How to Craft the Perfect Opening Statement for Sales Calls

Summary:

• Clearly identify yourself and your company to establish rapport and context immediately.
• Focus on earning a receptive audience by addressing a relevant problem or offering immediate value.
• Highlight a specific benefit to let the prospect know what’s in it for them—which every prospect is wondering when you call.
• End your statement with an engaging question related to the prospect’s key pain point to spark a meaningful conversation.
• Avoid generic, self-centered statements and prioritize value-driven, problem-solving approaches.

Ask any seasoned sales development representative and they'll tell you—the opening statement is the most crucial part of your sales prospecting call.

It determines whether your prospect will actually listen to what you have to say, or simply shrug you off and say goodbye.

There are some things you absolutely must do, and some pitfalls to avoid.

We’ll cover some of them in today’s article, so you can craft the perfect opening statements for your sales prospecting calls! Then you can use our power dialer to reach more prospects and start your conversations with them correctly.

Let’s get started.

Making Contact with Prospects the Right Way

Before you can create the perfect opening statement for your sales calls, you have to consider who you’ll be calling and why. Half the battle is making sure the people you plan to call actually want to hear from you.

As industry compliance evolves and carriers flag numbers that appear to engage in nuisance-like calling patterns, it’s vital to ensure that you contact high-quality and high-intent prospects. You should also take steps to engage in call behavior and utilize call technology that delivers a seamless and positive call experience.

You can learn more about this in the link below, or explore PhoneBurner’s commitment to Responsible Communications™.

Learn More: Getting Permission to Initiate Contact: A Guide for Phone Sales Reps

Elements of Effective Opening Statements for Inbound & Outbound Sales Calls

Identifying Who You Are

Naturally, a good opening statement identifies who you are and what company you're with. It's an obvious first step to establishing a rapport and ensuring the first question you receive isn't... "Who is this?" or "What company are you calling from." So always begin by identifying this key information.

Understanding the Main Goal

It's important to understand what the goal of your opening statement is.

Quite simply, it's to earn you a receptive audience. That's it.

People are inherently skeptical when they get a sales call. Their instinct is usually to say no, get off the phone, and get back to what they are doing. You need to cut through that, and earn yourself an audience that is interested in what you have to say.

Pitching the Problem

This might seem counterintuitive—but hear us out; it works.

Most sales callers want to talk about the solutions they’re offering, but this only works when your prospect is keenly aware of the problem you’re trying to solve. Unless they’re thinking about it at the moment you call, this can turn your opening statement into an uphill battle.

Instead, try a “reverse pitch” where you pitch the problem first instead of the solution. This reminds the prospect of the issue they had before you called, and primes them to be receptive when you start talking about how what you’re selling can fix it.

As we’ve written elsewhere, "problem pitching" has been shown to help you book more meetings in your outbound calls. Combine that with PhoneBurner’s power dialer, which lets you reach up to 4x as many prospects per hour, and that’s a lot more deals you’re likely to close.

Permission

One of the most popular openers today is the “Permission based opener” and it usually involves some brutal honesty. It sounds something like this. “Look, I know I’m calling you out of the blue on a Monday morning, but can I get just 15 seconds to tell you why I’m calling?”

It’s a pattern interrupt, and it works.

Answering “What’s in It For Me?”

So how do you earn yourself a receptive ear?

You have to illustrate the value they receive for staying on the line. The benefit. You have to answer "what's in it for them."

Ideally, you do that by hitting upon 1) a hot button issue and 2) convincing them (or creating enough curiosity, anyway) that you have a credible solution for it.

For example, let’s say that your company optimizes mobile apps. Some hot buttons you may have identified for your target market include daily download numbers, repeat usage, or poor reviews.

In this case a good opening statement might be, "Hi John. This is Jane Smith from AppYapp. I'm calling because I noticed that your app has fewer reviews than many of your competitors, and I wanted to tell you about a cool little tool that's helping iOS apps collect 300% more reviews with very little effort..."

Ending with an Engaging Question

You’ve weaved a benefit into your opening statement and quickly touched on who you are – but how do you end it? One of the best ways to end it is with an engaging question.

It can be something simple, like, “Let me ask you – is consintely pulling in more high-quality reviews something your team is thinking about?”

The point is to get them engaged and talking about the relevant issue you’re trying to help them with. Your prospect might also offer up information keying you in their struggles, concerns, or goals.

This is a great way to start a conversation that positions you as someone genuinely wants to (and can) help.

Avoiding Common Opening Statement Mistakes

There are a few common mistakes many people make, especially when they first start out with sales prospecting. If you can avoid mistakes like these, you’ll already be far ahead of the game.

Here are some common opening statement mistakes you must avoid:

Saying that you’re calling to “introduce your company” to them.

They most likely don’t know anything about you yet OR how you can help them, so they certainly don’t care about being introduced to your company. Instead, be sure to use a benefit like we talked about earlier.

Offering a list of things your company does.

Had you started your call, "AppYapp helps companies collect more reviews, improve their listings, and improve user experience," you're being way to general to sound like you can solve a particular problem or hot button.

Using the wrong tone

It’s often less about what you say, and more about how you say it. As Ronen Pessar shares in this brilliant video post, there are good tones, bad tones, and elements of tone such as volume, pace, energy, and pausing, that all play into a winning opener. 

When in doubt, be friendly and inviting. But striking the proper balance is key. Nice is great, until you overdo it and sound fake. Confidence is a must, but stop short of being assertive. Avoid high speed and volume, but without sounding sleepy.

Trying to schedule a time to meet or talk right away.

You don’t want to jump the gun. It’s far better to ease into it, provide value, and give them a reason as to why they’d want to talk with you again.

Asking vague questions like, “How are you today?” or “Is this a good time for you?” These may seem like harmless, polite questions, but in reality, they’re a waste of your prospects’ time and make you seem like a salesperson– plus they also give them an easy “out” to hang up.

Learn More: 5 Cold Calling Mistakes You Don’t Know You’re Making

Deliver Your Best Opening Statement to More Prospects with PhoneBurner

Don’t underestimate the importance of your opening statement. As it is, live answers are hard to come by—though we can help you improve your answer rates.

Use these tips to craft better opening statements that will keep your leads on the line and interested in what you have to offer. And use our dialing platform to engage more prospects, in less time, without any off-putting pause or delay.

Not a PhoneBurner user yet? Start your free trial here and experience the difference it can make for your career firsthand.