Backstory: I thought every customer was different, so a sales script could never work. That was my limiting belief.
Mistake #5: I loved to freestyle.
Every sales call started the same way: "So, how can I help you?"
No agenda. No script. Open conversation.
I believed every customer was different, so a script could never work.
And I hated salespeople who read from one. Robotic. I didn't want to be that guy.
I wanted to help. And helping meant 1:1 consulting, any way, shape or form.
So every call was different. Different questions, different demo, different promises.
I loved it.
What it produced:
Good: The customer felt heard.
Bad: Custom work, custom solutions, custom promises.
Bad: Hard to onboard, hard to drive results.
Bad: No track record that any of it would work. No proof.
Then we poached the VP of Product from our biggest competitor. They had raised around $250M and had the biggest customers in the world.
He told me: you don't sell from an open book. You sell from a menu.
Here's what I missed:
Freestyling isn't helping. It's selling something you've never proven.
The menu is proof the kitchen can cook the dish. Walk into an Italian restaurant and you don't order Chinese.
A script isn't robotic when you follow it instead of reading it.
Every customer interaction needs a process: how we show up, what we say, how we follow up. Without one, everybody says whatever feels right, the experience is inconsistent, coaching is impossible, results are unpredictable.
Solution: We wrote the menu and the script.
The menu, two offers with results calculated on their numbers:
Order tracking and notifications → fewer customer service tickets and the dollars saved, calculated on their order volume
Returns and exchanges → returns turned into exchanges and the dollars saved on returns, calculated on their return volume
The call:
A script we followed, not read, so we sounded human
An agenda, so the call had a shape
Clear next steps at the end, so we didn't waste their time or ours
Why this works:
The founder sells with authority. The team can't borrow it. What they can borrow is the menu and the script.
A call that's proven to close is proven for everyone who runs it the same way.
When a call goes wrong, you know what to fix: the person, or the script. Not everything.
The results:
Two offers, each with an ROI the prospect could check against his own numbers
Every call ran the same, so I could hand it to the team
Coaching became possible. You can't hand a rep your certainty, but you can hand him the menu
No more "how can I help you?"
So write your menu: the 3–5 outcomes you can prove, and under each one, the result, how you get there, and the timeline.
Then write the script as a frame, not a speech: intro, agenda, discovery, the menu, and book the next meeting before you hang up.
Secret Sauce: Sell from a menu, not an open book.
Follow the script. Don't read it.
Best,
Virgil
PS: Mistake #6: One month we closed everything. The next month, nothing.