14 Your Thirty-Second Speech

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All my successes have been built on my failures.

—Benjamin Disraeli

The Beginning

Do you find that the hardest part of a cold call is getting

started? The next five chapters contain ideas and techniques

that make it much easier to gain a prospect’s interest quickly—

and to set the stage for a productive conversation. We’ll even

tell you how to leave messages that have a far greater chance

of being returned.

It all starts when you prepare and refine a thirty-second

speech to open your cold calls . . . .

Riinnnng

“Hello?”

“I am looking for Mr. Jacobs, please.”

“This is he. May I help you?”

‘Yes, my name is Ramon Lewis. I’m with the EZ

Building Company. If you have a minute, I’d like to

tell you about a special we are having this month

that could be of help to you.”

“Yeah? Tell me more.”

Oh, oh, here it comes. The old “show up and throw up.”

Triggered by “tell me more,” Ramon is going to talk for the

next 24 hours. At least, it will seem that long to the prospect.

Ramon is doomed. Why? Too much talking.

TIP: : You have four to six seconds to make a good

first impression. And you have thirty seconds, tops,

before the prospect wants in on the conversation.

For crying out loud, let them in.

Time to jump in the water. Up to this point we have been

doing the necessary spade work to lay the foundation for an effective

cold call. Now we’re going to make one.

The first tool we need is a good thirty-second speech—an

introduction we can use every day to begin a cold call. Once

we get the format right, we can fine tune it and personalize it.

Every cold call should start out with a thirty-second

speech. And a thirty-second speech follows the Rule of Three.

The Rule of Three

For most people, the limit of short-term memory is seven digits

(or units), plus or minus two. If we feed bullets of information

to prospects, we start overloading them at five. By nine,

we’ve lost practically everyone.

But why risk overtaxing anybody at all? Throttle back and

feed information to prospects in units of three—well inside

the borders of short-term memory. It’s no accident that we

love things in three’s:

_ A-B-C

_ 1-2-3

_ Good—Better — Best

Craft your thirty-second introductory speech with three

points:

1. “Who are you?”

2. “What’s in it for people like me?”

3. “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM.)

The “me” in points two and three is, of course, the

prospect. WIFFM is always about the prospect.

Here’s a quick summary of these three points.

Who Are You?

Introduce yourself. Make it short and sweet—a kiss on the

cheek, not a lingering embrace. State your name and company.

Then move on. If you spend more than three seconds here, you

are kissing way too long.

What’s in It for People Like Me?

Explain why the prospect should bother to talk to you. Tell

them a few things about what you may be able to do for them.

Give them a point of reference about who you are and what

you do. You aren’t an invader from Mars, you’re in the widget

business.

Warning: Do not tell them, and tell them, and tell them

about all the things you do, hoping that eventually you’ll hit

upon something that actually interests them.

NOTE: THE QUESTION IS NOT, “WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN

FEATURE X OF OUR NEW ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE PROGRAM?” THAT

TELLS THE PROSPECT THIS CALL IS ABOUT YOU, NOT ABOUT THEM.

What’s in It for Me?

Buyers want to be lead. You just gave the prospect a general

idea of how you might be of help. Now zero in on a specific in-

terest. How? By asking. Your thirty seconds are up, and it’s

time to let the prospect talk.

Ask a question that gets prospects thinking along the lines

of action and that lets them tell you what might be in it for

them. What is important to them right now? Based on your

homework, experience, or knowledge of the industry, you can

probably make a pretty good guess about what a specific WIIFM

might be. For instance, if you’re talking to a vice president

of finance, you might ask a question about accounts receivable

issues or the timeliness of financial reporting.

That’s the outline of your thirty-second speech. Now let’s

construct one (Figure 14-1).

Your First Thirty-Second Speech

Your Bridge

Introduction

People like

WIIFM

Your introduction lasts three seconds:

“Hello, Mr. Smith, I’m Ramon Lewis with the ABC

Company.”

