Do you struggle with using a script? Does it cause you to stumble? Do you find that they’re too robotic, or are only for new reps? If you don’t stick to the sales script, you risk losing a solid connection with your prospects.
In this episode of INSIDE Inside Sales, Darryl is joined by the legendary Victor Antonio, one of the most elite keynote speakers on sales and motivation today. Darryl and Victor discuss the intricacy of scripts, and how using them can cause you to avoid mental hiccups in your messaging that can cause you to lose deals. They also offer fantastic tips such as using intonations and inflections so your script doesn’t sound robotic. Learn how to embrace using a script on this episode of INSIDE Inside Sales!
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Host: Darryl Praill, VanillaSoft
Guest: Victor Antonio, VictorAntonio.com
Stick to the Sales Script
Darryl Praill: Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness! Another week has gone by. I have been busy as all can be. I am whining, folks. I am admittedly complaining here. It seems like there’s another endless cycle of news on the cable channels. You never know what the hell is going on anymore when you wake up.
Darryl Praill: There’s discord everywhere. But there’s excitement. You know the weather is always a constant adventure. Then again, full circle. My schedule has been crazy. I don’t know, man. Well, I’ll tell you this, is that, we’re kind of in the middle of trade show season right now myself. Which is kind of pro and con, because as a sales rep, who doesn’t love trade show season, right?
Darryl Praill: You get to go and actually go to cool cities and hang out with other vendors who are like you and talk to people face to face, not on a phone, not behind an email, not on a social touch. You get to talk to them. You get to really connect eye to eye, face to face. You get to show them your products, your services. You get to gauge their reaction in real time.
Darryl Praill: They’re at that show because they want to hear from you, and you can maybe help them out and there’s lots of excitement that ends. You have a conversation at the show and then they’re like, “Yeah, let’s follow up. “Let’s take this conversation offline “and I’ll talk to you next week.” Here we go.
Darryl Praill: So, that’s the upside of show. It’s nice. You get to go and hang out with them, maybe share a drink or two, a meal or two. It’s all good. It’s all good, man. What’s always interesting at the shows though, is, so my role, if you don’t know, I’m head of marketing and I need to get staff at these shows.
Darryl Praill: So, often I’m bringing in my first choice for staff, believe it or not, the marketers out there will hate me, is not marketers. I don’t want to bring marketers to the show. I love my marketers. I am a marketer. But I want a sales rep. A sales rep who actually knows how to engage within 10 seconds, 30 seconds. Qualify.
Darryl Praill: Suck them into the story. Really, really connect with them and get all that juicy information out of there. But here’s where I’m conflicted with sales reps. I’m conflicted, because, sales rep, they’re, they’re unknown.
Darryl Praill: They’re a bit of a wild card, right? because me, you know, I’m out there with a public message, maybe it’s my paper click ads, maybe it’s on my podcast, maybe it’s on my webinars, maybe it’s on my collateral, maybe it’s on my website. Who the hell knows? It’s somewhere.
Darryl Praill: But I’m saying something. If I were to bring in another marketer, the marketer would stick to that story. So, the experience the customer has, is flawless. It’s consistent. “What I saw on the ad. “What I read on your blog post, “is exactly what I’m hearing you say now. “I am feeling good.” No surprises.
Darryl Praill: But sales reps, sales reps are, oh man, you come and you think you know better. Sometimes you do. Hey, I’m not trying to discount your skills. But many of you are guilty of going off, off the plan, let’s call it that. You go off, you know? Then all of a sudden, the customer’s confused and I’ve listened to you and I go, “What the heck was that?”
Darryl Praill: I’ve actually taken my VP of sales aside before, and I’m not kidding, guys, this is the honest to God truth, you should know this. I’ve said, “I love that rep. “That rep is great. “Never bring that rep to one of my shows again, ever.” He’ll look at me and I’m like, “Have you heard what they’re saying? “Oh my, I don’t, I know what my product does “and I don’t know what he’s talking about! “I don’t know. “Never bring him again.”
Darryl Praill: I love my VP of sales. He goes, “Okay, I won’t.” And he doesn’t. That’s a chance for him to work with the rep on training. That’s my point, is that you guys go off the playbook sometimes. So how do I manage that? because I want to manage you, because I want you there, because you’re the sales rep.
