Because you only have a few precious seconds to make a connection and establish interest, you’d better have a good opening prepared in advance. Besides being very busy, your prospects get a lot of sales calls every week, and many of them from your direct competition.
So why would they want to talk to you? What can you do to separate yourself from all the other calls they get?
The answer is that you have to establish a real connection with your prospect and stop sounding like all the other sales reps who call them!
The Wrong Way to Open Your Call
‘Oh hi Mr. __________, this is _______ _______ with the MLT Group. __________, we are an industry supply manufacturer and we help companies streamline their production process. We work with many companies in your field and save them between 10% and 15% on the cost of their storage and delivery process.
What I’d like to do is ask you some questions to see how our process may save you that kind of money as well. Where are you currently getting your…’
- Do you see how this opening makes NO connection with the prospect?
- Do you see how it just starts pitching at the prospect and doesn’t acknowledge that the prospect might be busy, or not interested?
- Do you see how there is no rapport built here and how it’s a one sided conversation?
How do you feel when someone barges in on your day and starts in with a pitch like this? You’re probably thinking what most prospects are thinking: ‘How do I get this sales rep off the phone?!’
Now let’s look at the right way to open your call. Your goal in the first few seconds is to make a connection and get them to interact. You have to acknowledge that they may be busy or that you respect their time and you have to establish some rapport and separate yourself from all the other sales reps calling them.
The Right Way to Open Your Call
Opening example: Acknowledge that you know your prospect gets a lot of calls – this will immediately help you establish a connection because you will be saying exactly what they’re thinking and feeling. Use:
‘Hi ________ this is _______ _______ with (your company), how is your Tuesday going?
Great. _______, I know you probably get a ton of calls so I’ll make this brief.’
Now go into a one to two sentence explanation of why you’re calling and what it means to them. Quickly state your value proposition and ask a qualifying question:
‘________ we provide/service/work with (companies like yours) helping them service/provide/process/do better at _________. Let me ask you a quick question…’
Ask a specific qualifying question tied with a value statement here. Something like:
‘If I could show you a way to increase the number of leads you’re getting right now and how you can easily afford to do so, would you be willing to invest five minutes to find out how?’
Now it’s important to listen to not only what they say here, but to how they say it. Most of the time you’ll be able to tell if you have an interested prospect or not.
