Chapter 10

Creating Interest with Your Smart Call Opening Statement

Now that I have trashed almost everything that you might have been taught about what to say on a prospecting call, I guess it’s time for me to step up to the plate with what you should do. And I will; you won’t be disappointed.

In fact, if you read only one chapter in this book—which I hope you don’t do—this one would be worth many times more than your investment in the entire book. We are about to cover the step-by-step process for pulling everything together that we have covered so far—all of your planning and your intelligence gathering—and plugging it into your interest-creating opening statement.

The Jim Furyk Theory

I must preface everything I suggest about openings with what I call the Jim Furyk Theory. Jim is a PGA golfer, and if you follow golf, you have undoubtedly seen him play. What makes Furyk unique is that he has one of the more unconventional swings in golf. Okay, some say it looks a bit odd. All right, I won’t mince words; it’s just plain ugly. However, Jim is one of the best golfers in the world; he’s won a major championship and many tournaments. There probably is not a golf teacher alive, though, who would ever teach a golf swing the way Furyk executes it. But what they do teach—and agree upon—is that the club head needs to be square to the ball at impact to realize the optimal result. While Jim Furyk’s golf swing itself—what happens before he hits the ball—is ugly, he squares the club at impact, and his results prove it.

The correlation for us as Smart Callers is that I do not claim to have the one and only perfect opening statement methodology for prospecting. My goal is to help you to maximize your chance of squaring the club head at impact to get the result you desire, while minimizing the results to avoid—resistance.

Sure, I’ve given you a number of “don’t say” phrases, and I am about to show you many more “to do’s” for your openings. These are based on what I know to work from experience, study, and implementation—my own, and thousands of salespeople I have worked with. I also know that there are probably some Jim Furyks out there who can show some success using unconventional techniques, and there are a number of ways to get the club head square or the results we desire. That’s why I will present to you a number of options, and it will be your responsibility to mold, shape, and beat these into a form that works for you.

Two Objectives for Your Openings

Let’s first be clear on what you’re trying to do with openings. You have two simple objectives for your opening statement:

That’s it. As we discussed in the last chapter, you don’t want to give a presentation, ask for a decision or appointment, or talk about products or services. You just want them to be curious, interested, and talking.

Scripting

The worst time to think of what you’ll say is when it’s already leaving your mouth. Scripts. Just saying the word causes many professionals to crinkle their noses with disdain and screech, “Scripts, no way! They’re not natural, they make you sound canned!” On the contrary, not using a script often makes you sound like a moron, and failing to prepare a script for your opening and voice mail message is just plain dumb.

As for the claim that a script makes you sound canned, well, have you been to a movie or watched a TV series lately? This might come as a shock, but they were all working from scripts. Someone wrote those words they’re saying for them. Scripts don’t make you sound canned; the delivery of a poorly constructed script can make someone sound canned.

I define a script as the conversational combination of well-planned words that, when delivered naturally, elicit the listener response we desire. Dissenters who say they just like to wing it on the phone cause me to shake my head in disbelief, because winging it often results in a rambling, stream-of-consciousness monologue that never will be better than something prepared in advance.

Let’s put it in a different perspective and pretend that you were asked to write an article for the highest-profile trade publication in your industry. This article could give you celebrity status and maybe even cause prospects to view you as the expert in the business with whom they want to work. It could be a career-defining article. Would you scratch out the first thing that came to mind and submit your rough draft to the publication’s editor? No! You’d give it some thought, do some research, prepare an outline, do a first version, edit it, maybe have someone else look at it, revise it, and continue the process until you had something very tight that you were comfortable with. Why? Because you’d want it to be the best it could possibly be.

Now, let me ask you, if a sales rep dials the phone—completely scriptless—and blurts out the first thing that comes to mind, just winging it, what is he submitting? It is essentially a rough draft, which, of course, is nowhere near the quality of something he might take the time to prepare.