Darryl Praill: I give you a script. I give you a script and I ask you to follow the script. You know and hey, man, you can have some creative freedoms with it, I get it. You know, be you. Just like I’m me. But please, for the love of goodness, for the love of everything that’s right in this world, follow the script so we don’t confuse the customer and we get our consistent points out there and we clearly articulate our differentiations from the competition and we know what the call to action is, we know how to follow up with them.
Darryl Praill: I want you on message. You know, we proven a lot of our messages. We’ve tested them. We know what works and what doesn’t, despite what you might think. We’re not morons, well at least not all of us. But people struggle with the script. They don’t want to follow it. And you know, that’s truly, I get it. Been there.
Darryl Praill: I hate scripts. I’ve been given scripts. But I also like scripts, because I’ll tell you, when I’m a new rep coming in, or I’m being shoved into, “Hey Darryl, “you’re going to demo this product in 24 hours. “Have you ever seen it?” My God, where’s the script? Where’s the call guide? Where’s the talking points? I don’t want to mess this up, too much is on the line.
Darryl Praill: I like a script, please. It’s like a little comfortable blanket I wrap around me and it’s my protection and if I mess up, it wasn’t me, it was the script! And if it was me, it was the script and me, of course. Scripts are such a contentious thing. I did a debate with Benjamin Dennehy, about a year ago.
Darryl Praill: To script or not to script. He was anti-script; I was pro-script. I’ve heard all the complaints. I’ve heard all the laments. “Darryl, if I have a script, I can’t be myself.” “Darryl, a script is for amateurs.” “Darryl, give me some credit, I know what I’m talking about. “I don’t need no freaking script.” “Darryl, I’m a sales professional.”
Darryl Praill: You know, walk away, you’re a cute little marketer, but you don’t know what you’re talking about. Blah, blah, blah. I don’t agree. So, I brought in an expert. I brought in an expert, to be the arbiter of should you use a script or not? We’ll define what a script is, and we’ll talk about the pros and cons.
Welcome Victor Antonio
Darryl Praill: We’ll talk about his opinions on scripts. Are you ready for this? I’m talking, okay, it’s big surprise, you’re tuning in, you get, not the A team. Not the B team. You get the A plus team. This guy is a YouTube rockstar, with gazillions of followers, best-selling author, trainer extraordinaire. I am thrilled about this one. This one, ladies and gentlemen, let me bring up to you, my good friend, Victor Antonio. Victor, welcome to the show, Sir.
Victor Antonio: What is happening, thank you for having me, man. Super excited to be here.
Darryl Praill: Oh, now if you guys don’t know Victor, I mean this guy truly, normally I’d tell you to go to LinkedIn or Twitter and follow him. And yeah, do that. But no, this time, I’m going to tell you something different. This time, I’m going to tell you, go to YouTube. Go to YouTube and subscribe to his channel. Not only does this cat know what he’s talking about, he has a mean kick-ass set, that is like kicking my butt when it comes to lighting and sound quality
Victor Antonio: I don’t know about that.
Darryl Praill: And everything else. This guy is a rockstar. He is the author of 13 books on sales and motivation. He launched the Sales Velocity Academy, not too long ago. His most recent publication was, “Sales Ex Machina: How Artificial Intelligence “is Changing the World of Selling.”
Darryl Praill: He’s going to be at this little show called, “Outbound“, coming up, where apparently, he might have a new book called, “Upselling is “the New Prospecting.” You can check out all at sellingergroup.com. Or you just follow him. But that’s the plug, that’s why I love you. Victor, my friend, talk to me about, whiff to me on your thoughts on scripting.
Victor Antonio: You know, when people ask me about scripts. Let’s go with the people who don’t like scripts. They always kill me, right? Goes, “Victor, I don’t like scripts.” I always say, “Well tell me your story. “You know, tell me, give me a little bit about “your background, where you’re from and all that.”
Victor Antonio: Then they begin to spew for five to 10 minutes about who they are. I said, “Dude, that’s a script.” At that point, he has to admit, it’s a script. The thing is, we have a bunch of scripts in our heads, that we’ve developed over the years, or certain phrases we always say.
