Phone calls go unreturned and e-mails go unreplied. 

Eventually, you get hold of the prospect and they explain away their lack of responsiveness thusly:

"I've been so busy."

The sky is blue, the Mets will choke in September and your prospects are busy.  Three axioms of life (a fourth one must go unexplored in this article but you'll recognize its truth - "The idiot quotient remains the same regardless of industry.")

Sky blue is a nice color, the Mets are only the 2nd most important team in their own town but the busy-ness of your prospects - that is something to ponder.

I've been pondering this axiom for the purpose of helping you and me come up with something to say that will help us break through the sameness, the blandness, the ineffectiveness of what surely follows the claim of busy-ness.

Here it is:

"I'd like to be a part of that busy."

The beauty of this lies in its simplicity and the utter lack of any comeback from the prospect other than to say something that invites you in.

Here is why the client will always respond in a way that works for you:

1) "I'd like to be a part of that busy" is not a sentence and therefore has probably never been uttered to the prospect a single time.  Being original always works in your favor.

2) You have offered nothing to which a prospect can say "no".  Since your statement sounds like an offer to help, the prospect will have to accept or at least be open to the possibility of accepting.

Let us know how this works for you by sending in a comment after you've tried it this week!

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