Cold Calling Best Practices to Nail Your Next Call

Cold calling isn’t dead. 

It’s just done wrong.

That outdated image of a pushy rep reading from a script and interrupting someone’s day? Thankfully, it’s fading. 

In reality, Gong’s research shows that cold calling can be a key channel that drives a successful cold outreach strategy for both founders and sales teams. 

Even if your call doesn’t connect, cold calling can double your email reply rate.

Here are 9 cold calling tactics you can put into action for more effective results.

Research your prospect before you dial

The best cold calls don’t feel cold at all.

They feel intentional, like you actually meant to reach out to this specific person, on this specific day, for a specific reason. That kind of precision doesn’t come from winging it. It comes from smart, focused research.

Before you even touch the phone, invest a few minutes in prep. It’s often the difference between getting ghosted and getting, “You know what? Let’s chat.”

Here’s a quick research checklist to guide your prep before every call.

What can you find about their company?

Start with the big picture. 

What industry are they in? Are they a scrappy Series A startup or an enterprise giant? 

Dig for recent news: Did they raise funding? Launch a new product? Lay off a team? 

These events usually signal change, and change creates new challenges. That’s your cue to jump in.

For example, if you see they just launched a new product, that might mean they’re scaling their go-to-market team. That could mean new reps, new processes, or even a broken outbound engine that needs fixing.

What can you find about their role?

Now zoom in: Who are you actually calling? 

A VP of sales is thinking about pipeline, quota, and team performance. An SDR manager might be focused on ramp time and call quality. A RevOps leader cares about process efficiency and clean data.

The more you understand your prospect’s day-to-day, the more your message will resonate.

And please, don’t be the rep who asks, “What does your company do?”

What are their likely pain points?

Now put it all together.

Based on their role and the company’s current situation, what problems are probably on their radar? 

Sluggish pipeline? Low connect rates? High rep churn? 

Come in with a smart, informed assumption and validate it with a good question.

Can you speed up research?

If you don’t have all day to scroll through LinkedIn, use a smart sales platform like AiSDR to enrich your contact list based on your ideal customer, fill in missing data, and surface company-level triggers like funding rounds, hiring activity, or leadership changes. 

You can condense hours of prep work into a few clicks.

This isn’t about being invasive. It’s about being relevant. 

If you start a call by tapping into something a prospect is actually thinking about, you’re no longer a telemarketer. You’ve shown you get them, which sparks a completely different conversation.

Bottom line: Good research turns a cold call into a warm intro. It helps build trust and credibility, and that’s how conversations (and deals) start.

Nail your opening

You’ve got ten seconds to make a stranger give a damn, so use them well. 

Nothing kills a call faster than a scripted, stale opener like:

“Hi, this is Jordan from X Company. How are you today?”

You already know how that ends: With a polite “Not interested” or a not-so-polite hang-up.

A pattern interrupt is one of the most powerful sales call techniques you can use to make someone pause. When done right, it sparks curiosity and gives you a shot at a conversation.

Try these openers:

• “Hey [Name], I know this call is unexpected, but may I steal 30 seconds to tell you why I’m calling?”
• “I know this is out of the blue, but mind if I give you the quick reason I’m calling?”
• “Don’t worry, I’m not here to sell you car insurance.”

These lines work because they’re disarming, self-aware, and just different enough to stand out from the 30 other dials that day. They show confidence, respect your prospect’s time, and don’t pretend to be anything other than what they are.

But once you’ve got those precious seconds, don’t waste them talking about your company. Instead, you need to make it all about them. And this is where research pays off, as you can mention something specific that shows you’re not just dialing down a list.

With that one line, you shift the focus onto their challenges and priorities, which instantly builds credibility and opens the door to a genuine conversation rather than a one-sided sales pitch.

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Focus on the problem, not the pitch

If you want to kill your cold call, start rattling off product features.

Nothing makes a prospect check out faster than an unsolicited sales pitch. They don’t know you, they didn’t ask for this call, and they sure don’t want a demo dropped on them before they’ve said more than “hello.”

Effective cold calls are never about selling your product on the spot. Instead, you need to start a conversation around a challenge your prospect might actually care about.

And here’s a dead-simple way to do that:

Problem → Insight → Question

Start with a problem that people in their role or industry are likely facing. Add a little insight or social proof. Then ask a smart, open-ended question to invite them into the conversation.

This kind of approach shows empathy and industry awareness and makes the rest of the call way easier. If you start by talking about them, their challenges, pressures, and pain points, you earn the right to eventually talk about how you can help.

And that’s the unlock: Cold calling isn’t about pitching, it’s about diagnosis. 

Your goal is to spark a conversation that reveals context, not to bulldoze your way into a meeting. Prospects are more likely to engage when it feels like you’re helping them surface and think through a problem they’ve been tolerating or ignoring.

It also softens resistance. 

When cold call objections pop up later, they’re easier to reframe because you’ve already established that you’re solving something real. You’re not a rep with a quota, you’re someone who understands their world.

Bottom line: ditch the pitch and start with the pain. You’re not just selling a product — you’re opening a door.

Use triggers to capture interest

Want to stand out in a crowded cold call queue? Use recent events or company changes to show where your offer adds value.

Triggers like these could be anything from a product launch to a leadership change or even a job posting. They’re moments when companies are likely to be in transition, and that’s your cue to step in with help.

For example, say you notice a company just rolled out a major product update:

This opener does three things at once: it shows genuine interest, it names a real challenge (early-adopter support), and it invites them to share their current approach.

Triggers don’t have to be headline events. Keep an eye out for

• Job postings for new roles (SDRs, DevOps, etc.)
• Leadership changes, like a new CMO or Head of Product
• Partnership announcements: Did they just team up with a big-name company?
• A spike in website traffic or social media mentions

Each of these is a clue that something’s shifting and that your solution might be helpful.