Victor Antonio: There are certain key pet responses we always have, when we’re talking to people. We use scripts. Now the real question is, and I think the misperception is that a script is this thing that you have to follow robotically. As you pointed out is, that you could add your own flavor.
Victor Antonio: I always remind people that, remember that Bruce Lee saying, when it came to training, he said, “Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Then add what is uniquely yours.” Let me say that again, because I love that statement. “When it comes to training, “absorb what is useful. “Discard what is not and then add “what is uniquely yours.”
[bctt tweet=”When it came to training, Bruce Lee said, ‘Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Then, add what is uniquely yours.’ 🎧 Listen as @VictorAntonio explains how you can implement this in #B2BSales. #SalesTraining #SDRs” username=”VanillaSoft”]
Victor Antonio: So, when it comes to a script, it really is about adding what is uniquely yours. But there’s certain things that have to be said and in a recent podcast, as you know, I talk about how I worked for a company that was selling a software package, and to make a long story short, you can listen to the podcast if you want.
Victor Antonio: But I talked about how I got off script, because I never really used the scripts. So, I was probably like you guys. Didn’t like a script. But then I learned to use a script and every time I went off script, I can tell numbers went down and how did I know this, because they would record all my sessions and every time my numbers dipped, they went back to the script.
Victor Antonio: They said, “Victor, right here you didn’t mention that. “You know here, you sequenced it wrong. “You showed this before you showed that.” So, even all these things matter. What you say, when you say, how you say, does matter. And so, when marketing is testing some of these scripts, maybe you need to respect marketing a little bit. But again, I’m not saying, don’t use your own flavor. Please do so. But certain things have to be said a certain way.
How do you Define A Script?
Darryl Praill: So what’s the reaction when you say, “Dude, that’s a script?” Because I have a similar story, where people come to me all the time and they’ll say, “Darryl, you tell me to be busy “with content on social and to share “and to build my brand. “But I don’t know what to talk about.”
Darryl Praill: My response is, “Dude, talk about that.” They look at me and I’m like, “Talk about “you don’t know what to talk about, all right?” Then I’ll say, “Did you have a sales call today?” “Yeah.” “Did they give you objection?” “Yeah.” “Did you handle it?” “Yeah.” “Talk about that.” I’m like, “Huh?”
Victor Antonio: Right.
Darryl Praill: You know, “How did you connect with that person “that you had a call today?” “Well I did this and this.” “Talk about that.” It’s the exact same thing. We’re doing this, whether we want to admit it or not. So, I love your point about the script being, we’re already falling back on define scripts, that we’re comfortable with.
Victor Antonio: Sure.
Darryl Praill: But there was a time,
Victor Antonio: Right.
Darryl Praill: When we weren’t comfortable with it and then we had to develop the script.
Victor Antonio: Correct. You know, I think over time, you know, one of the things we did back in the day, when I was selling Telecom equipment and by the way, I truly love your trade show, you know, stories because, I remember doing a lot of trade shows. So, we’ve all been there, right? Got the massive booth.
Victor Antonio: Hopefully you get the fluffy carpeting, right, because you’re going to stand all day. Somebody comes in and somebody comes in and says, and you say, “Can I help you find something “or look at something?” Let’s just say. Or even a retail store. You know, say you work in a retail store.
Victor Antonio: Somebody comes in and they say, and you say, “Can I help you find something?” What do they typically say? “No, just looking. “No, just looking.” So, I often ask people, “What do you say, “when somebody says they’re just looking, “when they’re just looking, “what do you say?” The answer I always get is, “Well I don’t know, Victor. “I just tell them, well if they need me “I’ll be right over there.”
Victor Antonio: I always say, “If you don’t have a powerful script, “of what to say and how to say it, “you’re going to lose some type of what I call “that connection you make “when somebody walks into your booth, “or walks into your store.”
Victor Antonio: Imagine somebody comes into your booth and says, and you ask him, “Hi, how you doing? “My name’s Victor Antonio. “What’s your name?” They give you a name. “Can I help you look at something, “is there something you’re interested in?” They’re probably going to say, “No, I’m just looking around. “I’m looking at all.” You know whether it’s your collaterals or your equipment on the wall, whatever it may be. “I’m just looking around.” What do you say?
