About Opening a Sales Call
First impressions are critical. For this reason, your sales call openings should be well-crafted and rehearsed, and you should be ready for any response. Because time really is money, use your opening to hook a customer as fast as possible before your sales pitch. Finally, keep the transition from opener to pitch smooth and seamless. A well-crafted sales call opening makes a sales call feel more like a friendly chat.
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Preparation
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Prospective clients will respond better if it's clear you targeted them specifically. For this reason, do your homework. Instead of calling a dozen random people, select two and learn about them, their jobs and what their respective companies do. Determine specifically what you can do for them to improve their business. Then write a script for each detailing what you plan to say.
The Sales Call Opening
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Your opening lines should address the prospect by name, introduce you and your company, tell the prospect what you can do for them and ask a compelling question that will "hook" them. Keep the hook as far in front as possible. Moreover, you must keep this script succinct and short. According to Tony Parinello, you have about eight seconds within which to craft your opening. Longer openings lose the customer, and thus the sale. Once you have it crafted, rehearse this opening with a smile on your face until it feels natural. In addition, be certain to ask whether your client has time to discuss your proposal; if not, ask for a convenient time to call back.
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Tell a Story
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The simplest way to engage any human being is to tell a story. Good stories address a central figure -- in your case, either your prospect or a former successful client. Like a story, your pitch should build suspense and create questions in the prospect's mind: "How do we use this technique to build our business? What did they do to improve sales 50 percent?" It should also foreshadow the close by implying the vast benefits of what you're selling to your prospect's bottom line.
Invite Participation
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Engage your client at the end with a question. This invites participation. When the client participates, he invests time into your call. The more time he invests, the more attention he will pay and the more patient with your call he will become -- provided you make that information easy for him to acquire and understand.
Sample Script
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When you put it all together, your script should flow something like this. "Is this Jeannie Scarletti?" "Great, I've heard wonderful things about your work with the high-yield Madagascar honeybee. Ms. Scarletti, is this a good time for you or should I call back later?" "Ms. Scarletti, our company developed web services for XYZ corporation that doubled its online customer base in only six months. With your focus in beekeeping equipment, we are confident that we can use similar processes to help ABC Enterprises improve its own online profile as well. I'm Tom Jones with Synertec. Can we talk?"
The Interruption
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The best scenario possible is when your customer interrupts your introduction to ask a question about your pitch or product. At this point, your beginning is finished, whether you've recited the entire script or not. Allow the customer to take charge, and be responsive to her needs for the rest of your call.
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