I made a mistake by going to Costco last weekend.

Actually, more specifically, when I went to Costco.

Saturday. Mid-morning.

Me… and pretty much all of Scottsdale, it seemed.

I went in to pick up a couple of their Prime briskets. (They do have great meat.)

The problem is, the meat department is in the very back of the store.

“Hey, have you considered AT&T cell service?”

Me: “I’ve been with you for 20 years.”

Ten feet later, another rep steps toward me…

“What are you doing for your home security?”

Me: “My buddy owns the company I use.”

Fifteen more steps. Even though I tried not to look… too late.

The smiling woman in an apron:

“Is it time to upgrade your cookware?”

I have cookware that’s more expensive than I need at both of my places… I just looked away.

And I avoided eye contact with the others selling blenders, water systems, and something I still couldn’t quite figure out.

Now you might be thinking…

“Wait a minute, Art. Your entire career has been built on helping salespeople… and you’re avoiding them? Aren’t you a hypocrite?”

No.

I’m human.

And the natural human reaction to the feeling of being sold is to resist… or avoid altogether.

I know those people have a job to do. They’re trying to earn a living.

But the way they’re doing it puts them in a tough spot.

They’re approaching and pitching people they know nothing about.

And that’s a recipe for resistance… and low success rates.

Because they’re creating that resistance with their very first words and actions.

And that reaction… is exactly what most sales calls create in the first few seconds.

It IS avoidable, though. Let’s look at how.

Prospects don't reject you. They react to how you make them feel in the first few seconds.

When someone senses they're about to be sold…

Their guard goes up Their attention drops And they start looking for an exit

It's automatic.

It's not personal.

And it happens fast.

That's why so many sales calls fail before they ever really begin.

Not because of what's being sold…but because of how the conversation starts.

When you lead with something that feels like a pitch, a script, or a "cold call"…

you trigger the same reaction I had walking through Costco.

Avoid. Deflect. Escape.

But when you open in a way that answers the one question every prospect is silently asking…

"Is there something in this for me?"

… you create a totally different dynamic.

Walls come down. Curiosity goes up. And now you have a real conversation.

Before your next call, ask yourself one simple question:

"Why should this person care about this… right now?"

Not in general. Not about what you do.

(And 'Because my product is great' doesn't count. They don't care about your product yet. They care about their time.)

Your answer needs to be about THEM..

Their world. Their priorities. What they're dealing with today.

Because if you can't answer that clearly…

they won't either. They won’t work that hard to help you out.

And if they don't see a reason to care in the first few seconds…

you'll get the same reaction I had at Costco.

Avoid. Deflect. Escape.

But when you can answer that question…

and you lead with it…

you don't have to fight for attention.

You earn it.

And that's exactly what the first 20 seconds of your call are really about.

Not sounding polished. Not getting through a script.

But giving someone a reason to stay.

That's the difference between what those Costco salespeople did and what a Smart Caller does. Same few seconds. Completely different outcome.

That's exactly what I show you in The First 20 Seconds Formula. How to structure your opening so you create immediate relevance instead of resistance.

It's $37. Take a look here: First20Seconds.com

Unless you win the first 20 seconds…

you're the Costco barker trying to engage the defensive person who's doing everything they can to ignore you on their way to the briskets.

But when you do…

they stop, show interest, and lean in.

Be cautious about making assumptions. Be even more careful of voicing them.

As I was working on this newsletter at my house, a door-to-door salesperson (a woman) stopped by to drop off a flyer for a home delivery food service, and mentioned a special 20% discount that wasn’t on the flyer. I told her I’d take a look at it. She said, “Are you going to remember this, since guys normally don’t remember when they tell their wives.”

Big mistake. I told her I do the grocery shopping and cooking. No chance I’ll be getting food from them.

Reminds me of taking an incoming call from a guy that sounded like he was drunk, seemed like he wasn’t very intelligent, and had speech issues. Not a very positive impression in my mind, to say the least. I immediately discounted him as someone who probably wanted some free information and wasn’t going to be worth my time.

Wrong! As it turns out, the guy was the owner of a fairly good-sized company. I did a nice piece of business with them. Had I gone with my early assumption and disqualified him quickly, instead of asking plenty of questions like I always do, I would have missed out on a great opportunity.

Read aloud often. To kids or yourself. Pick something with high emotional content… 'Casey at the Bat,' Dr. Seuss books, poetry… and ham it up. Practice lowering your voice to a whisper, and raise it up to a roar.

When planning for a call, always ask yourself, “What's the best I could do in this situation?”

Not what you would settle for; what you would expect if everything went your way. This is what you should shoot for, and ask for.

Asking big gives you confidence. And even if you don't get what your opening position is, one thing's for sure: you won't get more than what you ask for.

Related Example: A rep didn't present his deluxe version of a product, thinking the prospect wouldn't want to spend that much. The prospect eventually bought—from a competitor who did present an even more deluxe version!

A few ending, random things…

“I hope you get larynx cancer and can never make a phone call again. Loser.”
THAT was a response to a post I made on Instagram… actually kind of a humorous meme for The First 20 Seconds formula. I wrote about it, and shared the meme in a LinkedIn post. (If you do go there, please do comment as apparently it will help with the secret decoder-ring algorithm LinkedIn uses to determine who gets to see what.)

There are several national holidays within the next week: Opening Day games for Major League Baseball. (Well, they should be national holidays.) It’s a time when everyone still has a shot, hope springs eternal, and expectations are high for a lot of teams. Or they should be. I’ll be at the Arizona Diamondbacks home opener with my son, as is our tradition, and I’ll be watching my lifelong love, the Kansas City Royals on TV. George Brett, the Hall of Famer and career-Royal has some great advice about expecting to win, that I share in this podcast episode.

How are your NCAA brackets doing? Still in it, or lost interest? I’ve got my current home state school, Arizona, winning it, but would love to see my longtime home state Nebraska continuing their magical run. (My alma mater, Creighton, had a down year, but still will be playing in the Crown Tournament in Vegas next week.)

Go make it your best week ever!