That’s it. Anything more would put the focus on you, not

the prospect. Move immediately to an explanation of what

you do and why the prospect might care. Following the Rule

of 3, the “What’s in it for people like me?” section of the thirtysecond

speech has no more than three points:

“Hello, Mr. Smith. I’m Ramon Lewis with the ABC

Company. We are the leading supplier of widgets in

Figure 14-1. The bridge.

the world, we have been in business for over 20

years, and Our job is to improve our customer’s competitive

position.”

That’s enough to give the prospect a frame of reference.

Now get them interested and involved. To do that, first “cross

the bridge,” and then ask a good question.

NOTE: DURING ROLE PLAYS IN SALES TRAINING SEMINARS,

SALESPEOPLE WHO START FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH A THIRTY-SECOND

SPEECH OFTEN SAY THAT THEY FEEL AWKWARD. THE SPEECH FEELS TOO

“CANNED” TO THEM. BUT THE SALESPEOPLE PLAYING THE ROLE OF

BUYERS LOVE THE SPEECHES. IN FACT, THEY SAY THEY BECOME

ANNOYED WHEN A CALL DOES NOT START WITH A THIRTY-SECOND

SPEECH. INTERESTING?

Your bridge phrases include:

_ “You are probably wondering . . . .

_ “We hear from executives in your position who want

to know . . . .

_ “Many people ask us . . . .

Run-of-the-mill salespeople blow it at this point by finishing

the bridge phrase with something that is about themselves

or their companies, not about the prospect.

Bad bridges phrases:

_ “Mr. Smith, you are probably wondering what my

company can do for you.”

_ “Mr. Smith, executives like yourself want to know

how I can help them.”

_ “Mr. Smith, people ask me all the time, ‘Bob, how can

your company help me?’”

Well, no, as a matter of fact Mr. Smith wasn’t wondering

about you or your company at all. The awful truth is that ex-

Your Thirty-Second Speech 79

cept for your mom, practically nobody is wondering about you

right now. Most people on the planet can go fifteen minutes at

a time without wondering about your company.

Mr. Smith was more likely to be wondering about the following

(we call these “good bridge phrases”).

_ “Mr. Smith, you are probably wondering, How can I

speed up my time to market?”

_ “What is the best way to maximize my current revenues

from a distribution partner?”

_ “Mr. Smith, when we talk to sales executives we hear

questions like, How can I help my sales team improve

at calling on higher levels in customer organizations?”

Notice that those good bridge phrases include preliminary

WIIFM questions designed to start the prospect thinking:

“Yeah, I do worry about that, and I’d also like to get a handle

on . . . .”

This is the prospect’s first step toward real involvement

in the conversation. Now we must encourage them to take actual

ownership of the conversation. How? We summarize and

flip.

Summarize and Flip

Summarize the bridge questions you just put out there (no

more than three to a customer, please), and then flip the conversation

to the prospect. It’s their turn to talk.

“These are questions we hear all the time, Mr. Smith,

(summarize). But before we talk about those, (flip)

what are the key issues that you are looking at over

the next few months?”

Following is an example of a good thirty-second speech.

This example uses three general WIIFM statements and three

bridge questions that aim at specifics. Your own speech might

include fewer of either, but never more than three. And general

statements should never outnumber bridge questions—

i.e., never three general statements and only one bridge question.

Why? Because the emphasis always belongs on WIIFMs

that are specific to the customer.

A Good Thirty-Second Speech

“Hi, I’m Tim Sparks with Falcon Filming. We do local

videotaping of kids’ sports events.

1. We help kids be better athletes by letting them

watch and learn from their own efforts.

2. We help parents remember great memories.

3. We do this at a very reasonable fee, because

we are filming many kids at the same time.

Many parents ask us:

1. How can I get my son or daughter on tape for

a reasonable fee?

2. What kinds of things can kids learn from seeing

themselves on professional videotape?

3. How much can my child improve at his sport by

watching his performance on tape?

Those are great questions. But before we cover

them, what besides home videos have

you done to help your child become more competitive?”

Now that’s a salesperson we’d listen to. (In fact, Skip

Miller did. He got some great videos and the improvement

has been dramatic.)

Your Thirty-Second Speech 81

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