How to Create Cold Calling Scripts

Small tweaks in your sales script can turn “no thanks” into qualified sales calls. We reviewed a client’s outbound calls, made five key adjustments, and saw a 20% boost in engagement. Here’s what worked: 1. Start with a Permission-Based Opener Jumping straight into the pitch made prospects feel cornered, often leading to resistance. What We Changed: We switched to a permission-based opener like, “Hey, this is (name) from (company), we haven’t spoken before, I’m calling you out of the blue, but it'll take me 30 seconds to tell you why I called and then you can tell me if you even want to keep talking after that, does that sound fair” This gave prospects control and set a respectful tone. Prospects felt more comfortable and engaged when they had the option to continue, leading to smoother, more productive conversations. 2. Use “You” Instead of “We” The scripts were too brand-focused with “we” and “our” statements, making it sound impersonal. Shifting to “you” language made a huge difference. Instead of “We offer the best solution,” we said, “You deserve a solution that actually fits.” Prospects felt the call was about them, not us. 3. Add Specific Social Proof Generic claims weren’t cutting it. Instead of “We’ve helped hundreds,” we got specific: “Last quarter, we helped [X industry] achieve [result].” Specifics boosted credibility and helped prospects see the potential value for themselves. 4. Ask Open-Ended Questions Closed questions led to dead-ends. We replaced “Do you struggle with [problem]?” with “What challenges are you facing with [problem]?” This invited prospects to share more, making the conversation richer and helping us respond better. 5. Frame Price with Value Mentioning price early often scared people off. Instead, we tied price to benefits: “With an investment of $X, you can achieve [result].” Positioning price in correlation to perceived value kept the conversation moving forward. These small changes led to big improvements in qualified booked appointments. ___________________________________ Follow Dylan Rich for more tips on scaling your sales team

How I built a cold call script from scratch that got an 80% conversation rate from connects. Jeff Whitlock, the CEO of Grain threw me a challenge to try and cold call for his company. They are almost 100% inbound so we had to come up with everything from scratch. Plus we had the added difficulty of going up against Gong, which dominates the cold recording space. We crowd-sourced an opener and built out the following Mic Drop Method cold call script: -- Permission -- Hey {First Name}, this is Belal from Grain. I'll be upfront, we haven't spoken before. Got 30 seconds for me before you throw your phone out the window? (h/t Abdulahi) -- Problem -- A lot of sellers leaders are familiar with call recording tools like Gong, Chorus, and Clari. The problem is these tools can be pricey, with some complexity to configure. But you're still expected to be a player/coach. -- Provoke -- How are you finding the right calls to review and the right moments in those call to coach? ---- We knew smaller sales teams would have a tougher time with higher priced competition but still need to provide coaching for their reps. While we didn't book any meetings yet, we got damn close. Here's an example where we got the right person at the right company but at the wrong time (they just signed a 2 year deal with Gong). Pay attention to how quickly it goes from cold call to conversation. Do you see the transition? When a person feels you get it, they embrace the problem statement instead of object to a pitch. Ditch the pitch. Ready to make your own Mic Drop Method cold call script? Turn skeptical buyers into meaningful conversations at learntosell.io

How I achieved a 78% positive cold call conversion rate. Focus on the opening line script and call the right people. Background: I've been making cold calls for a political campaign in the U.S. I'm up to about 700 calls and have been keeping track of outcomes. Here's the opening line script: "Hello! This is Trevor and I'm calling [community name] voters today to discuss the upcoming election for U.S. Senator. Am I speaking with [name]?" Why it's brilliant: 1. It's personal. Just my first name to make a quick connection. 2. Explains who I am calling = "[community name] voters" . Not you? Hang up. 3. Explains what we are talking about = upcoming election. Not interested? Hang up. 4. Confirms that I have the person I think I have dialed. Not you? Hang up. 5. Permission to talk was granted because they picked up the phone. No? Hang up. 6. Does not reveal the brand (the candidate or the party) until after they agree to proceed. Mad? No harm to brand. 7. It takes ~6 seconds to say. 8. Leverages propensity and timing data. 9. Doesn't waste time on apologies or excuses. Hang ups are not the enemy. Wasted time is the enemy. My last session (the 7th to date) yielded 14 discussions: 11 supported my candidate. 3 were undecided. 0 supported the opponent. So, how can this experience apply to business? If your cold prospect's first question is "What's this call about?," you're losing. Avoid that. Stop telling them you know they're busy. Stop asking permission. Stop apologizing. Get to the point. "Hello! This is Trevor and I'm calling [job title] leaders today to discuss the [insert topic of the day]. Am I speaking with [name]?" 1. Personal. 2. Who = [job title] leaders 3. Topic = pick something relevant 4. Confirms prospect's identity 5. Didn't hang up = Permission granted 6. No brand confusion 7. Fast 8. Call people who are more likely to say yes than no (i.e. - get some data) 9. No apology. Match topics to the job titles you're calling. If they don't answer and you leave a voice mail, rotate and refresh topics so you're not constantly calling about the same thing.

