Three ‘no BS’ Introduction Scripts for Sales Development Representatives

I love listening to a good cold call, but unfortunately most of us suck at making them. We read scripts like cloned sales professionals of the Nineties and sound like radio presenters of the same era.

In the Twenties (and no I’m not referring to the 1920’s..), our buyer has changed.

Our buyer doesn’t have time for inefficient, time consuming cold calls – we’ve already interrupted them them at the worst possible time.

Our buyer doesn’t have time for rapport building, superfluous questions and chitchat.

And last but not least, they most certainly don’t have don’t have to be interrogated under an outdated B.A.N.T framework, whist we qualify the lead that we reached out to.

Oh the nerve we must have.

Cold calls of today needs a dialled in precision and finess, where every word and every breath is considered. A snappy introduction, a clear and concise hook (without the jargon….), a finely crafted question to uncover need and/or interest, followed by a clear close actually asking for the meeting.

That’s it.

In this post I’m going to outline three short and snappy introductions that have worked for me, and for you to try.

Introduction #1: The Honest Script

Script: “Hi [name], this is a sales call, would you like to hang up or can I have 30 seconds?”

This is my favourite and my go-to for sales introductions. Prospects (sometimes) love the fact that a sales person is being upfront, honest and actually asking them if they would like to receive a sales call. The risk here is that the prospect will hang up, but in most cases they probably wouldn’t have taken the sales call anyway.

Introduction #2: Twenty Seven Seconds Script

Script: “Hi [name], I know I’m an interruption but can I have 27 seconds to explain why I’ve called?”

Here we are acknowledging the fact that we are, in fact, an interruption (the prospect most definitely thinks you are..), and then contracting for time before proceeding to our hook. In most cases the prospect will appreciate the fact that we know we are an interruption and hopefully won’t mind if we take ’27 seconds’ of their time. The important thing here is to allow the prospect to speak within that 30 second time frame, so the hook needs to be short and sweet.

Introduction #3: Booking Time Script

Script: Hi [name], it’s [name] here from [company], I know your probably busy right now but I was hoping to book in 5 minutes over the next few days to introduce my business to you?

As with the previous introduction we are again contracting for time, but this time in the future rather than the present. In many cases the prospect will ask what the call is about, which will give you the opportunity to pitch, without actually having to book time in the future, but if they do say yes, the call has been successful either way.

Often times I will try all three scripts before giving up on a prospect. Notice how I don’t say who I am and where I am calling from until the very last introduction. If you space each call far enough apart (7 – 10 days), by the time it comes to calling the prospect again hopefully they would have forgotten the sound of your voice.

When prospecting for new business, it is important to be bold in your approach, many things you try will fail, that’s the nature of the job, and that is ok. In my experience, coming across confident and direct on the phone translates far better than any shaky and uncertain pitch.

I hope you find these introductions useful, not one of them has been created by me – just useful ideas I’ve picked up on my sales journey. I’m always keen to hear about new and effective approaches to be sure to let me know any introductions in the comments below.

Update: Call Scripts from Reddit

After posting this blog on reddit, some other useful introductions were discussed. See below for some more to try.

Script: “Hi this is [name] from [company], you’ve never heard of me, have you?

Script: Hi my name is [name] and I’m calling from a company called [company].. have you ever come across [company] before? (when the prospect says no, pitch and ask for discovery call)