After cold calling for 20 years, I found the best opening line

if you've ever made a cold call in your life you understand how important the first 10 seconds is most of the time here's what I hear Brandon I'm making calls all the time and I can't even ask the first question in the script let alone generate a lead or an appointment and so what I have done is I've taken all of the different opening lines and opening scripts from cold calling for almost 20 years and I did a study to really really really find out which cold call opening line is the best and I'm going to share all those results with you guys in today's video all right so here's how this case study worked the first thing that I did was I said okay I'm going to make a thousand cold call contacts a contact is simply when you get the right person on the phone the decision maker so if you call Bob Jones and you get in touch with Bob Jones over the phone that is a contact all right we're going to talk about the difference between a contact and a conversation but a contact is when you get the decision maker the person you attempted to call on the phone then what I did was this I used one cold call opener for a 100 contacts so I'd use the same opener for 100 contacts document the result and then use another opener for for another 100 contacts and here's what here was the test the test was to see which opening line which opening cold calling script had the highest success rate and the success rate that we measured was getting uh past the first 10 seconds of the contact or the conversation and I was able to at least ask the first question in the script all right and so that's what we deem a conversation so I would call a 100 people get a 100 people on the phone and we measured each code calling line to see which one had the highest success rate of actually leading us to a good conversation a conversation by definition is where I was at least minimum able to have a uh ask the first question in my script where the person didn't just pick up the phone not interested hang up on you all right so that those are the some key key key definitions now let's get into these cold calling openers and I'll share with you the results all right first one coming in last place we tried 10 in 10th place was hey this is Brandon with Brookstone Realtors how are you today this is still a cold call opening line that is being taught that's being used all the time and the result here was a 37. 2% success rate so almost four out of 10 of the people that I talked to did this opening Gambit actually work meaning almost a little over uh 63% of the time it did not work and so when we look at this for a second and I won't go too deep on every single one we just won't have time for that when we look at this call opener there's a couple of issues with this number one is it's inauthentic and so what I mean by that is this when I have been received cold calls and and somebody were to use this opening line A salesperson would use this on the opening line I've messed with them from time to time and I would say things like well uh not very well uh I just um I just lost a loved one and it's it's interesting to see how the person reacts they kind of squirm a little bit uh uh I'm really sorry and then they jump right into the script it's so inauthentic and every Prospect knows it and you know it that's number one number two the thing is when you open your conversation with this you elicit crazy amounts of Psychological reactants this is no longer Theory we tested it this only works 37% of the time meaning the the the uh vast majority of the time people are met with you know what I'm not interested take me off your list hang up uh don't call me anymore etc etc because it releases so much reactant from the prospects they know they've heard this time and time again as have you and you know the very moment you pick up a call and they say this is Nancy with XYZ company how are you today you absolutely know what a sales call and you regret picking up that call immediately you in your own mind say how can I get off this call as fast as I possibly can and so was no surprise that this had a 37% success rate listen still works if you do enough of anything it will still work all right that's number 10 now we're going to Swit now we're going to get into what I call the permission based openers so the next nine are strategies tactics techniques that I teach every single real estate agent that I coach we call them permission based openers why and again I'm not going to make a whole training about this a permission-based opener is the anti- Psychological reactants technique so if you make cold calls and you're met with a bunch of resistance and people are giving you objections and you're met with a bunch of uh uh push back to to counteract that you're actually going to get the person's permission it's a psychological hack that works very very very well because when somebody has the perception that they are in control and you're supporting their autonomy where they make where they have the perception that they are making their own decision compliance for you which is a good thing goes up dramatically goes up all right so here's the uh the Ninth Place opener ring ring ring hello hi John yes John this is Brandon if I told you I was a realtor would you hang up or would you give me 30 seconds to tell you why I called this had a 68. 8% success rate so just under 70% of the time just just under seven of the 10 contacts that I made did this end in a favorable response where when I use this permission-based opener the prospect says uh yeah sure go ahead almost 70% of the time it worked again why because we're giving the person the autonomy to make their own decision and if you just Google Psychological reactants you'll learn a lot Psychological reactants which is what we do not want when we're cold calling is when somebody feels as though their freedom to choose their freedom to make their own decision is is uh is at threat they will defend that they will resist at all costs but when you relinquish the perceived control and you give it all to the prospect compliance goes up all right so that was the ninth place winner and again you can test all of these yourself the same way I have agents that I coach do all the time let's go to number eight number eight ring ring ring John yes John this is Brandon I'm a realtor and listen I'm sure you hate getting calls like this as much as I hate making them but I was hoping to ask you something really quick would that be okay now why does this so here's we had a a 70.