The WORST cold calling script of all time. No doubt about it, is... The script that goes unspoken. If I told you the script I've used, and have seen others use to set meetings with million dollar premium plus accounts you probably wouldn't believe me. But first a little history. After selling insurance as a marketing rep (captive agent) for 3 years, I decided to become an independent agent. When you go from calling mid-market businesses asking if they'd like a quote with your exclusive program, to now calling them and trying to convince them why they should meet with you when they have an agent who already represents the same companies you do, it can mess you up. The transition is not easy. No more silver bullet. I tried every script. Most felt too wordy. Or too manipulative. This, and the fact everyone I called had an agent, created even more cold call reluctance in me. After hundreds of conversations I decided to try something totally unorthodox. It was almost like an anti-pitch, but it felt natural and authentic. It went like this: *** Hi Bob?(pause).. it's Micah w/____ (pause) I was calling about your insurance, I know you already have an agent, and I'm NOT looking to quote, but instead I was wondering if you'd ever be open to a conversation sometime? (stop) *** So that's it, told you, you wouldn't believe me. So simple a caveman could say it. Many sales gurus would probably label this as a terrible script. No curiosity created. No info shared. No giant proclamations. No pain points asked about. But you know what it did for me? Killed my cold call reluctance. The phone became lighter. My confidence soared. It also, to my surprise, sparked a lot of conversations and I was getting a meeting one in every 5 conversations. Now I've since refined this a bit more, but it taught me that the worst script of all time is... The one you never say.

I'm working with a sales leader that's driving HUGE increases is demo conversion rate. Over the last 3 months it's gone from 11% to 25%. Now we want to go from 25% to 35%. Here are the 3 things we are doing to make this happen. First, some context on current team performance. This team has 3 SDRs generating demand. Averages based on last 3 months: ~ 40 calls a day / rep. ~ 25 demos set / month ~ 75% demo show rate ~ 25% conversion rate from demo to customer. ~ $20k ACV Check out the screenshot below. This shows how the gains in conversion rate impact the cost of sales. Holding everything else constant, we will shrink the SDR's contribution to acquisition costs from 19% to 14% if we increase the hold:close rate - or the number of completed demos that turn into customers - from 25% to 35%. When you focus on moving one number at a time, you make a big impact on the economics of your business. We are increasing the close rate by doing 3 things: 1. Only set demos with the right buyer persona. There are few exceptions to this rule. The SDRs are compensated on each demo that is held with the right buyer persona. The person must be senior enough to influence the purchase decision, VP-level in this case. If an SDR books a demo with a less-senior buyer persona, they do not get credit for the demo. this has increased the number of calls to book a demo, but the quality of demos has gone WAY up. 2. Make the messaging more consistent If you listen to 3 different calls from 3 different SDRs, you will hear that they all talk about the company and product in different ways. This is not scalable, so we are tightening our messaging with a script. We are writing down exactly how to create an opportunity and set a demo with the right buyer persona. We also trust them to use their talent and intuition to navigate the conversation. But our outbound prospecting needs to have a spine. That's where the scripting adds value. Our script will include: - a proper lead-in for cold calls with the buyer persona - how to make the most out of the first 2.5 minutes (the most important part of a cold call - email templates, DM templates, and cadences that the SDR can use to set up the phone call - Key discovery questions to ask - Pocket stories to share with customers - Common objections and how to overcome them This isn't fancy, it's a google doc. But we are giving the SDRs the exact steps to book great demos that will turn into customers. 3. Weekly call camps The fastest way to improve SDR performance is to have them listen to their own calls. You learn quicker when you hear yourself doing well or making mistakes. We are introducing a weekly call camp for the team to come together and hear what's working well. We will increase the number of call camps to 2x per week once we are in a rhythm. There is no substitute for this kind of coaching. And the reps are hungry for it! What do you think? How would you increase the close rate for this team?