Persuasion Scripts Blog

 

 

I’ve coined up a phrase, “persuasion engines,” to describe a systematic approach to applying persuasion. A persuasion engine is the motor of change that drives behavior. It has moving parts, requires energy, and when placed in a chassis, it can move things. If you know what you are doing, you can create an assembly line that mass produces persuasion engines or you can custom build these motors for specific applications. Thus, you can build a Ford or a Ferrari.

Do you catch the metaphor?

A simplified version of a persuasion engine is a persuasion script. A persuasion script means very much what the term, “script,” says. A script is a sequence of dialog and action that plays out in a standardized, routine way. If you’ve ever had a fast food job at the counter, you know about scripts. If you’ve done telephone sales, you know about scripts. If you have contact with clients that is stereotyped, predictable, and stable, then you can profitably use scripts.

Many people hate scripts, find them insulting and demeaning, and believe that scripts are not nearly as effective as the performance a person left alone and to their own devices could deliver. If you are in the category of a script hater, you need to do more reading and thinking about it. Most people are lousy in scripty situations precisely because those situations are so routine, predictable, and stereotyped. You get bored out of your gourd always doing the same damn thing, so you start to wing it or worse still, just get through it. And, sad to say, most people are not nearly as good at persuasion and communication as they think they are and if you put them in a script, you get a much better average performance. Big business is into scripts in a big way precisely because the whole point of big business is to create a fundamental routine that everyone can do profitably. All this “I gotta be me” is nice if you’re an entertainer or a rebellious youth, but it don’t make the dime day in and day out.

Let me put it another way. If you want to excel, find all of the tasks in your work life that are routine, then build good scripts, and DO THEM EVERY TIME. Save your Special Sauce for places where it is really needed.

So, here’s a standard script for routine contact with customers or clients (i.e. people with whom you do business who are not family, friends, or colleagues). Let’s first look at the functions.

An introduction.
A welcome.
An orientation.
A persuasion setup.
A product or service offer.
A persuasion tactic.
A transition.

An introduction provides the basic, “name, rank, and serial number” of the persuasion agent. A smile should accompany this information.

A welcome details the source. This is the name of the company, your logo, and your mission.

An orientation gives the receiver a map of “where you are standing” so the receiver understands the situation from the source’s point of view of course. This is the products or services available here.

A persuasion setup lays the groundwork for a quickly following persuasion tactic. It may be a question posed by the source to get the receiver thinking along a certain line. It may be information provided that gives something of value to the receiver without this actually costing the source anything (like those “free” appetizers you get at fancy restaurants before they give you the menu). It may be a whiz bang tactic right out of the Primer. Your choice and you can vary it from day to day.

A product or service offer is the source’s primary reason for the contact. It is the McGuffin, the main point, the raison d’etre for the source to talk to the receiver. It tells the receiver that the source can do something and that the receiver can act on it now.

A persuasion tactic is a deliberately source move to change the receiver here and now. The receiver came in for one thing, but now the source is trying to move them to another thing. The tactic should not interfere with anything related to the actions from the service offer at the prior step. You must deliver the service the receiver expected or you will not get another contact with them. Don’t goof this up with a clever persuasion move.

A transition moves the receiver from this source to another source. You’ve made a good impression on the receiver, you delivered the service, and you executed the persuasion tactic. Now, send the receiver to the next organization source who will repeat the script, but will provide a new service and perhaps a new persuasion tactic.

Let’s work an example.

An introduction.
A welcome.
An orientation.
A persuasion setup.
A product or service offer.
A persuasion tactic.
A transition.

Hi, how are you doing today? My name is Steve and I’m the receptionist.

The Mountaineer Health Clinic wants to be there for you and provide the best care at the best price in our state.

I’ll get your name and appointment information and make sure you get to the people you need to see.

By the way, I hope you like our new waiting area. We asked our clients what we could do to improve it and they suggested we make more space for children and also make the room a little brighter looking. We recently remodeled it and we hope that you find it more comfortable.

May I take your name and the name of the physician you’re here to see today . . . okay, do you have any questions about the appointment or insurance or anything else I might be able to help you with?

Please take a seat anywhere. You might like to look at our information kiosk in the new waiting room. It has a lot of helpful free information.

A nurse will come into the waiting room and call your name when they are ready for you. The nurse’s name is Mary.

How about in a tire store.

Hi, how are you doing today? My name is Steve and I’m a sales agent.

The Mountaineer Tire Store puts tires where you go and aims to make your driving safe.

If you can tell me your driving requirements, either I can help you right away or get the expert you need to see.

By the way, I hope you noticed our new garage. We’ve expanded the number of bays and hired three more experienced mechanics.

What kind of vehicle do your drive and what kind of driving do you do?

I’ve got three options for you. I’ll show those to you, but you also might want to think about doing a tire balance and rotation, too. With our expanded garage we can get this done faster so you don’t have to wait as long.

I’m gonna send you to Bob on this one. He knows more about SUV tires than anyone else and he can give you the rundown on the best options.

If you get my drift with this, I have three questions for you. How can you afford to NOT use scripts? How can there possibly be any serious cost, barrier, or risk with a well designed, properly executed script? Do you really think that the spontaneous, off-the-cuff, just-wing-it performance of all of your people will beat a good script day in and day out?

This is an absolute no-brainer.

When you have routine, stereotyped, and predictable contacts with clients you’ve simply got to design, train, and implement scripts. Let’s go TpB on this: Scripts are easy, fun, and popular.

Easy? Come on. You’ve got the basic outline for a generic script right here. If you’re still surviving in your business you’re smart enough to customize them to your own situation. Hey, you do your taxes every year and you’re not in jail yet. You can easily do this, too.

Fun? Of course, it’s fun. Think about plotting and planning and scheming with your crew to develop these things and use them. It will be a good laugh doing this because everyone sees the advantage, it’s easy to implement and no one’s job is going to get downsized. Building and doing scripts gets everyone involved.

Popular? You don’t think your competition’s doing this? Hey, look around. Join the 21st century. Lots of people are doing this. They’re called winners.

Persuasion scripts are the way to go. Look, they focus your people on the main point of the work and their jobs. It gets everyone in the same boat and pulling in the same direction. Scripts provide great work markers (if you’re in the script, keep doing it, if you’re not in the script, wake up). They give you a flexible structure for delivering a consistent message. You can vary the persuasion games by day or week. You can train your people to work cooperatively in a Team Persuasion approach, so that you’ve got interlocking scripts. Then people can train in each script and move dynamically from part to part with the work flow. In other words, one person doesn’t always have to be the Receptionist or the SUV expert, but rather everyone can rotate through these roles.

Is this not cool beans, the cat’s meow, the bee’s knees, and kisses sweeter than wine?

Why am I giving this away for free? Why don’t I at least put it in a book or a seminar and charge you for the information that way? Why don’t I have some kind of tease that requires you to pay me a consulting fee to fill in the blanks?

Here’s my angle. Even if you get this idea, it will probably be hard to get it going in your organization because your organization doesn’t think and operate like this. If you want to make something like persuasion scripts or Team Persuasion function, you’re going to have to Do Something Different. That means making a clear, obvious, and concrete commitment to change. Showing up on Monday with a printout of this page and a little enthusiasm is not sufficient commitment. You need to hire a consultant like me, somebody from Mitch and Murray, to show your organization you’re serious.