Victor Antonio: Now people who don’t like scripts says, “Victor, I’m a natural dude, man. “I just like to go in there, and I like to wing it, man. “I like to really just connect with people.” You know and that whole thing. I get that, and that just cracks me up, because it’s like, “Well that’s not a process. “That’s not a system. “It’s not duplicatable, repeatable.”
Victor Antonio: I remember when I got trained as a sales guy, right? I would ask my mentor, I’d say, “Okay, so when the customer “says this, what should I say?” “Well Victor, just go in there, talk to them, “just you know, just connect with them.” I’m like, “Dude, that’s not a process. “That’s not helping me at all.”
Victor Antonio: So, when I think about, for example, let’s give a tangible example, so people listening to this go, “I get it.” If someone were to walk into a retail store, or your booth and they said, “No.” And they responded to you by just saying, “No, I’m just looking around.” What would you say, that’s powerful and it would grab them?
Victor Antonio: And that’s what I would ask. Here’s what I would do. Let’s take a retail store. Somebody comes in. “Can I help you find something?” “No, I’m just looking around.” My script already is, “Great, love for people “to come in and look around. “Let me tell you what we got over here. “Over here we have the pants, they’re great. “Over here, we have suits, they’re perfect.
Victor Antonio: “But over here, I think you’ll find some great offers “you might be interested in. “My name’s Victor, I’ll be right over here, “if you need anything, or have any questions.” Now, having that type of script, whether it’s for a booth or a retail store, let’s that person feel comfortable. Notice, I didn’t try to infringe on their space.
Victor Antonio: Didn’t try to talk to them. But I provided value within a short period of time. I told them where the nice pants were, where the suits are and where the special deals are at. That’s what people want. How do you educate them, but guide them and have them look at what you want them to look at?
Victor Antonio: So, if you take a trade show for example. If I know that we just have a new product we just launched, I’m going to say, “I’m glad you came to look around. “We got two big things going on. “Right here, you’ve probably heard of “the model 9000 blah, blah, blah.
Victor Antonio: “That’s our biggest seller right now. “But I also want you to take a moment “and check that out right there. “That’s the new 10,995 X whatever. “That right there, has two features, “this and that, that I think you might be “interested in. “Take a look at it. “Walk around the booth. “I’m right here, Victor Antonio, “if you need me.” That’s what I think scripts are powerful for. You know what to say, without thinking about it. Does that make sense?
The Perfect Formula for Personalizing A Script
Darryl Praill: Okay, you just hit on something that was so huge there. You know what to say, without thinking about it. I know, one of the things that I like about scripts, you know, and I admit, I have a love/hate relationship.
Darryl Praill: What I like about scripts, they do give me that, I mentioned that, that comfort, that safety net of when I get hit with a question, I’m not sure what to ask. I can fall back on this script. The other part I’m going to talk about, is I don’t have any issue with anybody going off script a wee bit, personalizing it.
Victor Antonio: Sure!
Darryl Praill: But make sure, make sure you know the script first, so that when you’re personalizing it, it’s just your spin on it. It’s not completely
Victor Antonio: I agree.
Darryl Praill: Off message. So, you agree with that.
Victor Antonio: I want to add something, if I may.
Darryl Praill: Yeah.
Victor Antonio: Do you remember there’s a guy, his name is Albert Mehrabian. And Albert Mehrabian, kind of came up with this formula for liking, whether I like you or not and you’ve probably seen the numbers, but it was really a study based on liking. He says, “55% of whether I like you or not, “is all visual.”
Victor Antonio: Like body language, you know, if you’re groomed well. So, do we judge a book by its cover. Absolutely. He then said, “38% of whether I like you or not, “is voice, tone, inflection, speed.” Right? And only 7% was actual verbiage, content. But the part that always got me was that 38% of whether I like you or not, was tone.
Victor Antonio: You mentioned something already that, you need to know what to say. Here’s why. Have you ever asked somebody a question, a technical question or an important question is, “Hey, tell me about that.” The person does this, “Uh, yeah, I think we can do that.” You hear that little, “Uh yeah, I think we can do that.”
