Script Your Sales Calls with Call Maps

Are you responsible for scripting sales calls? Specifically scripting Zoom calls, not cold calls. Then you know how challenging it can be to figure out where things are going wrong, and find the path to get it right more often and close more deals.

I have a free tip for you – and a visual to go along with it. I’ve used this a few times in my career, and the response is generally positive. Have a look!

I map the length of a meeting along the X Axis, from left to right. I map the intensity of the moment along the Y Axis – higher points on the page are the high-impact moments, and the lower points are generic or table stakes.

Then, I map the overall agenda along the bottom. This one is for our inbound meetings:

Then, map out, word for word, the sellers’ script along the timeline.

It looks like this:

I use Chorus to assign “scorecards” for peer reviews. This is where you see if what is supposed to happen is actually taking place on calls. Essentially, you take the agenda you laid out and ask a peer to listen in and grade whether or not the rep followed the map.

Review those sessions and scorecards in a regular film review. Here’s what to look for:

• Are the maps getting used? Why not? Is it adoption or customer resistance?
• What is going ‘wrong’ on calls? Then brainstorm with the team to get past that problem.
• Remap the call flow and run an iterated training session.
• Rinse and repeat for all call types, lead sources, and personas.

It’s great to teach reps how to handle different interactions.

As an example, we once had an issue where our inbound win rate was 9x our outbound win rate. So, we showed the reps how they would “blow their deals” if they used the inbound map on outbound calls.

Here’s how it looked: a lack of known pain “broke” the segue we were using in the first five minutes. You can see a shadow of where we wanted to take the call, higher on the Impact Axis than what really happened (highlighted in red, below our target flow).

So, we mapped an outbound flow. Like this:

We cut the discovery short and jump into a longer form of evangelism. We share lessons learned from previous interactions or customers with the new prospect to help fill in the pain points they don’t know or haven’t thought about yet.

So, in conclusion:

These call maps are designed to help your sellers get aligned on the various call/meeting types you have. They’re great to use as a teaching mechanism with your reps. Then, share them with your call reviewers and get a solid sample count of calls scored each month.

Find the areas where calls aren’t going according to plan, run film reviews, brainstorm on how to fix, and then release a new map.

Happy Hunting!Photo by Pavan Trikutam on Unsplash