I was having a conversation with a couple of prospects the other day.

The afternoon sunlight cascaded through their ground floor conference room, but it was the only source of illumination in the place.

Otherwise, we could have been in a cave, tens of thousands of years ago—this is how primitive the conversation was.

After I assessed the lack of quality in the script they’re using for handling inbound sales prospects, one of them snapped:

“I can get anybody to write a script!”

Of course, that’s exactly what you did. You got just anybody to write the current version, and that’s why:

(1) It is not producing results, enough conversions of inquiries to appointments;

(2) Your people aren’t using it, because it doesn’t flow, like natural conversation; and

(3) You’re shopping for professional help, right now. If the script was good, or you were effective at putting it to work, and managing your folks so they performed it consistently and well, I wouldn’t be sitting here, right?

Before you get the idea that all my prospects are stupid, let me say quite clearly, they aren’t. Usually, they’re quite successful, and their problem isn’t intelligence.

It’s DISRESPECT.

As my professor, famed management guru Peter F. Drucker said: “We won’t succeed in any area that we don’t respect.”

Frame these words!

Most people disrespect customer service, telemarketing, and sales work; largely, because they don’t understand it, and they think it’s easy, entailing not true ability, but a “knack.”

Unfortunately, there isn’t a school that you can attend that will teach respect. This is supposed to happen in one’s upbringing, along with its behavioral manifestation: good manners.

As long as people disrespect the work I’ve described above, they’ll be powerless to improve it.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.