William
Haslett (1778-1830), the great British Essayist, once said, "First
impressions are often the truest...and it is not to be got rid of
easily." This couldn't be anymore true than with your opening
statement you make when calling on an office.
Your opening statement needs be compelling, prepared, and practiced.
Your goal is to create an immediate interest and to engage the
prospect. Using as few words as possible and avoiding industry
jargon or slang, your opening statement should be simple and direct.
The best opening statements will
include the following points:
What exactly are you selling? When formalizing your
"first impression" opening statement you first need to decide what
exactly it is that you are selling. If you sell a practice
management software, you can simplify that by saying that you are
providing an appointment scheduling and accounts receivable
management software. The term "practice management software,"
though it may have meaning to you, doesn't truly capture what it is
you are selling - it is vague. In fact, it may mean something
totally different to the doctor you are working with.
How will the office benefit? Your product should
provide benefits on two different levels. First there are the
emotional benefits, which are personal and drive the urgency to see
your product. Emotional benefits may include things like
relieving stress, giving time with family, or making the office
staff happier. Second, there are the logical benefits,
which support the evaluation of your products ROI and justify the
purchase. Logical benefits include things like the ability to
see more patients, the faster turn around in eClaims processing, and
the opportunity to lower their accounts receivables significantly.
Types of Opening Statements. You will have a number of
opportunities, virtually daily, to deliver an opening statement to a
prospect - on a telephone call, when leaving a voice mail, on a cold
call, or when walking into an office to drop off a brochure.
In all of these scenarios, your opening statement must be succinct
and help create an immediate interest by focusing quickly on the
specific benefit you are selling to that office. It is not
your goal to "close" during that opening statement, but simply to
create and gauge interest. Thus, it becomes important to
maximize every word and syllable you will use.
| Words to use |
Phrases to
Avoid |
| Maximize,
increase, grow
Minimize, reduce, decrease
Eliminate, profit from
Specific, specifically
Save, conserve
Accumulate
Prevent
Fully, Immediate now |
We're the leading provider of...
We work with several of your
competitors...
How are you today...
I'd like to learn a little
more about your business...
We've been in business
since...
I'd like to see if there
are some ways we can...
Is now a good time to
talk?
Did I catch you at a bad
time? |
Sample opening
statements. Here are some samples of some
generic opening statements you can use a guide when
creating your own.
[sample 1] Hi
Dr. Jones. We provide an easy-to-use
electronic medical records package that helps you
save money on office supplies while at the same time
increasing the number of patients you see. I'm
calling to see if this might be helpful to you and
your office staff.
[sample 2] Hi
Judy. This is Kevin with InvestMed. We
provide an incredible patient and insurance billing
software package to help you save hours on your
billing processes and increase claim acceptance to
95%. I'm calling to see if this service might
be valuable to the doctor and your billing staff.
As the old saying
goes, "you only get one chance to make a first
impression." Make your first impression count by
practicing your opening statements so that you create
and gauge interest and quickly help an office to see
what benefits you maybe providing them. I can
guarantee it will save you time and make you much more
effective at getting into offices that may need your
product.
-- Kevin Burdick,
InvestMedLLC.com
