Creating an Impact Statement

"You have a maximum of 90 seconds in a cold call to your prospect," says cold calling expert Leslie Buterin in a recent blog post. "What are you going to say that will compel them to invite you in for a meeting? What are the words to use? Where do you find those words?"

"You need a well-crafted impact statement," says Buterin. "The clear unmistakable words of a sentence that quickly convey the kind of impact your products/services can have as solutions to your prospect's pressing business problems."

To do this, Buterin suggests you "give your clients' words considerably more weight than the words you use. Unbeknownst to you, the way you talk about your business has become a kind of corporate-speak, a language that communicates something within your company, and a language that sounds like blah, blah, blah to your prospects."

So, how do you get a hold of your client's words for crafting your impact statement?"

"The fastest, most direct route is with a 5-minute phone call to several of your oh-so-happy clients," says Buterin. "Take care not to feed your clients the words to say. Simply ask your happy clients a few strategic, open-ended questions."

Here are a few examples of open-ended questions you can ask your clients:

a. Why did you choose to do business with us?
b. What did you get out of doing business with us?
c. If I ask you to quantify the improvement in your expenses, your revenues, what would you say, specifically in terms of increased revenues, decreased expenses, mitigated risk?

"Then, just sit back and listen to them," says Buterin. "Find out the verbiage your clients use and then use those very words to craft your compelling impact statement. There is tremendous power in using the words of your happy clients. Granted, their words are not necessarily the words you'd use in-house. However, their words are the ones that will grab the attention of your cold call prospects and compel them to invite you in for an appointment. A very good place to be."

Leslie Buterin is the founder of Top Dog Consulting and the author of Secrets to Scheduling the Executive-Level Sales Call. She works with sales professionals, teaching them how to access and sell to high-level decision-makers. Keep up to date with Leslie on her blog, www.coldcallingnetnews.com