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Here is a simple pre-call framework: list three questions you will ask, in order. You will almost certainly abandon questions two and three once the owner starts talking, but at least you walked in with a structure.

Honestly? Most of the time, the only pre-call planning I do is knowing what my opening question will be. That’s it.

The First Serve

Because I know my subject, I know that the right question starts the match. The first question is the first serve. If it is a good one you are in a rally before either side notices it started.

It makes the meeting feel like a conversation instead of a call. A sharp question tells the owner you have done this before, and it establishes immediately that this is not a pitch. They are going to do most of the talking.

A Real-World Example

This is not a banking example, and that is rather the point: the technique is portable. Earlier in my career I sold intellectual property management. Companies with large patent portfolios have to keep every patent alive with paperwork and fees, called maintenance fees here and annuities abroad.

My focus was law firms. Many held massive patent portfolios on behalf of clients who weren’t sophisticated enough to have their own IP department. But law firms hated managing those portfolios. The work was tedious, the deadlines were unforgiving, and the exposure was enormous. Miss one date and you do not merely lose a client, you get sued for losing their idea.

That one question did everything. It signaled that I understood their world. It surfaced something they lived with daily. And it gave them permission to talk about their near-misses. From that point my job was to say we could take the risk away, and then say very little for the rest of the meeting.

What This Looks Like for a Lender

Now translate it. A commercial lender walks into a manufacturer, a contractor, a medical practice. The elementary opening is “tell me about your business,” which every other lender in the market has already used this year. The good opening names something specific the owner is actually carrying. “How long does it take you to get an answer from your bank when a deal is time-sensitive?” “Who is on the hook personally on your current facilities?” “What happened the last time you needed more than your line?” Each of those says you already understand the business they are in, and each of them is very hard to answer in one sentence.

The Takeaway

You do not need a twenty-page pre-call plan. You need one good opening question: one that proves you understand the owner’s world, surfaces something real, and turns a call into a conversation. Get that right and the rest takes care of itself.

Key Takeaways

✓ Pre-call planning does not need to be complicated. List three questions and obsess over the first.

✓ Your opening question is the first serve. It sets the tone and the pace of the whole meeting.

✓ A good first question signals expertise, surfaces something real, and turns a pitch into a conversation.

✓ Owners would rather talk than be talked at. Give them the opening.

✓ Knowing your subject cold is what makes a one-question strategy work at all.