Open every call the same way and keep the script short

1. The first line, the same on every call

Start every call in exactly the same way. The reason given is compliance: this applies if you want your calls to be compliant. The first line has to carry four items: who is calling, where from, what about, and that the line is recorded.

The line, with the details left as blanks:

[First name]? (pause) This is [your name] on a recorded line, with [company], about [what the call is about]. How are you doing today?

That one short line does four jobs.

Why the notice that the line is recorded goes inside the introduction. You have to identify yourself, say what you are calling from, and say the line is recorded. You can tack on a separate notice that the call is being recorded, but experience here suggests it is far easier and quicker to fold it into who you are and where you are calling from.

The disclosure is one practice's reading of compliance, not a legal ruling. Call-recording law and telemarketing rules are not covered on this page.

2. The first name as a question, then a pause

Do not open with "Hi, is this [name]?" or "Is this [name] [surname]?" Say the first name alone, as a question, and then pause.

The reasoning comes from how you ring someone you know: you do not ask whether it is them, you say their name. They reply with something like "Hello?" From that moment they are leaning in and curious, asking themselves who this is, because you sound as though you know them. Only then do you give the rest of the line in section 1.

The setter scripts on SOP 53 (sections 2 and 3) hold a setter to the same line: say the name, and never ask whether it is them. What this page adds is saying the name as a question, and the pause.

3. The check-in, the go-ahead and the agenda

After the first line, the exchange runs like this:

• The prospect says they are doing great.
• You reply with something like "Awesome," and ask whether they are ready to get going.
• They say yes.
• You say good, let's go, and set out the agenda: you will take a couple of minutes going through their numbers to check they are a good fit; if they are, you will take them through what you sell; and, should it make sense, you can get them set up. Then ask, "Sound good?"

With that, the four items are said, the agenda is set, and the call is moving.

4. When nobody but you can close

A side note for owners who close every sale themselves. It applies if nobody else in your business can close. In that case, you are not some unicorn that nobody else could match. Your weakness is selling and your strength is expertise. Put enough expertise on show and people buy; yet your selling might still be terrible.

The levels. In one view, or at least as it is set out here, selling comes in levels. At level one you can sell. At level two you teach another person to sell. At level three you teach a team to sell. Aim for level three: your aim is to train others to sell, which is called much higher leverage than being the one who sells. Where someone is exceptional at closing, the reason is usually that they sell the wrong way, resting on their authority and expertise instead of on a very good process.

Training a team to close, one obstacle at a time, is the subject of SOP 108 — Drill a team on closing.

5. A first script made out of calls you have won

One way out, for a first version:

• Take 20 of your closed calls and transcribe them.
• Put the text into a GPT and ask it to produce one script from everything in the calls.

It is called easy: the tool gathers what you have and slots it in.

Then follow it yourself. With the new script in hand, keep to it. How could you expect anyone else to keep to your script if you can't keep to it yourself? Stay with it, and prove that the script by itself can still win deals.

6. Only a few things have to happen on the call

If you take 20 different routes to a close, then, to be fair, there are really never 20 routes; people simply wander off, which makes it look like 20 different conversations. What has to be hit comes to five or six things. Everything else is excess and waste.

A common sign among experts is that selling takes them far too long. They need an hour and 15 minutes to close what should be a 20-minute sale. All of this is symptoms.

The steps, as far as they are named here. One practice uses its own call framework because it finds that the easiest. The first steps it names are, in order: clarify; label them with a problem; and go over their past experiences and their pain. The steps that follow, and how many there are in all: Not established on this page. Another list of the steps of a sales call is in section 5 of SOP 147 — Make new customers consistent — advertise.

What matters about the steps is that they form a very straight line.

7. Cut the script down to its shortest

Your job is to stand aside and let the sale happen. As section 6 says, most sales scripts come down to five or six must-do things. Strip words out. Do not try to be clever.

A big one among people who have got a little better at selling: they get cute. They add words, then anecdotes, then sentences, and before long the script is all over the place. Keep it as tight as you can. What you want is the shortest script you can manage.

8. Know who you are selling to

Asked about selling in particular industries, the answer is that almost nothing in selling is specific to an industry. If you know who the buyer is, whatever you slot in as the product counts for almost nothing in the selling. This is about selling, not about the business as a whole.

An example. Take a woman trying, and failing, to lose weight. You speak to those pains and match them to a set of solutions. That set could be workouts, supplements, meal plans, meal-prep services, GLP-1 shots or HRT; it could be any of them. Once it is clear to her that you grasp her problem better than she does, she will trust your recommendation. They stand as examples of kinds of solution. Weight-loss treatments and health claims are not covered on this page.

What follows for hiring. So if you are bringing salespeople on, it matters far more that they understand the prospect and the pains the prospect lives with than that they know the product. The product takes up only a very short part of the pitch.

9. A process anyone can run, instead of a consultant

Many of you struggle to teach selling and to scale it because your selling comes from a consultant frame, where you arrive as the expert. Being an expert certainly gives you a great deal more authority and makes it more likely that people buy from you. The hard part is making experts of 100 people overnight, if your team is really big. That is really tough.

What makes up for it is a better process: one built on knowing the prospect, without acting as though you know the world better than they do. This counts for more the higher the level of the prospects you sell to.

Maybe you are one of those who believe no one can sell the way you can. If so, congratulations: your business will stay small forever, which is probably not the prize you are after. The better question is whether you can take what you know about selling and lay it out as a process that anyone at all could run and still close sales.

The belief that nobody can do the job the way you do is one of those swapped out on SOP 43, section 2. Whether to hire people who already have a skill or train people into it is SOP 44 — Buy or build talent.

Two views in passing. In the view here, selling to businesses and selling to consumers are functionally the same, and, in the same view, improving show rates is the same work as conversion rate optimization.

10. What this page does not decide for you

• The rest of the steps. Clarify, label and the overview of past experiences and pain are named in section 6. What follows them, and the total: Not established on this page.
• Which five or six things. Five or six things have to be hit. Which they are, beyond the steps named in section 6: Not established on this page.
• The request to the AI tool. Beyond asking for one script from all the calls, what else the request should ask the tool to mix in: Not established on this page.

11. The checklist

Step	What to do
1	Open every call the same way
2	Say the prospect's first name as a question, then pause
3	Give your name, that the line is recorded, the company, and what the call is about; ask how they are
4	Ask whether they are ready, then set the agenda: a couple of minutes on their numbers to check fit, then what you sell, then getting set up if it makes sense; ask "Sound good?"
5	If nobody but you can close, aim to teach another person to sell, then a team
6	For a first script, transcribe 20 calls you closed and have a GPT turn them into one script
7	Follow that script yourself and prove it can win deals on its own
8	Cover the five or six must-hit points and drop everything else
9	Keep taking out words, anecdotes and sentences until the script is as short as you can make it
10	Train reps on the prospect and their pains more than on the product

12. What this page does not cover

What every word before the ask is for, and the questions that open discovery, are on SOP 239 — Build pain before the ask and clarify why they came. Asking again and again until an answer turns specific is SOP 241 — Pull teeth until the answer is specific. The pain cycle is on SOP 240 — Label the problem and run the pain cycle. Tying each pain to the offer and asking for the sale is SOP 242 — Map each pain to the offer and name the price. How to mark a script for delivery is SOP 237 — Mark a script for tonality. Objection handling is not covered on this page; it starts at SOP 99 — Classify an objection.

Script drills are SOP 250 — Memorize the script, then drill it in role play.