1% success rate when I use this a hundred times I use this opener a hundred times a lot more than that but in the case study that I just recently did I used it a hundred times with 100 contacts and that led to 70 conversations why because now I'm eliciting some empathy from the prospect I'm calling out the fact that people don't like getting cold calls and I'm doing what we call laying on that grenade I'm saying listen I know I'm calling and interrupting you and I know you probably don't like it and guess what I don't like doing it with which buys me some some empathy from the prospect buys me some Goodwill from the Prospect and so the prospect says okay I can appreciate that in their mind in their mind emotionally and they say sure go ahead what's up Works 70% of the time works really really well all right in seventh place ring ring ring hello hi John yes John this is Brandon look I'll be up front I'm a realtor and this is a cold call do you want to hang up or will you give me 30 seconds and then decide this worked 72. 8% of the time and again has all the same core principles that we've been talking about in this video this comes right out there again we're being fully upfront we even say it in the script I'll be upfront I'll be transparent I'm a realtor this is a cold call and we give them the option do you want to hang up or will you give me 30 seconds and then decide this gives the prospect so much autonomy to make their own decision when you do that when you do that you're buying so much Goodwill instantaneously that people almost well again uh 72% of the time said uh sure go ahead tell me what's on your mind all right sixth place ring ring ring John John this is Brandon I'm a realtor I know this calls out of the blue but I was hoping to ask you something really quick would that be okay again doing all the same things that we know that work with permission based openers this worked 74. 8% of the time out of 100 contacts 75 people said sure go ahead and so it works really really really well all right let's keep going let's go to fifth place because at the what I'm going to show you guys here in just a second is some really uh what I believe to be information that will inspire you to try some of these openers that will that will uh explode your real estate sales business all right I'm going to show that to you guys in just a second all right in fifth place ring ring ring John yes John this is Brandon I'm a realtor I don't think we've spoken before do you want to hang up or can I tell you why I called we are opening a massive curiosity loop we're getting their permission we're respecting their autonomy all of the same principles uh apply here 76.

5% of the time this opener worked in fifth place I don't think we've spoke before do you want to hang up or can I tell you why I called this in the mind of John says huh I wonder what this is about sure go ahead well we know it worked 76% of the time in fourth place ring ring ring hello John John this is Brandon I'm a real and I know you weren't expecting my call do you have 30 seconds or would you rather hang up now again we're fighting for no here we're actually doing the gentle push away here uh we're telling the prospect we're asking hey do you have 30 seconds or would you rather hang up now we're using Psychological reactants to our advantage for some of you that are a little bit more advanced you say wow that makes a lot of sense we're telling them to hang up on us you're not going to tell me what to do now we're using it to your advantage do you get it there's no surprise this worked even better 78. 1% of the time did this end up where I was able to have a good conversation with the prospect all right we're in the top three stick with me on this and then we're going to break down uh something that I think you're going to find a lot of value in in third place permission base opener ring ring ring John John this is Brandon I'm a real and I didn't know if I should even call you but would you hate me if I asked you something really quick all right very very very strong language here on purpose because if you think about the question it's a it's it has no orientation if you're a coaching client you know exactly what that means would you hate me if I asked you something really quick it is very difficult for someone to say yes I would hate you if you asked me a question very difficult for someone to say yes I would hate you if you did that and as a result 81. 4% of the time this cold call opening script worked so only less than 20% of the time did this not work so out of 100 contacts 81 people allowed me to get into a conversation in second place ring ring ring hello John John this is Brandon I'm a realtor and listen before you hang up I was hoping to ask you something really quick would that be okay all right now this is probably uh in talking with agents that I coach this is one of the most common ones that that uh they use that they like the most it's the easiest to get out because as soon as someone picks up the phone and you say this is so ins so I'm a realtor what do they want to do they have the urge to just hit the end button and so you're getting in front of that Hey listen before you hang up I was hoping to ask you something really quick opens up a curiosity Loop would that be okay getting their permission when you ask someone for help compliance goes up all right now in first place well I'm sorry that had a just under 85% success rate so it works really really well okay now in the number one spot which is what you guys all been waiting for this was the opener that worked the best ring ring ring hello hey John yes who's this John this is Brandon look you're going to hate me I'm a realtor do you want to hang up or will you give me 30 seconds to tell you why I called this had an 88.