Smart Calling: Eliminate the Fear, Failure, and Rejection from Cold Calling, 2nd Edition

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, ...