How to start your sales call to guarantee next steps

Most deals are lost in the first 5 minutes of your first call.

Yet very few founders I’ve met focus on nailing down those first 5 minutes.

I spent plenty of time coaching founders and reps on this. I do this on every sales cycle I run as well.

Sometimes I forget elements of how to start the call. And I pay the price by having to chase around my prospects for next steps.

After reviewing 1000s of sales calls in my career, most successful cycles came down to this.

Let’s go over how to structure the start of your calls to lead to more success.

Table of Contents

• What needs to happen in the first 5 minutes

• The Start

• The Kickoff

What needs to happen in the first 5 minutes

You need to do 2 things in the first 5 minutes:

• Create a ton of trust to lower the defense barriers. This will help you get better answers to your discovery questions.

• Establish how the call will run so that you’re both moving towards a mutual outcome.

Let’s dive into how this works:

The Start

At the start, you want to build strong rapport. The best way to do this is to keep it business relevant about them and their company.

Take 5 minutes and find something interesting and relevant on their LI profile, company profile, website, or quick Google search. If you find an interview they’ve done (podcast, webinar), grab the transcript and throw it into ChatGPT to get a summary and highlight a few relevant points.

Whatever you find, use this at the start to spark a conversation.

Prospects like to talk about themselves and they’re accomplishments.

“Saw that you just launched a new product, what was your role in getting it to market?”

This beats out pleasantries and chit chatting any day. Avoid the whether or where they’re based out of.

Keep this to about 1-2 minutes.

Then move on to the next part, which is mission critical.

The Kickoff

This is where you pivot into setting the structure for the meeting. It’s important to have structure to your sales calls. You don’t want to waste your time, or the prospect’s time.

Nail down these 5 elements on every call, and you’ll instantly win more deals:

1. Time check - are they still good for the full amount of time you scheduled. You don’t want surprises here.

2. People check - is anyone else joining the call besides them.

3. Purpose - what is the purpose of the call, and get permission to ask questions.

4. Ideal outcome - gain an understanding of their ideal outcome for the call, so you know what to cover. Reset expectations if you need to.

5. Next steps - discuss next steps at the start of the call, and agree that if the outcome is reached, you’ll plan a next step. THIS IS CRITICAL.

Here’s what an example script would sound like for an intro/demo call:

This short script take 3-5 minutes to get through, but really sets the tone on both sides for how the sales cycle will run.

Buyers want structure. They hate hopping on calls without knowing what’s going to happen.

Give them the guidelines for the call, then let them navigate it with you.

Let me know what you think of the newsletter! Always want to cover topics that you care about.

For more practical early-stage sales tips, connect with me on LinkedIn.

If you’re looking for more hands-on help implementing your first sales process, reach out for coaching packages.

P.S. I have a few spots left for upcoming group coaching (starting in July). Also building the next waitlist. Reply if you’re interested.