Pull in your research and tie it right into your opener:

By leading with a relevant trigger, you instantly prove your call isn’t random. 

Again, you’re making your cold call feel like a helpful conversation, not a generic sales pitch.

Use a conversational cold call script

Winging it sounds bold until you forget your point, ramble, or panic when the prospect throws a curveball. That’s where a cold call script earns its keep.

Using a script doesn’t make you sound like a robot, but reading it like one does. The best reps use scripts not as crutches, but as launchpads.

Think of it like Google Maps for your sales call. You’ve got a destination in mind (a meeting, a second call, a qualified lead), and the script keeps you on course. You can still take detours, but you won’t miss the exits.

Here’s the structure of a high-performing cold call script that gives you just enough support to keep things moving:

1. A hook that earns attention.
2. A quick, no-fluff reason you’re calling.
3. One specific, relevant insight.
4. A smart, open-ended question.
5. A plan to pivot based on their answer.

And here’s how it could work:

This is short, clear, and focused. Instead of rambling or pitching too early, you’re starting a real conversation.

Don’t fall into the yes/no trap

Closed questions like “Would you be interested in learning more?” just invite a polite “No thanks.” 

Instead, go for open-ended questions that get people talking:

• “How are you currently handling new rep onboarding?”
• “What’s your approach to keeping the pipeline healthy during a hiring push?”
• “Is ramp time something your team’s trying to improve right now?”

These kinds of questions keep the energy on them, which is exactly where it should be.

Bonus tip: Don’t reinvent the wheel

Need a head start? 

AiSDR can create personalized, research-backed cold call scripts based on your prospect’s role, industry, and recent activity. Use it to build a base script, then tweak it to make it your own. This way, you keep your voice but get to a sharper, more researched conversation faster.

Expect and handle objections

If you’re cold-calling and not getting objections, you’re probably calling your mom.

Cold call objections aren’t rejections: They’re just roadblocks you can navigate. 

A Gong study of 300M+ sales calls shows that around half of objections are quick brush-offs like “Not interested.” 

These aren’t the end. If you play it right, they’re just the start of a real conversation. 

Here are a few ways to turn the tables and counter sales objections:

The trick is to stay cool and curious without panicking. Ask questions instead of defending your pitch.

If you expect objections and come prepared, you’ll be way more confident. And confidence gets callbacks.

Hone your voice

The average successful cold call lasts 93 seconds. 

That’s not very long. (For any anime fans out there, that’s roughly the length of an episode’s opening song.)

If you want to sound like someone worth talking to, you have a surprising superpower: your voice.

You don’t need a radio voice, but you do need control. It’s the difference between sounding like a trusted advisor and someone trying to rush through a script before the hang-up.

Here’s how to use your voice to land more effective cold calls:

• Slow down: Rushed speech screams “I’m nervous!” Pacing says “I’ve got this.” And depending on the quality of devices used, rushed speech may not even be distinguishable.
• Pause with purpose: Silence can be powerful. Let your words sink in and be an invitation for your prospect to share more.
• Drop the fake hype: Be upbeat, but be real. People spot overhype a mile away.
• Don’t interrupt: Sometimes the best voice is no voice at all. Top reps talk 55% of the time: just enough to lead the call without steamrolling the buyer.

And don’t forget: Your tone signals intent. 

Sound too pushy, and you’ll get brushed off. Sound too timid, and you’ll get talked over.

It takes time and practice to find your voice. To start, try reading your script out loud as if you’re chatting with a colleague. Record a few practice calls, and ask a teammate for feedback on what sounds smooth versus stiff. 

Regularly listen to your real calls and notice how you sound. Sometimes, just a small change in delivery is what will land you the deal.

Know what the next step is

A cold call is about earning the next step in a conversation, which rarely means closing the deal.

Before you even dial, be crystal clear on what that next step looks like. That way, when the conversation goes well, you know exactly what to ask for. It could be:

• A 15–20 minute follow-up meeting
• An intro to the right decision-maker
• Permission to send over a one-pager or case study
• Or just getting a better sense of their current process

Keep your next step light, and above all easy. Don’t scare your prospect off by sounding like you’re locking them into a demo from the jump.

Here’s a soft-close line that works:

Instead of bringing unwelcome pressure, this promotes forward momentum.

If you find that they’re not ready to commit, that’s fine. You’re playing the long game here, so keep the door open:

This keeps the relationship warm without making it awkward. You’re showing respect for your prospect’s time and interest in helping them when the timing’s better.

If they agree to another conversation, don’t leave it hanging. Send the calendar invite right away with a short, friendly email:

Pro tip: Always close with confidence, not desperation. Keep in mind that you’re guiding, not begging.

Track, learn, and improve

Most of the time, you don’t need to make more cold calls. You need to make better ones. And the fastest way to level up is to learn from the calls you’ve already made.

Treat every call like a mini training session. Win or lose, each one leaves behind a trail of data. Use it to shape a tighter, more confident call next time.

Start by recording your calls (with permission, of course). Then block off time each week to review just a few and look for patterns:

• Which cold call openers and questions spark a real conversation?
• When you lose people, are you too pitchy, too fast, too vague?
• Which objections show up again and again?
• Are you asking real questions, or just going through a checklist?

Finally, don’t just track what you say: track how different roles and industries respond. Maybe your B2B cold calling works better mid-week. Maybe RevOps leaders love metrics and hate fluff. Or maybe, once the numbers are in, cold email is working better for you than cold calling. The more you track, the more strategic you get.

If your sales team is bigger than just you, schedule regular call reviews with your team. Everyone is different, and sharing insights accelerates growth across the board.