Organizing what you’ll say in advance of the conversation allows you to fine-tune and economize the precise combination of words that will give you the result you’re looking for. The key to sounding smooth is in writing it in a conversational tone and then delivering it naturally. And just like an actor, that requires studying and practicing it.

The Smart Call Interest-Creating Opening Statement Process

It’s time to pull everything together with the step-by-step opening statement process. Here’s how:

More Possible Ending Phrases

Let’s look at some full examples, using some of the Possible Value Propositions I had referred to in Chapter 3.

Here are a few more:

Does Length Matter?

I’m often asked about the proper length of an opening, how long is too long, and the like. As a general rule, you want to say as much as you can with the fewest number of words—which means that every word should add to the impact of the opening. If words don’t, edit them out.

I know from experience that some people might look at the opening examples here and say, “Too long!” My response is that something is too long only if it is delivered poorly and doesn’t interest the listener. If your opening is laser-targeted to the prospect’s world, she will listen. Conversely, if it is irrelevant, even one sentence is too long in his mind.

The Time Issue

As I mentioned in the previous chapter, you might want to verbalize respect for prospects’ time. I can understand that. Some people want to do it all of the time, while others think that it provides an opportunity for the prospect to say, “I’m too busy to talk.” Since I can argue both sides of that issue, I suggest that its use is purely a matter of personal preference. My one rule, however, is to not simply say: “Do you have a few moments to talk?” right at the beginning (as I pointed out in the previous chapter). If you do want to mention time, I always recommend that you do so after making your Possible Value Proposition. Notice that in one of the examples of my formula, I use the phrase “and if I have reached you at a good time.” That is not a question but a statement, one that’s strategically positioned after the value to give the prospect a reason to stay on the phone. If they are so busy right now that they can’t speak with us, they’ll let us know (actually, they probably wouldn’t have picked up the phone in the first place if they were that busy). Otherwise, it’s embedded in the sentence where we suggest that we’d like to ask a few questions.

An Unconventional Technique That I Have Heard Work

As part of my preparation for customized training programs for companies, I like to listen to their recorded calls. On the first few calls with one particular client, I heard the rep introduce himself and his organization and then say, “I’ll be brief, if that’s okay with you.” My first reaction was negative, thinking that was a bit cheesy. Then I heard the rep use it on almost every call, and not one prospect responded, “No, please, be as verbose as you can.” Everyone responded with something like “Sure, go ahead.” This may not be for everyone, but it is an option I’ll put in the Jim Furyk category.

Weasel Words

You might have also noticed I used a number of words that are not typically associated with strong sales language. They might actually seem weak, but that’s by design. I do suggest using some weasel or contingency words like:

In Chapter 9, I advised against using declarative statements. We use these weasel words instead, because we want to avoid having prospects see us as that pushy, cocky salesperson. These words soften up the opening, and help us transition into the questions:

“. . . and depending on your satisfaction with the speed and downtime of your Internet connection, we might be able to help you cut down on the time you spend waiting for pages to load, and minimize those interruptions in service your assistant said you are experiencing. . . .”

And notice how this leads right into questioning.

“. . . and if I’ve caught you at a good time, I’d like to ask a few questions . . .”

You Have Also Created Your Smart Voice Mail Message

As we’ve discussed, your opening statement does double duty as your voice mail message to the prospect. The only difference is the ending. I’ll modify one of the openings I shared previously into a voice mail message:

“Hi, Jack, I’m Zack Krandle with Hometown Construction. In reviewing some of the reports from the city permits department, I had seen some of the properties that your firm manages. We have a good relationship with the inspectors here in town; we know their tendencies and specialize in working with landlords whose properties failed building inspections and fix them so they pass. I’d like to ask a few questions to see if I could provide you some information. I will call you again Friday morning, and if you’d like to call me before then, my number is. . . .”

Smart Calling Action Step

What will you commit to do as a result of this chapter?