How to Cold Call Like a Pro in 2023 (Cold Calling Scripts + Steps)

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy

There’s vomit on his sweater already, mom’s spaghetti

He’s nervous……. 

– Eminem

Just Eminem echoing the truth of cold callers. Cold call – these two words have a bad reputation among people these days and are enough to trigger the sales reps’ anxiety.

Cold calling is a valuable tool when it comes to reaching out to potential clients. It is just that you need to level up your cold calling game. 

In this blog, we'll explore how you can cold call like a pro in 2023, armed with modern strategies and cold calling techniques that will help you connect with potential customers and make successful cold calls.

What Is Cold Calling?

It’s the simple act of picking up your phone to call potential buyers with whom you've had no prior contact and pitching them your solution.

Sounds easy, right? News flash: it isn’t. Cold calling has gained a bad rap of late.  A study reveals that 84% buyers have a negative sales experience as the reps would become too pushy to sell their product.

More and more people have come to despise sales calls because they are getting spammier in nature. They hate when you barge in to make a sale even before you get to know them and their businesses. 

The solution? When you are calling, try to build a relationship first and show them you’re a genuine helper, learn what their problems are, learn how they’re trying to solve it. To do that, we’ve provided you with a skeleton of what you should be doing from start to finish.

What Is the Difference Between Cold Calling and Warm Calling?

The significant difference between cold calling and warm calling is your prospect’s awareness of your brand. 

You make a cold call if your prospect has no idea about your brand or business and hasn’t shown an interest in your product or service. 

On the other hand, a call becomes warm if the prospect is aware of your brand and has expressed interest in your product or service in some way, like when they filled up a lead generation form or interacted with your ads or website.

Okay, now that’s settled. Now it’s time for you to pick up the phone and start making calls. Uh-huh, not so fast. 

Before kicking off your B2B cold calling campaigns, here is what you should do.

Pre-Cold Calling Rituals

1. Know Your Prospect

When we say know, we mean really know the prospect. Not researching enough about prospects before cold calls is one of the common mistakes reps do.

Find out details about their company, which school they went to, and even the gym they go to. 

Maybe not the gym if you want to be less stalker-like, but do learn as much as you can about your prospect to understand whether they’d be a good fit for your solution. 

Scour LinkedIn, Crunchbase, and their company website to know more about their business, like their size, value proposition, stakeholders, needs, and requirements. 

To get an idea about their buying intent, technological spending, and revenue, use tools like Buildwith or 6Sense. 

2. Create Objection Handling Battle Cards

Just like the flashcards we used to use to study for exams, create objection handling cards that help you dismantle objections even before they arise. 

It can contain all the information you need to position yourself as a better option in front of your prospect.

To create a well-rounded sales objection battlecard:

• Listen to the objections your prospects come up with during sales call.
• Brainstorm with your team members to uncover new objections that might crop up
• Analyze unsuccessful cold calls and try to pinpoint the reason

Then, section the different objections, plan and list down different responses for each objection.

Pro Tip: You can section the objections by common themes that you’ve discovered from your research, common personality types, or different roles.

Here’s an objection handling battlecard created by a buyer intelligence platform, Humantic.ai, that’s based on different personality types. 

3. Prepare for Rejections

You can’t convert every prospect you call, every rejection is a learning. The sooner you understand this, the quicker you can save yourself from unwanted heartbreak.

Of the 100 calls you make, 70 may go through. Out of that 70, only 40 might care to give you their time, and the other 30 might outrightly deny your request. And, at the end of the day, only 10 might agree to a meeting. That’s an achievement in itself. 

In general, sales professionals have to practice professional detachment to not be drained emotionally with all the rejections. In sports, too, players simply move on to the next play. So, get over the cold calling anxiety and move on to the next prospect. Start dialing.

4. Use a Tool to Auto-drop Voicemails

A study revealed that 94% of consumers think unidentified calls might be fraudulent. Most prospects might not attend your cold call for this reason. While giving up on them isn’t an option, manually leaving a voicemail to every one of them is also close to impossible. The best possible solution, in this case, is to use a tool to drop voicemails automatically. 

Most cold calling software or sales engagement software come with automatic voicemail drop feature. With a pre-recorded voicemail, you don’t have to worry about learning your voicemail script by heart or sounding unenthusiastic.

5. Have an Effective Cold Calling Script

Create a cold call script based on successful sales rep's conversations. And follow it to the tee or keep it simply for reference, your call. But it’s recommended for reps who are starting out. 

Keeping a sales script for reference boosts your confidence and saves you from making rookie mistakes like going blank midway or forgetting the main message, especially during your first call.

Once you gain experience, learn to improvise cold calling scripts to suit your messaging.

A 4-Step Cold Calling Framework

STEP 1: How Do I Start the Call?

