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Cold Call Opening Lines: The First 10 Seconds
tenbound.com
Quoted on this wiki
Every place a page here uses this source, in the order the words come in it.
Where this sits “A perfect opener aimed at the wrong account fails exactly like a bad one.” More on the call itself: the 14 best cold calling tips and the Buckets methodology, which covers who to call before what to say.
"Is now a bad time?" You have offered them a free exit and most people take it. Gong's analysis of opening lines makes the same point: the opener that invites a no gets one. “"We're a leading provider of..." Nobody has ever wanted this sentence. It answers a question they did not ask about a company they have not agreed to care about.” There is a fourth, subtler one: "Did I catch you at an okay time?" dressed up as politeness. Same exit, softer voice.
The first response is a reflex “It is the reflex that ends unwanted calls, and it fires before comprehension.” That does not mean push through it. It means answer the reflex rather than the words: