"Mind Maps" for cold calling or telephone scripts

Does anyone have a "Mind Map" for cold calling or scripts / telephone scripts? or know where to download some from. All the sites I have seen don't have anything useful for sales, telesales, cold calling or overcoming objections etc.

Anything in these lines or sales related will be appreciated.

For those of you who have not used this "mind map" method before, I suggest looking into it as it helps tremendously and may just be what you need. It works for everything, from taking notes, jotting down ideas, planning holiday trips & of course - SELLING

Regards

Rudi -Murtu

At the risk of sounding ignorant, what is a mind map?

Aloha... :cool: -rattus58

Wikipedia definition:

Follow this link to see an example - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map works very well once you get to know them -Murtu

The minute I saw the map... I discarded the idea of pursuit.... complexity is not my forte. Spatial thought is not my forte. Neato idears.... but no not for me.... :)

Give me bacon and eggs.... meat and potatoes.... not some soufle'

Aloha... :cool: -rattus58

If behavior was linear this could have potential. -Houston

Mind Maps were 'invented' by Tony Buzan, the president of the World Championship Memory Assoc. He has a Ph D. He is no slouch.

My advice is to research how to create a mind map and make one yourself. Just downloading one will not do too much for you. Creating it will help you 'own' the information and internalize it. You download it and you'll have it pinned on the wall for your reference. Create it, draw it, color it, branch it out, and you'll have it in your brain allowing you to blow away those who just downloaded it.

The Mind Map Book
Tony Buzan
ISBN#0452273226 -hastur

For the purpose of??? -rattus58

Well, normally, Mind Maps are used to remember long speeches, specialized data, test material, etc...

I hadn't though about scripts for cold calling or selling. I suppose you could use mind maps initially, but cold calling and selling is such a fluid, dynamic communication exchange, the 'model' of the mind map would change too drastically too often. Mind maps are used for concrete, hard facts. -hastur

Mind maps are not just for concrete or hard facts but can be used for anything i.e. planning of a holiday trip, wedding event, planning of a business trip, sales processes, ideas, abstract, revamping house & garden and a million other including cold calling scripts etc.

I made one for overcoming objections but can't get the .jpg uploaded. This is only the first I am making for my brokers and they love it and make subtle changes to suite them individually.

I appreciate your and everyone’s feedback and input and please realize that it is not my intention to get into a discussion as to what a mind map should or should not be but to see if anyone out there is using them and of course if someone has already done what I need to do and that is for cold calling / telesales scripts.

For anyone interested in seeing what my “overcoming objections” mind map in a .jpg format looks like, please send me an email to jawellnofine at gmail dot com and I will forward it to you ASAP. I will appreciate any comments or suggestions on the structure and content; bearing in mind that it is a draft and I am customising it for my brokers’ specific needs in selling gold, silver and platinum coins and medallions.

The beauty of this is that anyone can change the wording to suite their specific needs as it is not limited to high or low end products or services, high tech or low tech goods, low value or high ticket items, corporate or consumer customers, but for anything from swizzle sticks to moon trips.

Regards
Rudi -Murtu

We realize more than you know. we have all kinds of questions at Sales Practice and welcome you - just do not expect us to reply on command.

And, while I know you are not attempting to offend, I can assure you that you do not need to do what you are thinking of doing. In addition, it is unthinkable for anyone to create a thing that is a road map of sorts unless they have mastered that thing first.

I was going to begin my post in this thread by saying "you don't need a mind map for cold calling ... " ... then I realized, in your conversion you have forgotten the key to learning ... it is not an easier path to learning that you require, as you have not learned it first. And if you learn to master the phone, the way that you do is the way to teach others. which came first ... the chicky or the egg?

What you need is training. The concept of memorizing is foreign to sales and cold calling is one of those sales practices that can be simple or complex, depending on what you sell AND on each individual prospect. No two calls ever repeat.

But again, this last paragraph is meaningless to you, as you can converted yourself into believing that it does work, that being MIND MAPS. But you still are not a master sales prospector, are you???

If you were you would teach the way you learned. And if you learned through scripts you are, in fact, not a master!

Sorry, but this is what you need to hear.

The beginning of a call is simple enough, so simple in fact that a "map" or script are not required, not after a simple repeating of it a few times.

There is a very specific formula for the opening line of acall (this happens after you get the prospect on the phone, if you call businesses there are other issues to deal with).

Then you must master questioning, often referred to as probing.

After getting a handle on this, what is required is knowledge of what motivates certain behaviors of a prospect - what we call attitudes.

Once you know what causes an attitude & can recognize them you can deal with them (objections, skepticism and indifference - oh, also acceptance).

The same technique is used but the words are almost always different.

I would not advise making it even more complex by trying to invent a new way to teach that which has been mastered (phone prospecting) or that for which the training of has also been mastered. Why reinvent the wheel? The effort is unwarranted and unproven.

I haven't he room in a forum to post the complete abridged version of Gold Calling but I can give you this;

The simple formula is I + G.B.S. + S.C. = high percentage of appointments or a reply that can be dealt with a high percentage of times (in relation to doing it any other way)


The Introduction is obvious.

Statements of any benefit cannot be specific, as we do not know what appeals to that specific prospect. That is why a General Benefit Statement is employed.

Socratic Choice is also known as the minor alternative. When delivered correctly, it is real, not a fake technique. we provide two options for times to meet that work for us, allowing the prospect to pick one or choose a day the following week of their liking. This switches the decision from "do you want to meet" to "when do you want to meet?" Very powerful.

Questioning is required when the prospect engages us and sometimes when an attitude develops. Understanding which to use and when ... this is the key to proper use of probes. The definition of this is simple again ...

