Buyer-tailored opening
Prove in the first 90 seconds that you did the homework and this call is about their business, not your deck. If the buyer doesn't hear something true and specific about their own world in the opening line, they mentally check out before slide two.
Gong's call analytics find reps who spend the first 3-5 minutes on the buyer's business, not their own, close at a materially higher rate; on a 20-min deck run that maps to roughly 90 seconds up front.
- Name the buyer's role, team size, and current stack or workaround
- State one fact about their business you learned before the call (funding round, headcount, hiring markets)
- Frame the agenda as a question you'll answer, not a list of topics
- Ask a confirming question before moving on ('is that still true today?')
- Skip your own company slide entirely at this point
- A slide about your company's founding story
- A generic agenda ('problem, solution, demo, pricing')
- Logos or awards before the buyer has said a word
- Any claim you haven't verified from their site, job posts, or LinkedIn
- Buyer corrects a fact you got wrong in the first minute
- Buyer's arms cross or camera goes dark early in the call
- Buyer asks 'can you just show me the product' before slide three
- The opener is a generic vertical statement ('companies like yours') instead of a fact specific to this account.
- The rep talks for the first five minutes without asking a single question.
- The agenda is framed as the rep's slides, not the buyer's outcome.
- · Can you say one fact about this account that isn't on their homepage?
- · Does your first slide contain the buyer's name, role, or team, or only yours?
You're [role] at [company], running payroll for [N] contractors across [X countries] on [current tool]. Did I get that right?
"Thanks for hopping on, let me tell you a bit about us and then we'll get into it."
"You're running payroll for 41 contractors across 9 countries out of Airtable and three wire transfers a month, and you told Maria your finance lead spends 6 hours a month reconciling FX fees. Still accurate?"
Names the exact headcount, the tool, the person, and the cost, then hands control back to the buyer with a yes/no question.
Quick quiz
1. The first 90 seconds of a discovery call should be spent on…
- ✓ A verified fact about the buyer's business, confirmed as a question.
- ○ Your company's mission and founding story.
Gong's data shows reps who anchor on the buyer's world early keep engagement higher through the rest of the call.
2. A red flag in the opening minute is…
- ○ The buyer asks a clarifying question about their own numbers.
- ✓ The buyer corrects a fact you stated about their company.
A factual miss in the first minute signals you didn't research the account, and trust drops immediately.