good to go. Others say you should find out what the other person wants, and then show how your thing IS that. (That's the old 'find their hot button' strategy that most people still use.) Most industry trainers say that if you use such scripts, you won't hear "no" anymore.

Here's my take.

The words you use with a prospect, scripted or not, are good for one thing: To prevent accidentally turning off a right person. No script will make the wrong person a right person. If they were too easily persuaded, they just quit.

Only one in a hundred might make a good recruit - i.e. someone who wants to do 100% commission sales and recruiting. If you turn that one off with the words you use, you'll need to plan for another hundred calls. (Yes, you CAN say the wrong thing to the right person. People do it to me all the time.)

So before you start talking to people, and before you pay out money for scripting classes and materials, including mine, know and accept that 99 in a hundred are the wrong ones for the business, no matter what you say. Yes, they may want more money, but no, they will not do commission sales or stick with it to get it.

Learn to let go of the wrong ones for now. You can always try again in a few months, if you think they're really special. And ask for a referral.

Bottom line: Most people are NOT right for your busines. It doesn't matter what you say. The one in a hundred (that's generous) statistic is what it is. The sooner companies and the industry trainers stop pretending that all it takes is 'their' scripting approach to get an "I'm interested" response from most everyone, the better off the planet will be.

P.S. Yes, you can ask over and over, "What has to happen for you to say yes?" and if you let yourself, you will hear the answer: "Talk to someone else. I don't play tennis."

Ahhh.