A newbie to cold calling said that an amazingly successful sales pro shared his cold calling script with her. Then, she asked a question that made me shudder from my head to my toes.

What is the question that most newbies ask right out of the gate? What is the question that shouts out to savvy sellers that the rookie is getting ready to unwittingly shoot him or herself in the foot? The question that will without doubt make a big, big mess of a good thing? This is it, that oh-no-not-again question that makes a seasoned sales pro go wobbly in the knees, "How can I change your successful cold calling script to make it sound more like me?"

{sidebar id=10}As I held myself back from reaching through the phone lines to shake some sense into that sales professional wanna be, and said, "Whoa Nellie!"

If a seasoned pro is willing to share a script that brings results do not change one single word. Not one word. In fact do not change one single word until you have made at least 50 cold calls with that well-crafted finely-honed successful-script.

Then, do not even think about changing one word until you closely examine each of the verbal exchanges you had with those 50 prospects. Finally, review your thoughts with a seasoned sales pro. Ask him or her to put on their coaching hat, to scrutinize your thoughts and to give you the good, the bad, and the ugly about the actions you want to take.

As you examine your prospecting calls, pay particular attention to who asked the most questions, who made the most statements, what words lead you those questions and statements.

Be painfully honest with yourself. Did you let the prospect ask all of the questions that lead the cold call down the rabbit trail that ended in no appointment? Or did you skip merrily down the straight and narrow path that lead you to an appointment with a high-level decision-maker?

As you scrutinize the results of those 50 calls, add up how many of your prospects said, no; how many of your prospects said, yes, to an appointment; how many voice mail messages you left, and how many callbacks you received from those voice mail messages.

{sidebar id=5 align=left}Here’s why all of this is so dog gone important.

The successful cold calling script to the uneducated reader may just seem like a few words on paper. And it may seem logical to ask, "what's the big deal if I change a few words here and there?" The fact that what-is-the-big-deal even comes to your mind is evidence that you should not be changing one single word of that script, at least not yet.

A cold calling script is an extremely sophisticated sales presentation that must be carefully crafted in a way that will open the door, build rapport, establish your right to proceed with the call, and get the desired outcome (an appointment) all in the span of 90-seconds (or less) of phone time that you have with your prospect.

Every single word that you speak either helps or hinders your results. There is no middle ground here. Seasoned pros know this. Do not even think about changing their scripts until you understand why every word is there in the first place.