This is your first chance to get your foot in the door and the hardest. In the first few seconds of your cold call, there is only one goal: get the prospect hooked. Here’s how:

Perfect Your Tone

Before you decide on what to say, perfect your tone of voice. Whispering into their ears will make you sound under confident and rob you of your chance to build trust with prospects. But it doesn’t mean you should scream out loud to get their attention and trust. Instead, find the perfect tone of voice, maintain a consistent pace and cheerful disposition to get their attention.

Pro Tip #1: Record yourself and see how you sound. Can you picture yourself having a conversation with someone who sounds like you? If your answer is yes, that’s the tone of voice you should stick to.

Who Is This?

Now that you've figured out the right tone, let's delve into the right things to say when you open a call.

The first few seconds of your call are crucial as whatever you say during this time decides whether they stay or not. The first thing you should do when a prospect attends your call is to introduce yourself. 

Grant Cardone, the sales expert says, the best way to introduce yourself is to start with your name and organization/founder. But if your founder isn’t some super-famous guy like Cardone himself, it is sensible to stick to an introduction like this:

“Hello, this is Jim from Xenox.”

Use The Power Of Pattern Interrupt

Imagine this: Your prospect answers your call, and you open the call with “Hi, this is X from Y company, are you interested in…” In mid-sentence, you hear a click, and they’re gone. 

When a prospect picks your call, you only have a few seconds to get them hooked and keep the conversation going. So, how do you grab their attention? By using pattern interrupt. 

Pattern interrupt is a neuro-linguistic technique, which involves doing or saying something unexpected to disrupt their thought patterns and engage them in a conversation. 

Why does this work? Prospects are used to hearing the same old openers from other reps. By employing pattern interrupt, you break through the monotony of sales call with a strong opening sentence, which sets you apart from other salespeople.  

Let's explore a few examples to understand how it works.

1. Wake Them Up

This is one of the most effective pattern interruption methods our SDRs swear by.  If you plan to use this method, you should let your prospect know they’re on a cold call right from the beginning. 

Here’s an opening line you can use that sales training organization, ExP shared:

“This is a cold call. Do you want to hang up?”

Why does it work? 

People are skeptical of phone calls from random numbers because they feel like they are just minutes away from getting scammed. You eliminate this fear when you tell them it's a cold call and give them an upperhand (prospects like having the power) in deciding to continue the call. This puts them at ease and may interest them in listening to you.

2. Shake Their Reality

When you talk about the prospect’s worst nightmare, they sharpen their ears involuntarily. It makes them think about a way to stop this from becoming a reality, and that’s exactly where you pitch in (in a non-salesy way, of course). 

Fair warning: Use this technique cautiously as it may offend your prospects. Research well and be sensitive while using this approach.

Here’s an example if your solution focuses on data protection: 

“What happens if you lose all your data today?”

Why is this effective?

In general, people are very protective of their data and losing it is a big deal. When they get to know their data is at risk, they listen to you as they would want to avoid this situation at all costs.

​​3. Mind Reader

Most people don't want to talk to sales people. The first thought that comes to their mind when you call from an unknown number is, “Why is this person calling me?” Acknowledging this very thought itself can be a pattern interrupt.

Here’s an example:

“Can I tell you why I called you today”?

Why it works?

You don’t test your prospect’s patience by making them wonder who you are and why you called. Instead, you begin by answering this very question. As your opener touches on their apprehension of not wanting to talk to you, their ears would perk up because you kind of read their mind.

4. Who’s In Control

You and your competitors are fighting for one thing while cold calling: your potential customer’s time. So, the success of your cold call depends on how much time your prospect gives you. 

And one of the cleverest ways to get that is by letting them know exactly how many minutes of their time you need. 

Here’s something you can tell them:

“If you give me 3 minutes and you aren’t interested, you will never get a call from me again”.

Why does this work? 

When you let your prospect know that you’d only require 3 minutes of their time and won’t bug them if they are uninterested after this call, they immediately feel at ease as they are in control of the conversation. So, they’d be more inclined to listen to your offer.

Common Objections When Opening Cold Call

• “How did you get this number?”

This objection shows the prospect is not pleased with your call. To handle this objection, Nikita Solberg, a top-performing SDR, focuses on disarming this situation a bit by apologizing first. Next, they proceed to ask: 

“Is there a better number to reach you at? Just so I can make sure to forward any relevant information.”  

• “I’m busy right now”

This is how quota-crushing SDR, Ashley Dees, combats this objection:

“I don’t want you to be late. When can I call you back? Will tomorrow at the same time be okay?” 

Using permission-based openers like these would show prospects that you respect their valuable time and get their consent before pitching them your solution, Ashley notes.

STEP 2: State the Reason for Your Call

You’ve hooked your prospect with your introduction, and now it’s time to hold their attention. Once you’ve won their time, don’t jump into the sale right away. Coax your prospect into thinking that you’re a reliable solution, one question at a time.

