Your opening statement

When making a sales call, keep your opening statement short, understandable and credible.

Your goal is to start a dialogue rather than a one-sided discourse in which you preach about the features and benefits of your product or service. You establish who you are, why you're there and why the prospect should be interested in what you have to say.

There are many ways to open the call, but the common objective of good openings is to lead the prospect to agree that you're allowed to ask questions.