There are lots of ways to open sales calls, and I detail many of them in my books, such as Reach Out & Sell Someone.

But Ive discovered one of them, the inactive account approach, is flawed.

Heres what I mean.

You look at your database and you see lots of accounts that you havent talked to in a long time. Gee, you think, they must be upset with us, or minimally, theyve taken their business elsewhere.

This seems logical, doesnt it?

So, you rehearse what youre going to say when you call.

Golly, Frank, we havent heard from you in quite some time. Is there anything wrong?

Its not a terrible opener, and you might get a replyexactly the negativity youre expecting to hear.

But in lots of customers minds, they dont classify themselves as inactive, at all. This is what Ive found after doing several outbound telemarketing campaigns aimed at these shadow clients.

So, if THEY dont think theres anything wrong, why plant the seed that there is!

Now, I recommend using the Thank You Approach.

Hello, Frank, this is Gary Goodman with Customersatisfaction.com, and Im just calling to thank you for all of the business weve done together; I appreciate it!

If they have heartburn, believe me, youll hear it in their voices. If not, youve just set a great tone for catching up with them and handling any reorders they may have.

In the middle of one outbound telemarketing campaign, the light came on for me, and I switched from the inactive account opener to thank-you opener.

And the results were nothing less than amazing. With the former, we hunt for problems. Using the latter, were upbeat, and ready to do more business.

Big difference.

Try it!