1. First, Find The Perfect Segue

You can’t just tell them that you’ve a product or service that they might be interested in unless you want the effort you took till this point to go down the drain. 

Instead, show them you know them. This is where all the research you did initially comes into use. 

These are some of the points from where you can start the conversation:

• Industry related questions
• Pain Points
• Competitors
• Social media posts
• Professional life
• Touchpoints like emails

I noticed your review on G2 about using XYZ. A lot of people I spoke to told me that they had trouble integrating XYZ with their CRM. How happy are you with the current vendor?

2. “Why Should I Trust You?”

Now that the buyer has an idea of what you do the next question to tackle is “why should I trust you”

So, give them a reason to trust you by giving them social proof about the similar brands you have worked with and share their success stories. This will help them understand how you’re fit for their brand and build curiosity to know more.

We recently onboarded 2-3 teams who were using XYZ, they said that {solved their problems} or {achieved metric/hit target}.

Pro tip #2: Don’t hesitate to sprinkle social proof at various points during the cold call. You can use it at the start or use it at a later point like when you are trying to know them better and gauge their sales-readiness.

Common Cold Call Objections When Stating Your Reason

• “I’m not interested.”

When faced with objections, G2’s top-performing rep, Nanditha Menon, comes up with alternative options to keep the conversation going in one way or another. She’d reply to this objection like this: 

“Do you think I can touch base with you sometime later? Do you think your priorities would change?” 

• “We’re already using a tool from [competitor].”

Aamir Sohail from Vervotech focuses on highlighting the strengths of his product instead of diminishing the competitor’s product. He battles this objection by asking open-ended questions like:

“That’s a great one, but do they have this that we have?” or “How important is customer service to you? Because we are very proud of our customer service.”

STEP 3: Check If They are Sales-ready

A prospect that perfectly fits your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) might still waste your time and effort if they aren’t sales-ready. 

To know whether your prospect is sales-ready or not, look at which stage of the buyer’s journey they are at right now. Some prospects are already looking for a solution. Some experience the problem you solve, but not intensely enough to make them active solution-seekers. And there are others who are not interested or not actively thinking to solve the problem at the moment. 

So, tailoring your outreach according to the sales-readiness of your prospects will enable you to spend more time with high-quality prospects. You can now have more relevant conversations, which boosts your chances of getting a meeting booked.

Common Objections While Gauging Their Sales Readiness

• “I’m not sure if we need this at the moment.”

After hearing this objection, Aamir goes on to explain the key features of his solution, as the prospect might not be aware of what exactly the product is.

• “Our technology team is taking care of [pain point] and it seems to be working fine.”

To this Aamir would say, the prospect’s objection shows that the prospect knows your product , but they’re not sure about the additional value of your product that can be of use to them. So, he highlights the USP of his product versus their existing solution.

STEP 4: Move Them Along to the Next Step

Once you get to know the buying intent of your client, you can move them to the next step in the sales process.

If you think your prospect is well-aware of the problem and is ready to stop it at all costs, a demo call is the next apt move for them. 

“Can we schedule a demo call to walk you through how “your product/service” can help you solve “prospect’s problem”? Is 2 pm tomorrow okay for you?”

If they are aware of their problem but fidgeting with the idea of solving it, offer to do a presentation to analyze their problems and come up with a solution.

Cold calling expert, Patrick Dang, gives the following script to say in such situations:

“Based on our conversation, my team will create a presentation about your problems and possible ways in which we can help you. After the presentation, you are free to raise questions, and if you think we aren’t the right fit after this, you are free to go your way. Does that sound okay to you?”

Remember at all steps that you’re trying to help them out and not selling. If you’ve set your mind to ‘selling’, the tone of your voice could reflect it and the prospect will smell that. 

So pro tip, change your mindset and your tone of voice to “helping people” so you don’t sound like the person knocking at doors in the morning to sell encyclopedias. 

Cold Call Objection Handling While Closing Deals

• “We don’t have the budget”

When Qayam Noorani, a quota-crushing AE from Klue, deals with this objection, he tries to understand whether they’re negotiating because of one of these 3 things:

1. Is it because they’re working within a specific budget?
2. Are they trying to displace an existing solution for the same cost? 
3. Did their leadership recently cut the budget?

• “Let us think about it and get back to you…”

Kevin Deldjoui, Senior AE at Localize, overcomes this objection by asking:

“You said you wanted to do X, Y, and Z by {particular time}, so will the delay cost you something internally?” 

When he senses that prospects are not making a clear decision after the demo, he overcomes it by focusing on how the delay in purchasing his solution will affect the prospect’s goals.

Sample B2B Cold Calling Script

FIRST STEP: How do I start the call? 

