Jake Burhans explains why asking prospects to grab a pen and paper early in a sales call works. The request interrupts their routine, forces full attention, and when they write down your name and company, it builds credibility. Save it for longer conversations where the engagement payoff matters.
At first, there's a resistance to asking people to grab a pen and paper to get your information. Oh, it feels so uncomfortable. Listen, I've had people multiple times, and you'll hear it if you hear other people's recorded calls, people disengage from what they're doing to go find a pen. They're walking upstairs, they're going out to their car, they're coming in from mowing the lawn. What does that do for you? It gets them fully engaged in the conversation that you're about to have. This is not about to be a short conversation. I don't want you messing around doing this or that. I want— it's called a pattern interrupt. They're in the middle of something when you call them, right? Doing this or doing that. Hey, can you grab a pen and paper for me? It's going to really make them think, okay, where's the pen? I'm going to grab a pen and then I'm writing down the information. On top of that, it's very transparent. It gives you, you know, they know your name, they know your company, they know your website, all that stuff. But it is very important.
