According to that oft-quoted compendium of bizarre statistics, The Book of Lists, people rank their fear of public speaking higher than their fear of death.

The Book of Lists missed an opportunity because it didnt have people rank their fear of writing. Granted, its less obvious and not nearly as traumatic as having to deliver a speech, but still, a lot of folks suffer from it.

You can see it in the stiffness of their emails and the stodgy formality of their memos and business letters. It also creeps into their selling scripts.

If you ask most salespeople whether they want to use a call script, theyll say no, and one of the reasons theyll cite is that it sounds canned. In a different article, Ive discussed how to bring a script to life through nuances of vocal delivery.

But let me point out that poor delivery is only one reason that scripts sound canned. A more significant reason is that theyre very, very poorly written.

Theyre not conversational because they are writings, primarily, and not talkings. Most people who compose sales scripts dont capture the sound of real talk.

For example, Ive drafted numerous sales and customer service scripts and Ill seed them with words and phrases that say, Im speaking to you, off the cuff-this is the real me youre communicating with!

Lets say you need a script to help complaining customers with a buggy software program. You can listen to their complaint and respond, Im sorry that happened.

Its not bad, but it can be conversationalized.

Instead, try, Gee, Im sorry that happened.

Gee communicates many things. First, it implies that this is a surprise, that your software program isnt known for screwing-up. Your credibility is preserved.

Second, Gee says Im being spontaneous, a real person.

In the law, wed call this an excited utterance, and judges give it special significance because it is blurted out without thought. Its a window into the persons genuine feelings and thoughts.

Gee actually says, Im not scripted!

Therefore, scripting it is that much more powerful.

Im just offering this as one example of how you can make your sales scripts sound genuine, while avoiding the perception that theyre canned.

There are many other ways, and if you give it thought, you can generate your own. The real secret is identifying how real talk sounds, and then putting that, imperfections and all, down on the page.