Victor Antonio: That little hesitation, your reptilian brain, that reptile back here, that amygdala, fires up and says, “In a moment, “that person doesn’t know what they’re talking about.” So, if you don’t know what to say, those little hesitations, those little mental hiccups, those glitches, people pick up on that and go, “Hmm, I don’t think this guy knows what he’s talking about. “I think I’ll just think about it, I’ll get back to you.” I think those are the subtle places we miss deals, when we don’t know what to say.
Darryl Praill: I am loving this conversation. I’m going to go to break now, guys. When I come back, I’m going to hit Victor with all the usual objections people share with me, on why they don’t use scripts. We’ll hear what he as to say. Don’t go anywhere.
Objections Around Using Scripts
Darryl Praill: All right. Did you guys like that commercial? Was it like smooth sounds of the jazz station? I don’t know what they play in the commercials. Hopefully it wasn’t too bad, guys. If it was bad, send me a message and say, “Darryl, your commercial sucks. “And I just fast forward through it.” We’ll fix it. All right. Antonio, this is what I get in no particular order, let’s just go through them.
Victor Antonio: Let’s do it.
Darryl Praill: “A script sounds robotic and mechanical. “That’s not how I talk. “Those aren’t the words I use and the audience the customer, “knows I’m reading a script.”
Victor Antonio: Mary had a little lamb; its fleece was white as snow. Mary, now she had a little lamb. Whose fleece was definitely white as snow. You know? Remember that Zig Ziglar line, I could take one line and give it seven meanings. He says, “I did not shoot that dog. ” did not shoot that dog. “I… did not shoot that dog.”
Victor Antonio: That was a personal denial, right? “I did not”, vehement deny, right? “I did not, shoot that dog. “I threw a rock at it, but I didn’t shoot it.” So, if you’re not using intonations, inflections, dropping your voice, just like you did, right before we went to commercial, really use that voice, that tool you have, then of course it’s going to sound mechanical. Don’t blame the script. Blame your larynx.
Darryl Praill: “The script doesn’t jive with the customer conversation. “I can’t follow it, it’s not in context.”
Victor Antonio: Well no sales process is sequential. But if you knew your script, you can off road a little bit and always get back on script and actually guide the conversation and remember, when you’re doing a one-on-one conversation, in your head, you should have a road map of where you want to go.
Victor Antonio: What points you need to hit. So, imagine this. You’re going down the road and there’s five places you need to stop. I never said you had to go sequentially to stop at one, two, three, four, five. But as long as you hit all five and you say the right things, then, you’re on script.
Darryl Praill: “The messaging in the script is just wrong. “I’m a sales guy, this is written by a marketer, “it’s just wrong and I have much more success “when I do it my way.”
Victor Antonio: Then you should really talk to marketing. Get together with the marketing department and hash it out. But don’t just disagree with it, just for the sake of disagreeing. If you’re going to disagree with them, make sure you bring tangible information, because marketing has put in a lot of work, a lot of effort to come up with these messaging and sometimes we as salespeople, think we know more than marketing. Sometimes, we as salespeople, only have one degree of vision, in terms of what’s really going on in the market. So maybe, marketing knows something you don’t.
Darryl Praill: Okay, you’re going through these way too fast. This is really good. Okay.
Victor Antonio: You know why? Because I know my stuff.
Darryl Praill: Why?
Darryl Praill: Because you know your stuff, I know, this is really good. Okay. “This script”, Oh geez, where did I want to go with this? Oh, “This script is for beginners. “I am an established sales guy. “I don’t need a script.”
Victor Antonio: This is what I tell all salespeople. Let’s say you just told me that. I said, “Look, if you’re killing your number, “if you’re knocking it out of the park, “please do not listen to anything” I have to tell you right now. “If you are like murdering your number. “Every year, you’re 150 and they raise the quota “and you’re still 150% over.” Do not listen to anything I have to say.
Victor Antonio: “But, if you’re like more than half of “the salespeople in this world, “you’re not hitting your number and maybe, “just maybe, even if you’ve been “in this business a long time, “you might be missing something. “You and I know that sometimes, “we’ve been in the business so long,” we stop listening.
