Sales script examples: three complete scripts for the home visit, the phone call and the trade show

The sales script examples below come from situations field reps face every week: a heat pump visit at a family's kitchen table, a pension advisor calling to book a home appointment, a kitchen retailer on a trade show stand. Each follows the same six stages. Keep the stages. Rewrite the sentences until they sound like you.

What a sales script is for

Reps who reject scripts usually picture a page read aloud to a client who stopped listening at the second line. That is not what good reps use. A useful script fixes two things: the order of the meeting and the few sentences that must be exact. Everything in between is conversation.

The exact sentences are the ones where improvisation is expensive: the opening that sets the agenda, the first discovery question, the moment the price is said out loud, and the request for a dated next step. Written in advance and rehearsed, they free the rep's attention for the client. The six stages all three scripts follow:

• Opening and agenda. Who you are, why you are here, how long it will take, and what the client will have at the end.
• Discovery. Open questions about the situation, the problem and what happens if nothing changes. The client does most of the talking.
• Reformulation. The need, repeated in the client's own words and confirmed before anything is presented.
• Proposal. Only the parts of the offer that answer what was said. The price stated plainly, once, without apology.
• Objection. Questioned before it is answered, because the first objection is rarely the real one.
• Next step. A date, a time and an action, agreed out loud before leaving.

Script 1: the home visit for a heat pump

Context: the technical sales rep of an installer, first visit to a couple, both present, oil boiler more than twenty years old. The visit was booked after a request on the website. Target length: 75 minutes.

• Opening. “Thank you for having me. Here is what I suggest: first I look at the boiler and the radiators, then we sit down for twenty minutes and you tell me what you expect. At the end I will tell you honestly whether a heat pump makes sense in this house. If it does not, I will say so. Does that work for both of you?”
• Discovery. “What made you fill in the form now, and not last year?” Then: “Roughly how much did you spend on heating oil last winter?” And: “Who else will have a say in the decision?”
• Reformulation. “If I have understood: the boiler has worried you since the breakdown in February, you want to stop depending on the oil price, and you want to keep the radiators in the living room. Is that right?”
• Proposal. “For a house this size, with your radiators, I would recommend the 12 kW model. The quote, installed, comes to [amount]. Subsidies can bring that down: I will put the exact figure for your situation on the quote.”
• Objection. Client: “That is a lot of money.” Rep: “It is. When you say a lot, do you mean the total, or paying it all at once?” Then answer the one they confirm, not both.
• Next step. “I will send the quote tonight. Can we meet again on Thursday at 6 pm, both of you, and go through it line by line?”

Script 2: the phone call to book the meeting

Context: an independent pension advisor calls a contact referred by an existing client. The goal of the call is a meeting at the client's home, not a sale. Length: three minutes. Everything that belongs in the meeting stays out of the call.

• Opening. “Good evening Mr [name], this is [first name, last name], pension advisor. [Referrer] gave me your number and mentioned you had talked about retirement together. Do you have two minutes, or shall I call back?”
• Reason for calling. “I work with couples in their fifties who want to know exactly what they will receive at retirement, while there is still time to change it. [Referrer] found the review useful. I would like to offer you the same one, in an hour.”
• Qualification. “Before we set a date, one question: is this something you would look at alone, or with your partner?”
• The ask. “I can come to you on Tuesday at 7 pm or Thursday at 6 pm. Which suits you both better?”
• If they hesitate. “I understand. What would you need to know now to decide whether the hour is worth it?” Answer that, then ask once more. If the answer is “I will think about it”, see our page on the I need to think about it objection.
• Confirmation. “So Tuesday at 7 pm, at your home, both of you. If you have your latest pension statements to hand, keep them out. I will text you my details tomorrow.”

Script 3: the trade show stand

Context: a kitchen retailer at a regional home show. Visitors walk past at strolling pace. The goal is not a sale on the stand but a showroom appointment built on a plan of the room. Each conversation lasts two to five minutes.

• Opening. Not “Can I help you?”, which invites “Just looking”. Instead: “Are you renovating, or building?”
• Discovery. “What bothers you most about your current kitchen?” Then: “When would you like the work finished?”
• Reformulation. “So: not enough worktop, and you want it done before next summer.”
• Proposal. “What we do is draw your kitchen on the real measurements of your room, in the showroom, in about an hour. You leave with the plan and a price, with no commitment.”
• Objection. Visitor: “We are only looking for ideas at this stage.” Rep: “That is exactly what the hour is for. Would a weekday evening or a Saturday morning suit you better?”
• Next step. “I will put you down for Saturday at 10 am. Bring the room dimensions and a photo of each wall with the windows.”

How to make a sales script sound like you

A script read word for word sounds read. The fix is not to drop it but to rehearse it until the sentences belong to the rep.

• Write it in your own words. Say the lines above out loud and rewrite every sentence you would not say to a neighbour.
• Memorise four sentences, not four pages. The opening, the first discovery question, the price and the next step.
• Build objection answers from real meetings. Use the objections your clients actually raise, in their words. Our guide to objection handling shows how to turn them into answers.
• Rehearse in pairs. One plays the client with a real objection from last week. Five minutes, then swap.
• Prepare each meeting on its own. The script is the frame. Preparing the meeting fills it with what you know about this client.

Checking whether the script holds in real meetings

On the phone, a manager can listen back to calls. At the client's home or on a stand, nobody hears the meeting. Nobody knows whether the agenda was set, whether discovery came before the proposal, or whether the rep left with a date. A field observation grid used on ride-alongs helps, for the few meetings a manager can attend.

MIHOS records the in-person meeting with the client's consent, scores it against your own script and method, and links each coaching point to the passage in the transcript where a stage was skipped or handled well. The real objections it collects can then be rehearsed as AI roleplays.

Frequently asked questions

What is a sales script? A written sequence of the stages of a sales conversation, with the key sentences prepared in advance: opening, discovery questions, proposal, objection answers and next step. In face-to-face selling it is a frame, not a text to read.

Should reps learn the script by heart? Only the few sentences where the exact words matter: the opening, the first discovery question, the price and the next step. The rest should be understood, not recited.

How long should a sales script be? One page per situation. A script that does not fit on one page will not be used in a meeting.

What is the difference between a sales script and a sales pitch? The script covers the whole conversation. The sales pitch is one part of it: the short presentation of your offer, delivered after discovery.