The US Open tennis tournament has started here in New York, and it’s got me thinking about the gold call. I’ve noticed that having a dialogue with a sales prospect is similar to playing tennis.

To help make my point, I draw your attention to some terms associated with tennis that you may be familiar with:

• Serve
• Return
• Volley
• Fault line – Out of Bounds
• Match point

Drawing a connection between tennis and the gold call, here are some corresponding terms that help define the ‘tennis- dialogue’ match:

• Opening Request for 10-seconds – (Serve)
• ‘Lemonade Statement’ – (Return)
• ‘Re-direction’ (Volley)
• Irrelevance – (Out of Bounds)
• Decision – (Match Point)

The key objective within the game of tennis is to keep the ball on the opponent’s side of the court as much as possible, and to keep the ball (questions) in-bounds (relevant), and score enough points to win the match (get decisions from prospects).

The same rules apply to the ‘gold call game of tennis’. The more you keep the conversation volleying over the net, and keeping your questions (the ball) on your opponent’s side of the court, the better your chances of scoring points, and winning the match, (closing the appointment).If you’ve watched any tennis, you’ve probably noticed how each player is angling the ball towards their opponent’s side of the court, and thus trying to make it increasingly difficult for them to return the ball back over the net. That’s one way to score a point.  Rarely do you see two tennis players hitting the ball directly at each other. That would be too easy.  Instead, the tennis ‘serve’ and ‘volley’ have something called’topspin’. As you may know, ‘topspin’ increases the speed of the ball as it makes contact with the surface of the court. And as the ball picks up speed, the opponent has a more difficult time of returning the volley, and often times lose the point.

Have you ever been the 'victim ' of a prospect's question that had too much 'topspin' (agression) for you to return with a good, and well placed answer ('re-direction')? Playing with the right racquet (gold call script), and being prepared with a quick return volley ('re-direction') can make a world fo difference as to whether you win the point (get decisions from prospects). Tennis anyone?