Victor Antonio: “Number two, maybe you been in the business so long, “you forgot to do the certain things you did “that made you successful back then, “but you’re not doing them today. “So maybe, listening to a script may remind you, “of something, A, you need to start doing. “Maybe two, take what you have “and maybe improve on it a little more and again, “if you can integrate some new concepts, “maybe, just maybe, you’ll close more deals.”
[bctt tweet=”You forgot to do the certain things you did that made you successful back then, but you’re not doing them today. 🎧 Listen as @VictorAntonio explains the power of sticking to the sales script. #SalesTips #B2BSales #Prospecting” username=”VanillaSoft”]
Darryl Praill: “The script is a distraction. “I’m so busy trying to follow the script, “that I can’t take notes and I can’t listen “to what the customer is saying.”
Victor Antonio: So, Charles Duhigg, wrote an interesting book called, “The Power of Habit.” In there, if you want to read the book, he talks about, “When you don’t know your content, “basically, your brain activity, processing power, “is all dedicated to actually trying to “figure out what you have to say.
Victor Antonio: “But when you practice your script, “you’ll actually see your brain processing “you know your bandwidth actually go down. “Which gives you more space, more time, “to present your content.” Said another way, if you’re thinking about your script, you don’t know your script.
Victor Antonio: Think about this. If I wake you out of a dead sleep, you should be able to say it like that. If you can’t, you don’t know your script and because you don’t know your script, you’re using all that processing power, to recall what you should already know, but when you know your stuff, you don’t have to recall and you have more room to have better conversations.
Darryl Praill: Okay, you’re going to say almost the exact same answer with this next objection. “The script causes me to stumble, “because I’m trying to force it in “and it’s just not natural to me “and it actually becomes a distraction to me, “and I forget how to sell.”
Victor Antonio: Okay, well this ties to two or three things we’ve already talked about. One is that, no sale is sequential, like say A, then say B, then say C, then say D, right? Sometimes you have to go A, C, back to B. But again, remember.
Victor Antonio: The point of the conversation, think of the end goal. The end goal is to make sure that you hit those three key points, your messages, that marketing has developed for you, that you know will close the deal.
Victor Antonio: If you know you have to do that, then now, let’s figure out, how do we work those into a conversation? If you’re stumbling to spit something in, never force it into a conversation.
Victor Antonio: Maybe step back and use my trick is to always ask a question. For example, let’s say I want to talk about, I don’t know, dogs right now, in the middle of a sales conversation. I would say, “Hey, out of curiosity. “Do you have a dog?” And that’s my way of asking a question to actually bring the issue up.
Victor Antonio: So, use questions if you’re stumbling and you don’t know how to get in and you feel like you’re forcing it, step back, ask a conversation. Remember, you got to guide, not control, guide a conversation. You know where you’re going already. Take control of that conversation. Guide them to where you want to go.
[bctt tweet=”So, use questions if you’re stumbling and you don’t know how to get in and you feel like you’re forcing it. 🎧 Listen as @VictorAntonio gives out some golden #SalesTips. #SalesRep” username=”VanillaSoft”]
Darryl Praill: “You want me to memorize a script, “but, I got to number to hit, “I got activity metrics to hit, “X number of dials a day, emails, et cetera. “I don’t have time to memorize your script.”
Victor Antonio: So, there’s two scenarios going on here. One is that they gave you a script that’s so long, that it makes no sense and you can’t hit your number. So for example, if you’re in a call center, and the script is too long, and you can’t make 100 calls, that’s more of a script management problem that you should discuss with your manager, because I can’t say all these things and still hit the call without sounding rushed.
Victor Antonio: So, that’s when you would have a discussion with the script manager, or your manager in general, say, “Look, when we use a script, “when I fully follow the script, “it’s too much information to jam in there. “I can hear the customer locking up on the other side, “and I think I’m losing 10% sales conversion rate, right? “It’s dropping.”
Victor Antonio: So, what you need to do is get with your manager and shrink that down. But it doesn’t mean the script doesn’t work, it just means that maybe it’s too long of a script, so why don’t you sit down, with your manager, and see if you can tighten that bad boy up? Again, this is part of the process, right?
