Hey [Name], it's Kyle Cleary, Blackthorn Labs, here in Michigan. Full disclosure, this is a cold call. You can hang up now, or give me 30 seconds and hang up then with a clear conscience. Your pick.
Hey [Name], Kyle Cleary, Blackthorn Labs. I called your shop last night around seven and got voicemail. Which, to be fair, is exactly what my phone does to people too. That is actually why I'm calling. Got 30 seconds?
Hi [Name], Kyle with Blackthorn Labs. I promise this is the most interesting robocall you will get today, mostly because I'm an actual person. Can I have 30 seconds to tell you why I called, and then you decide if we keep going?
Hey [Name], Kyle Cleary with Blackthorn Labs. Most of your work comes in on a referral, right? Those people almost always look you up first. If nobody picks up that call, you never hear about it, and neither does whoever sent them. That's the only thing I fix. Worth 20 minutes on Monday?
Stand up. Smile before they pick up. Say your name slowly and let your voice drop at the end of it. Pause a full beat after the joke. Say it like you talk: these are written without contractions because they were written on a page. Out loud, use them. It's, I'm, you're, that's. Same words, and it stops sounding like reading.
If someone else picks upgatekeeper
Hi, it's Kyle Cleary. Is [Owner] around, or is this one of those days?
No problem. You are actually the person I'd rather ask. When it gets slammed in there, how many calls roll to voicemail?
That is why I'm calling. When is [Owner] easiest to catch, early or late?
Voicemail, 20 seconds, oncenumber twice
[Name], Kyle Cleary, Blackthorn Labs, 810 656 9539. I'm leaving you a voicemail about voicemail, which I admit is a little on the nose. I build call answering for [roofers] here in Michigan so after hours calls get booked. I'll try you again Thursday morning. 810 656 9539.
Never a second voicemail in the same week.
Swap the first sentence by segment
I spent years in home improvement sales, so I know what a missed call is worth.
What I do now is build phone answering for [roofing companies] so that every call gets picked up, day or night, and the job lands on your calendar, even at nine on a Saturday. It is an AI assistant. It says so up front, and it hands the caller to a person the second they ask.
Here is the part I actually called about. Give me until [Thursday] and I'll have it answering the phone as [Company]. You call it, you try to break it, and if it's bad you get to tell me so to my face. Twenty minutes. Fair?
You are not selling AI on this call. You are selling 20 minutes.
One at a time. After each answer, say back what you heard, then wait.
When the phone rings and everybody is already busy, what happens to that call?
Ballpark, how many a week end up in voicemail?
And what's one of those worth to you, roughly?
Sounds like the phone is the one part of the business nobody signed up for.
Their numbers flow into stage 4 and into the demo. Write them down here, not on paper.
The line that says you knowlaw firms, once, then silence
Can I say something? You bill what, three hours out of eight? The rest is admin you never signed up for. Nobody goes to law school to run a switchboard.
Then stop talking. Do not put a solution on the end of it. The silence is the move, and what he says into it is worth more than the rest of the call.
Only after he has described his day, never cold. Never quote a number at him, he is inside this data. If he pushes back, drop it: "fair enough, I might have the wrong end of it."
What you know and never say: communication and neglect are the top two complaints filed against lawyers nationally, and failure to return a call is the single most common one. Administrative and client relations errors together are over a third of malpractice claims, and the ABA's own framing is that those are the categories inside a firm's control. He knows. From a vendor it is a threat wearing a statistic. It changes your tone, not your words.
Assumes percent of those calls turn into a job. Say the assumption out loud if they ask. It is arithmetic on what they just told you, not a measurement of their business.
So if even one of those turns into work, picking it up is worth what, about [their number] a month? I'd rather show you than tell you, though.
A number they worked out is a number they believe. Keep it about what they gain, never what they are losing.
Let us put 20 minutes on it. I have Thursday at 10 or Friday at 2. Which is less bad?
Your next two open slots, weekdays only, skipping anything already booked. Press Book it and it takes the first one.
Perfect. What is the best email for the invite? I'm sending it right now, tell me when it lands. And I'll text you the demo number so you can call it from the truck before we talk. Try to stump it.
Worst case you get 20 minutes of free ideas and a story about the guy who cold called you. Talk Thursday.
Send the invite while they are on the line. Text only after they say yes to the text.
The text, after a verbal yesunder 70 characters
Kyle from Blackthorn. Demo line: [number]. Try to stump it.