“Hey Jim, this is Maria from Xenox. We haven’t spoken before. Do you have a minute to chat?”

SECOND STEP: “the reason I’m calling is”

“I heard that your company’s annual summit is in 2 weeks. I just have a few questions about it.”

THIRD STEP: Check if they’re sales-ready 

“How are you planning to check in your attendees this time? Would you prefer a manual check-in or an online check-in that only takes 2 seconds per attendee?” 

“How long does it take for you to check-in each attendee? I believe you’ll note them down manually and hand out IDs. Will you be able to give me a rough estimate?”

FOURTH STEP: Move them along the next step

Depending on your prospect’s sales readiness, move them to the next logical step. In this example, the prospect is problem-aware but skeptical of the solution. So, the next logical step would be to create a presentation for them.

“I believe that we can make a big difference in your event this year with our solution. Will you be open to a quick 30-minute presentation on how we’d do it?”

(Prospect agrees)

“How about we set up a call this monday morning??”

(Prospect agrees)

“Awesome! What time would work for you?”

5 Expert-Backed Cold Calling Tips

Here are 5 cold calling tips from quota-crushing reps we interviewed in our SDR X Factor series:

Know Essential Details

As a sales rep who makes 100 calls a day, you should not waste your time on collecting information that would be of no use in actual use. While researching, take only relevant information that helps you identify pain points, pick up conversation starters and build rapport with your prospect. 

The ultimate goal of your research is to use the details to get your prospect interested in your offer, says Alastair Chamberlin. 

He suggests that you should look into 2 things while researching: 

1. The goal of your prospect’s company
2. How your value proposition ties into their goals and helps them achieve that.

You can get such information about your prospect from their LinkedIn, company website, or any socials. This will help you save time without getting lost in the details.

Use Permission-based Opening Lines

When delivering an opening line it is always a good idea to ask permission before you jump directly into your sales pitch. 

Why? When you approach people politely, you respect their time and don't appear too pushy. So, it creates a good impression. 

Ashley Dees, SDR Manager at Metadata, says: “People take it more as a sign of respect, that you’re making sure it’s okay to continue your pitch when you call them out of the blue.”

Here's what Ashley Dees uses:

“Hey, Kim! Ashley from Metadata. We haven’t spoken before. Do you have a minute to chat?” 

Plan Your Cold Call

As an SDR you call 50-100 people a day. So, it is essential to keep it short and simple.

Planning your calls prior will prepare you to tackle the objections and queries smoothly. You will know more about your prospect’s needs and reflect the same while on call. 

Plan for a 3-minute call

1. First minute: Spend the first minute on introducing yourself and your company. 

Here’s what Aamir Sohail says in his first minute. 

 “I’m from Vervotech, a travel technology company, and they help travel businesses such as yours to optimize their hotel mapping.” 

2. Second minute: Ask qualifying questions to your prospects.
3. Third minute: Move them to the next steps in the sales process,, clearly mention the next touchpoints, it could be anything a callback, an email or product demo

Educate, Don’t Sell

It is essential to know that when you are on a cold call, you are trying to solve your prospects’ problems, you should genuinely show interest in helping them. 

Here’s what Top performing SDR Asatta Leggett  says: 

“They’ll usually quickly hang up if they hear “Hi, I’m calling from…” and if it sounds too telemarket-y. So, I want to try to sound more personable than a telemarketer.”

She suggests that you avoid sounding like a telemarketer by understanding the prospect’s pain points and using proper segues to educate them about how they can solve their problems.

Take Lessons from Failure

Don’t be disheartened if your prospect rejects you. It takes a lot of practice to become better at cold calling. 

Analyze your call recordings and understand the reason behind their rejection. Introspect on how you could have dealt with the objection better. Practice more and more. All these things will help you nurture the prospect in future.

Here’s what Joel Thomas, a quota-crushing rep recommends:

“People are in different moods across the day, you can probably get some at a really happy time on a Friday or a really bad time. It doesn’t really matter. It’s just that you show up consistently, make that call and then just roll the dice and see what happens. Just keep showing up and be consistent.”

Boost Your Cold Calling Success With a Sales Engagement Platform

If you want to effectively execute your cold calls at scale to boost your chances of booking meetings, you might run into hurdles like manually dialing each number, recording separate voicemails for each prospect, and entering the details of each call into the CRM.

All this can be quite a hassle to keep track of individually. So, a sales engagement tool like Klenty can be the right fit for you.  

With Klenty’s Sales Dialer, your prospects are just one click away. Calls can be placed via the browser without any need to pick up a phone. You can stay focused get into focus mode and execute all the calls with zero friction and zero distraction. Also, you can have everything—your notes, reports, activities, outcomes—on a single platform. 

Check out how Klenty can help you connect with prospects better through cold calls and book more meetings.

Popular FAQs on Cold Calling