Most sales calls start with fake friendliness — “How’s the weather?” “Cool Zoom background!” — and die before they ever start. Buyers can smell small talk from a mile away. The first 90 seconds determine whether they’ll lean in or tune out, so you can’t waste them. Instead of chit-chat, great reps use those moments to prove three things fast: they did their homework, they understand the buyer’s world, and they’re worth listening to.
Today’s playbook shows two powerful ways to nail that opening — the Trigger-Based Rapport and Astute Observation approaches — to instantly earn respect and control the call.
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SALES
How to Nail the First 90 Seconds of a Discovery Call
99% of sales calls start with something like this:
“Man, been freezing out there recently huh?”
“Where you calling in from?”
“Cool Zoom background!”
Traditional "rapport building" lumps you in with every schmoozy seller out there. Asking questions like the above are the equivalent of asking "how's your day going" on a cold call -- they know you don't care and you're just trying to warm them up.
But good rapport building shows you respect their time and know their business:
1. You show you prepared for the call (unlike most sellers)
2. You show that you're credible in their domain (unlike most sellers)
3. You show that you're personable if they want to chat (what most sellers over-fixate on)
Your goal? Do this in the first 90 seconds before they start multitasking. Here's how.
Approach #1: The Trigger-Based Rapport
Find something about their business that you can relate to the problem you solve. Here are examples for 3 products we have sold in the past:
This shows that you're prepared by researching them beforehand, credible because you understand their business, and personable because you're actually taking interest!
And there's a bonus that this allows you to do pre-discovery. If they're super passionate about the dog food stipend or the new product launch, that might be an area to dig in on. But if they're luke-warm on it, you might drop it.
From here, you can add your perspective on their new product launch, ask them to tell you the story of how they started the dog food stipend, and then transition to your agenda.
Approach #2: An Astute Observation
Make an observation about their business that shows you get it. If I smell you cooking and say “that smells yummy” that’s very simplistic. But if I point out that “the scoring on the duck created a perfect char,” you know I’ve made duck before.
Here are 3 more examples for other products:
This works especially well for establishing credibility and it's something that we do very often when selling sponsorships for B2B Whales or even selling early stage GTM advisory deals.
Think: What's my company uniquely positioned to opine on? If you're selling forecasting software, you know what good ARR growth or forecast accuracy looks like! If you're selling web hosting services, you know what good click funnels look like!
So... don't build personal rapport at all?
Of course not! If you went to the same alma mater, sure. Bring it up.
But establish business respect before personal respect. That alma mater might warm up a junior prospect. But it might be an obvious schmooze play to an executive buyer that'd be better served after you've established business rapport first.
And that’s a wrap folks!
HEADLINES
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That’s all for today.
Until next time,
Team B2B Whales
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