Victor Antonio: When you have a script, when somebody gives you a script for the first time, do it and then, you begin to tighten it up. I do a lot of presentations and guess what, when I do the presentation the first time, I think I had it, but oh, I don’t.
Victor Antonio: Based on the audience’s reaction, I go, “Nah, it’s just, something’s not right. “Let me tighten it up here. “Take this out. “Add this here. “Flip this there. “And then try this.” So again, you have to work with your manager or your team supervisor, say, “I can’t fit all this.”
Victor Antonio: If they don’t believe you, have them sit in on it. Have them record some of these calls and then let them hear the other person choking on the other end, with all this information coming at them. But that’s a script development problem, not a script works problem.
Darryl Praill: All right. So, I have 1,000 more questions I want to ask you. We’re running short on time. You have probably given my audience more hands-on advice in this tight window that I’ve got in a ton of episodes. So, for that, I thank you. I want to segue way now though. You are making your first ever if you will, debut as one of the four anchors of the OutBound Conference. So
Victor Antonio: That is correct.
Darryl Praill: For those who don’t know the show, talk to us about what the show is and talk to us about your new role in such a prominent position on this massive event.
Victor Antonio: Well first of all, high five Jeb Blount, Anthony Innarino and Mark Hunter and the big duper shout out to Mike Weinberg who’s doing his thing. So, when they reached out and contacted me, well I spoke at OutBound for the first-time last year.
Victor Antonio: OutBound’s a great show. I shouldn’t say show. It’s a great conference because, one it’s not a giant pitch fest as Anthony likes to say. So, you’re not going to pitched from stage. Nobody’s going to try to sell you anything. It’s full content.
Victor Antonio: A lot of content from some of the best speakers and trainers in the business, in the world of selling. And OutBound is really focused on, you know I think it was a reaction to the inbound movement, right? People kept, you know, just waiting for calls to come in. Everybody bought into the whole, “Cold calling is dead. “Social media’s the way to go.
Victor Antonio: “You know, paper clicks, search engine marketing, “organic SEO, that whole bit. “We don’t need to call.” Well what’s happening is that we realized that, cold calling never died, and it never will, I’m sorry, it won’t. We can have that longer discussion some other time, but you need to know how to do outbound.
Victor Antonio: Reach out, call, connect with people and that’s where scripts actually come into play. Having good scripts, tight scripts, one that really emphasizes value, is what you’ll need. So, I think if you come to OutBound, no I don’t think, I know if you come to the OutBound Conference in May, 5th through the 8th, you’re going to hear varied opinions on how best to do it.
Victor Antonio: Again, absorb what’s useful, discard what’s not and then add what is uniquely yours. So, I did a keynote last year. It was a 30-minute keynote and when Mike Weinberg decided to step down and it was basically, he wanted to do his own thing, as I always say. I really appreciated them saying, “Hey Victor, would you like to join us?” So, I’m super honored to be there this year and it’s my first time as one of the four, so. Yeah, I’m excited.
Darryl Praill: All right, guys.
Victor Antonio: Yeah!
Darryl Praill: You have heard, just a snippet of Victor Antonio today. Again, go subscribe to his YouTube channel, if nothing else. You can’t get to Atlanta in May. You’re a busy, busy bloke. Whatever it might be. Subscribe to his YouTube channel, today and you’ll just get nonstop Victor Antonio, in your face non-stop and he’s got short sessions.
Darryl Praill: He’s got long sessions and they’re always well lit, he always sounds like a million bucks. So, it’s an engaging, you can put him on the background. Just do it. Now beyond that, follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, all the usual stuff. You can follow at his website, which is sellingergroup.com. He would love to hear more from you, or you can just get to VictorAntonio.com, which I think directs to Sellingergroup.com.
Victor Antonio: So, you’re all cool,
Darryl Praill: Correct.
Darryl Praill: If you’re spelling challenged, we’ve got you covered. But if you get a chance, you should go to OutBound. Here’s a tip. Use code VS as in Vanilla Soft, VS100, it’ll save you a few bucks. We’ll get you in there. With that said, Sir, I am so grateful for your time today. Everybody, check him out. My name is Darryl Praill. This, my friends, my tribe, my peeps. This is another episode of, “Inside Inside Sales.” We shall talk to you soon. Bye-bye.