Without question, the most popular requests I receive each week are for help with making appointments and, specifically, creating positioning statements. For example, Pat and I traded about 6 emails over the past 10 days to get his positioning statements just right.

But what if you nail your positioning statement but you’re still struggling to get appointments?

My guess is that you’re doing one of the following things ineffectively.

• Not introducing yourself correctly. Never use anything other than “it’s” to introduce yourself.  Never use more than 5 words – Hi ____, it’s Dave Kurlan.”
• Not sounding familiar enough. You must sound like someone they know – pretend you are calling your best friend, not a prospect!
• Not obeying the rules of the road. There is a stop sign right after your introduction.  You don’t get to speak again until they respond.  That’s how you get their attention.
• Not asking permission to proceed. You must ask if you can take 10 seconds to tell them why you called.
• Not pacing yourself properly. Slow down and break it up so that they have enough time to process what you’re saying.