I was thinking of you...

It sounds like a greeting card, doesn't it?

And why shouldn't it?

Is there any prohibition against starting a sales conversation with these or similar words?

Hallmark has been doing very nicely, thank you, forever capturing the sound of sincerity with their slogans, and salespeople can learn a lot from these and similar phrase masters.

As I've said elsewhere, there are literally hundreds of ways to greet prospects and customers, while breaking the ice. Of course, you can have formal approaches that announce special sales, and the like.

And they're fine, but what do you do between sales? What is your reason for calling, then?

Imagine the following opener:

"Hello, Derek? This is Gary Goodman with Customersatisfaction.com. How's it going? Good. I was looking at the paper and reading about some interesting remodeling projects, and you popped into mind, and I thought it would be a good time to catch up with you. How's business?”

The most important purpose served by an opener is to give YOU a feeling that the call is justified. Mostly, customers are happy to hear from us; we need to get over our call reluctance, and any concerns that we might foster about sounding foolish.

Here's my basic criterion for having a decent opener:

Can you write it out, in everyday, conversational language, and have it sound good?

Look back at my example, above. I call it the "Thinking of You” approach.

I'm comfortable saying these exact words, and as long as that's the case, I'm sure they'll be well received by customers, because they take their cue from me.

If we sound insecure, they'll be, too. If we're unselfconscious, they'll follow that lead, as well. Experiment with various openers, and put them to use.

Remember, the "hallmark” of a good salesperson is one who stays close to his customers, and by doing this; he creates and harvests good will.