Critical Selling

4A Solid Opening: Connect with Your Customers

A poor opening is truly a lost opportunity—for you and your customer. A poor opening fails to lend your customer confidence in you, your company, and your product or service. It might lead your prospect to disengage or, even worse, to end the sales call altogether.

Being prepared for a compelling opening is a critical step to get your opening right. What happens when you pick up the phone to call a prospect without a plan? How well does just winging it work? How much are you able to accomplish with a poorly planned opening?

Chances are that winging it rarely (if ever) goes very well and that you don't accomplish as much as you might like when you launch into a sales call without a plan. The fact is that sales professionals who open calls without a plan are less successful than those who do plan. Furthermore, our research also tells us that an effective opening is one of the most undervalued phases of the sales process.

When are able to start the interaction with a solid opening, everything else falls naturally into place. A good opening gives you confidence, and it makes your customer feel comfortable. It sets the stage for the interaction and helps build positive momentum toward connecting with your customer. But solid openings don't happen by chance. They take planning and practice. The good news is that there are some specific steps you can take to ensure that you've mastered this critical selling skill so that you are prepared ...