Attitudes come up. They are handled using techniques, sometimes closing on an objection sometimes dealing with it. This stuff takes time to absorb ... it will not be learned using a mind map. A great teacher, continued exposure (repetition) and application ... that works for those who are diligent and have guts.

Best of luck. -Gold Calling

Thank you for your input and your response is well noted and it is logical that you assumed I am a rookie to selling.
Just for the record, I am just short of 30 years in sales experience ranging from IT (notebooks to mainframes, operating systems to ERP solutions and Utility Billing systems etc), electro-medical, long term insurance and now gold bullion and collectable coins & medallions. Each industry requires a unique selling approach & techniques but the sales basics remain the same. My current team of brokers number 28 and I regularly give them sales training which I customise to suite the individuals or the topic. Even if the person has 40 years experience I will still give them a sales basic course because it is amazing how sales professionals forget the basics and develop bad habits over time.
In my environment 98% of sales are either cold calling or referrals and the brokers’ experience range from novice to very experienced. As with any new “telesales” job, the approach and the sales script are customized for the product and the different target prospects i.e. from factory worker to doctors & lawyers.
With seasoned and experienced sales staff, a script is not necessary as they normally create their own, whether in writing or in memory, depends on the individual. Junior sales people in general require coaching and need a written sales script until such time as they have converted it top memory and no longer require it. I do the same for overcoming objections and put one onto a mind map and they love it and make their own changes and notes to suite their individual personalities and with what the personally feel comfortable with saying.
I don’t want to get into a pointless discussion here as to why my mind map branches are longer than one word as they range from one to +- 30 words as theoretically, this is not a mind map in the true sense but a script sheet where they can see almost every possible objection on one page with one or more response to overcome the objection. In fact I will eventually have a few pages with different objections and responses.
A while back I heard a recording“Cold calling for cowards” by Jerry Hocutt, where his cold calling script was on a mind map and he had different scripts for the gatekeeper, anyone who answered the phone and the prospect. It was probably an old recording because some things mentioned are no longer on his site and it does not help emailing him either as I have sent two and have had no response – talk about setting an example and practicing what you preach.
Now there’s a lead for you, contact him and offer to give him a Sales 1.01 course.
My original posting was to see if someone had a copy of it or if anyone had made one or was using something similar but so far from the response no one is and it seems to be relatively unknown. I was just trying to save myself some work and in the process get some fresh ideas.
My guys love it and claim it is the greatest thing since ice-cream. For some it may work and for some it may not – so hey, whatever paddles your boat, if anyone out there doesn’t like it, use your own method of whatever works for you. -Murtu

I have used mind maps on occasion during personal strategy sessions. I use them as an aid and catalyst for creative thought.

Having read Buzan's work and having a familiarity with mind mapping, I fail to see their use in cold calling or telephone scripts.

I suspect that there is some confusion here. Objecton Rebuttal Trees (scripts), which are used by some telemarketers, look like mindmaps but they are not the same thing. They are constructed like a tree with various branches that represent conversational paths, i.e., If the prospect says this, then you say that.

Not all things that look alike are the same thing. -Ace Coldiron

Murtu;

You are mistaken, I didn't assume you were a rookie in sales, I assumed you were a rookie in teaching prospecting and think it likely that you may not be a master of this sales practice yourself.

Assuming your are a rookie and the assumption that you are not a master prospector and therefore unlikely to be able to train this sales practice, are not even remotely the same.

In addition, this assumption about training, though perhaps not correct could be modified slightly to cover the situation. Are you a master prospecting trainer?

Becoming one of the greats at prospecting is uncommon, more so than any other sales skill except a few of the advanced ones. It is definitely not about reading off a piece of paper, it is however about thinking on your feet, as is all sales. And, regardless of your original purpose, it was my thought that you would benefit from a master prospector/trainer of 30+ years that can and was willing to teach you a few things about this topic.

So, we got this far. You now know that perhaps the most trained prospector and prospecting teacher on this forum objected to the thought of mind maps for prospecting. And, my feeling .. it is not just felt but definitely profound in nature. I am adamant, if you want to create great sales team and you need them to learn prospecting, there is a way to achieve a higher degree of effectiveness.

Now, in no way am I suggesting that just because I say so does that make me right. But I will tell you that the man who invented telephone prospecting is still alive, still working and a part of my company - in other words, we have one person with 57 years of telephone prospecting. In case you do not think my opinion is sufficient, he has been selling for 27 years longer than you have.

We have some of the best prospectors in the world working in our company (as well as some of the best sales people too). And I can't say they feel as your people do; that they love the training we give them. But I can say they love the results from it (and though this may read a wee bit on the simplistic side, if you could you hear me say this rather than just read it, the impact would indeed get your attention).

Since when is LIKING something relevant in a profession and professional training? I seriously doubt that Doctors like having to remember the names of every part of the human body, I mean talk about tedious!

Would a MIND MAP allow you to remember 4,000 bones, cartilage, membranes, organs and the like?

Most sales people don't like COLD CALLING or any form of prospecting (many enjoy hands of prospecting - what we call marketing), that does not mean they can't improve and that mastering it is not worthwhile. And if you intend to master this art, best you start thinking in terms of teaching the recognition of attitudes and start talking to them about guts ... and, while you are doing these things, remember, the basics don't need any "map".

I could go on but instead I will suggest you focus less on what you guys like and more on getting them to a point of starting to master prospecting, it will be more profitable and therefore more fun in the long run. -Gold Calling

Thanks for your comment - I see you actually grasped what it is that I was looking for - not a mind map but a way in which a new telesales person has everything on one page to help them until they are comfortable and have the scripts etc. in their heads.

I found what I was looking for on another site.

Regards
Murtu -Murtu

Please PM me that other site. I'd like to look at it. Thanks. -Ace Coldiron