opening line to grab attention. i hate it when people ask me – “how are you today?”. it puts me right into “defensive mode” – what is this person trying to sell me? make a simple statement like – “thanks for taking my call [name], [pause] the reason for my call is…” and make sure you have a great reason to interrupt that persons day.
your tone of voice is everything. watch you intonation and make sure you use a strong voice, not one that raises in intonation at the end of the sentence like a teenager describing something to their friend.
have a strong objective for the call, in other words 