Five Sentences That Will Change Your Life – Part 1

I’ve never been much of a script guy. In fact, you might say I’m an anti-script guy. I’ve been known to present to some pretty sizeable, and important, audiences with not only zero slides, but pretty much zero prep — except for a couple of decades’ experience with the subject matter.

So, imagine my surprise when I found myself prescribing a script to someone in the most powerful class of salespeople: a CEO/Founder (aka, a C/F). C/Fs are a kind of Big Dog and are usually given a certain degree of respect compared to, say, an Account Executive, regardless of how many adjectives one might put before “Account.”

Given that job #1 at any early-stage company is to get those precious first paying customers, an obvious question is, “Can the C/F systematically and efficiently translate this Big Dog power into the early wins that transform the company from a nice idea into a nascent business?” If so, any C/F who wants their company to survive and thrive should spend as much time as possible each day selling. If not, perhaps their young company won’t do so well.

Conversations Matter — Especially That First One

At ConnectAndSell, we have solved the problem of getting a C/F into as many phone conversations with presumed prospects as they (the C/F, not the prospects) can stomach. But what should they say?

Here are five sentences that work. Of course, other sentences may work too — perhaps better than these. But this script, which I have prescribed to several C/Fs and other Big Dogs, works well enough to be worth trying and, therefore, worth sharing. I will quote from a recent cold call by Noah Blumenthal, C/F of SavvyRoo, a new company with a system that magically turns frontline employees into innovation engines.

Sentences 1 and 2:

“Hi, I’m Noah Blumenthal, CEO of SavvyRoo. I know I’m an interruption; can I have 27 seconds to tell you why I called?”

Sentence 3:

“I believe we have discovered a breakthrough in unleashing the innovation power of frontline employees.”

Sentence 4:

“The reason I reached out to you today is to get 15 minutes on your calendar to share that breakthrough with you.”

Sentence 5:

“Do you happen to have your calendar available?”

These sentences convert about 15% of the time to a meeting. That’s a lot! I’ll break it down next time in Part 2.