Once you have crafted your opening statements, it's time to test them. Recognize that the way that you write is entirely different from the way that you speak. You must invest the time to rehearse and practice your statements. You must test the words that you crafted. Do they sound right? Is there a possibility of confusing the prospect? Is your communication clear? Test them out through role playing with someone else. Ask them about the dialogue. Do they have any suggestions for you? Adjust the closes or bridges that you use at the end of the script. The job is to focus on the words in the script not the delivery of the words.

Once you have resolved that your script is well crafted, you can practice the delivery by yourself. Adjust the tone and pace of your voice. Adjust the emphasis points in the script. Once you have determined how to deliver the script in pace, tonality, down swings, emphasis, and warmth of voice, role play with another salesperson or your sales manager. Deliver the script with a few variations and ask for feedback. You always want to fully test a script both by yourself and with other salespeople before you test it with a bonified prospect.

The top sales performer's final step is to record it. If you want to hit the top level in sales, record your opening statements. Personal practice and role playing are excellent teaching tools. The best one, though, is recording yourself. It shows you how you really are doing. The recording device will demonstrate unfiltered how your prospect will hear you.

My best advice when recording and listening to yourself for the first time is to take the tape home. Don't listen to the tape at the office. When you get home, pour yourself a glass of your favorite wine, beer, or other alcoholic beverage... you are going to need it. You probably won't like what you hear!

I recognize that the creation of scripts and dialogues is an arduous task. It requires the willingness to spend hours wordsmithing, testing, adjusting, and evaluating the results. There are few salespeople who have the time or the patience to tackle this project.

Because of this, I want to give you a couple of fill-in the blank statements with some modification word selections that will help you jazz them up into more customized scripts. Use these verbatim or as something to prime your mental pump when creating your own.

"Hello, (state their name), I'm (state your name) with (state your company's name). The reason for my call today is, depending on your experience in (specialty area), there is a probability we can aid you, like we have (name drop), with (shrinking verb) your (negative result noun) while also (expanding verb) your (positive result noun). If you have a moment, I'd like to (call to action phrase) your situation to see if this is something (closing phrase)."

This is the base script that you can them fill in with the word groupings below to make it more adjustable. While I have not listed every word that could work in the fill-in the blank areas, I have given you a good selection. You can also use your own wording in each targeted spot if you choose to.

The specialty area insert is for you to insert the area of specialization that you and your company provide. It should be a short, focused phrase. The name drop could be omitted if you don't have a name to drop of a person or company or both. The purpose of the name drop is to create a connection or reduce risk in the mind of the prospect because you have worked with other credible sources to solve their problems, as well.

The shrinking verb is a word used to minimize the negative result noun. It states that the product or service you want to discuss will potentially lower costs, for example. The word lower is the shrinking verb; the word cost is the negative result noun. The expanding verb accentuates the positive noun to a higher level. For example, the word enjoy would be an expanding verb while the word profits would be the positive noun that they would receive. Finally, we have a call to action phrase like evaluate with a closing phrase like "Would that work for you?" You have now constructed an effective opening statement.

Use the words that I have given you or go exploring through your thesaurus to find your own. You could expand each of these areas to include twenty to thirty words each to create a lot of variety in your fill-in the blank opening statement if you desire.

There are a handful of things that are required to perfect a powerful opening statement. The first is testing. You must be willing to test, role play, evaluate, and change your opening statement. The main determining factor of whether the opening statement is good or bad has to be your contact to appointment ratio. Too many salespeople evaluate the results of their opening statement in terms of sales. That is the wrong number comparison. You can't exclusively blame your opening statement for a lack of sales. There are too many variables between the opening statement and the close of a sale.

The purpose of an opening statement is to open the door with the prospect, so you are allowed to make a presentation. Certainly, if you can't open the door, you won't make the sale. You must analyze the effectiveness of your opening statement in the contact to appointment ratio. How many contacts (actually reached and talked to) versus how many appointments did you book? If you are selling a one-call-close product, how many presentations did you make versus the number of contacts? This is where the rubber meets the road in testing opening statements.

Professional golfers are always tinkering with and changing their swings in hopes of improvement. A salesperson also needs to be tinkering with their opening statements in search of the edge. The objective isn't beautiful prose but results. If you ever watched Lee Trevino swing, you would swear the big banana shape of his golf shot would never work. It worked well enough, however, to win him six major championships in golf. The same is true for your opening statement. If it's not pretty, but it's effective... who cares!

Another thing required is patience with your opening statements. You must be focused on the continual improvement over time. The perfection of your sales skills in this area takes time. I was once asked how long it takes to be a really great salesperson. I responded by saying, "Forty-five years, and I am still working on it." Focus on getting better with each day, and eventually your work will be complete... at death.

The last is creativity. You must be willing to go on the edge to catch the prospect's interest. I have a financial planning client whom I coach. He was getting shot down quickly during his opening statement when he cold called for prospects. The second he revealed who he was and took a pause, the response was, "Not interested. Fred Jones at XYZ Company handles our money. I don't use brokers" or any number of other shut down responses.

On a coaching call, I asked him how long he thought he really needed on the initial call to peak their interest and have a shot at booking an appointment. He responded with, "A couple of minutes." I initially said that was too long and asked if he could condense it to less than thirty seconds. He said, emphatically, "No way!" He was right, but we got it down to thirty-seven seconds with work. My client doesn't ask for a moment of their time; he asks for thirty-seven seconds. The results have been amazing. He has doubled the number of presentations he is making. Is the thirty-seven seconds a gimmick? Sure it is... but it works.