27 Cold Calling Tips & Techniques to Transform Your Strategy

Most B2B cold calling tips are a dime a dozen — Smile and dial! Add value!

Today, we’d like to get more specific and provide you with actionable tactics for booking more sales meetings with decision-makers.

Let’s dive into best cold calling techniques online right now 👇

1. Establish your north star

Jason Bay, CEO and Founder of Outbound Squad, says:

“The buying landscape has changed a lot. The buyer is more educated than they’ve ever been. They’ve been burned more times than ever before.” 

“And not to mention, in every SaaS category... there are tons of people who do everything now. So there’s a lot of competition. That makes me more reluctant as a buyer to take meetings, and it makes me more reluctant to switch.” 

So how do you connect with your buyer and stay on track when cold calling? 

You must think of your objective as your north star. 

It helps you plan your opening lines, call to action, and other parts of your cold call script in a way that connects with the modern B2B buyer. 

And, when you inevitably go off-script, your goal helps you get back on course. 

Not to mention, it’s almost impossible to track your success rate and improve performance if you haven’t defined an ideal cold call outcome. 

Just keep in mind that you’re speaking to a human, and pushing your sales objectives on them won’t help you book any meetings.

Catherine Olivier, VP of Sales Development at Cognism, says:

“The best outbound teams know it’s not about how many dials you make but about whether you’re getting the right people to pause, engage, and see value in what you’re saying”.

Consider this when defining your cold call objectives. Here are a couple of examples: 

• Book a 20-minute web demo with a product expert. 
• Secure a 15-minute needs analysis meeting.  
• Get the lead to schedule time at your tradeshow booth. 
• Identify and connect with the decision-maker. 
• Sell a free trial to the lead. 

2. Build a prospecting list

If your sales goal is your north star, then your targeted prospecting list is your telescope. 

You won’t see much if it’s not of the utmost quality and accuracy. The same is true for your prospecting list. 

After all, nothing takes you out of the cold calling zone like having to find someone new to call, along with their phone number, job title, and other crucial information. 

To start, you’ll need to identify your ideal customer profile. A B2B sales intelligence tool like Cognism can help you build a list or enrich the data you already have in your CRM. 

With its filters and AI lead search, it’s easy to generate a list of people who match your ideal customer profile. 

Best of all, the mobile and direct-dial numbers on the list are both GDPR-compliant and highly accurate. 

The worst thing you can do is target the wrong people in a company. Cognism ensures you’re always connecting with key decision-makers. 

Catherine says:

“The ICP isn’t just a static list of accounts—it’s a living, breathing framework that evolves as the market changes. The companies that succeed in outbound are the ones that regularly test, validate, and refine their ICP.”

Her top cold calling tip is to identify patterns in your best accounts and base your ICP on that real-world data. So, take a look at your existing customers who: 

• Generate the highest revenue.
• Have the shortest time-to-value.
• Have the lowest churn rates or longest lifetime value.
• Are the easiest to work with from a customer success perspective.

3. Map out power lines

There are several great cold calling techniques to ensure you connect with the right decision-makers, but our favourite at Cognism is the concept of power lines.

Power lines refer to the channels of influence and authority within an organisation linking key stakeholders in purchasing decisions.

These can include decision-makers who hold the final say on approvals or buying champions who can sway the decision even though they don’t have the ultimate authority.

Jonathan Ilett, VP of Global Sales, says:

“In every deal, there are visible decision-makers and invisible power lines. If you don’t map them, you’ll end up blindsided by someone you didn’t know was part of the process.”

“If you’re only speaking to one person, you’re not running an outbound play—you’re gambling. A deal can fall apart because you didn’t see the power line to the real decision-maker.” 

This is where multi-threading comes into play. The more individuals within the organisation’s decision-making power that you can engage and align towards a common goal, the higher the likelihood that the deal will proceed. This becomes particularly crucial in larger companies, where there are more stakeholders involved who need to approve any purchases.

4. Research your prospects

76% of top performers “always” research before reaching out to a lead. 

Why?

It’s essential for personalising your call, plus learning about the lead and their company gives you context that’ll help you set the stage for a personalised and impactful conversation.

Most importantly, research enables you to create specific reasons for reaching out. 

Understand their business model, recent news, industry challenges, and how your product or service can address their needs.

To illustrate this sales cold calling tip, check out how Bradley Marsh, an Account Executive at Dock, conducts pre-call research: 

“I like to start my cold calling research from our messaging. I have a play that I like to run where the messaging focus is around an assumption that a company is trying to move upmarket.” 

On LinkedIn Sales Navigator, he sets an alert that tells him when a new Enterprise AE is hired. When he receives an alert, he cold calls sales leadership at the company, saying something like this:

“Hey Bob, I saw you added Jason to the team on the enterprise side. I’m assuming that means you guys are planning to move upmarket in 2025. With that will come additional complexities in the sales cycle, longer sales, and more stakeholders. Dock is great for handling all of that."

With such a relevant, specific reason for calling, it’s hard for his leads to brush him off without hearing him out. 

5. Craft a compelling cold calling script

While spontaneity has its place, a well-crafted script ensures you cover essential points and stay on message. 

Your script should include an engaging introduction, a value proposition tailored to your prospect, anticipated objections with prepared responses, and a clear call to action. 

The script our SDRs use at Cognism is broken down into five segments:

Opening: 

Quickly state your name and company. Then, share how you found the lead and why you’re calling them (e.g., “I saw you manage a large SDR team”), and ask for 30 seconds to explain the nature of your call. 

Pitch: 

After getting permission, deliver a clear, concise, easy-to-remember pitch tailored to the individual lead. (e.g. “We help SaaS brands create lead lists with our B2B prospecting tool, which contains 400 million B2B profiles.”)

Questions: 

Ask questions that help you better understand their needs and current processes while building rapport. We often ask, “How are you currently generating new leads?” and “What does your outbound process look like?” 

Tactics: 

These are methods for keeping your prospects engaged. Use a confident, enthusiastic tone. Pause after important points to make them stick. Mirror the prospect’s way of speaking. And don’t be afraid to repeat what they said to you to show you’re listening. 

Closing: 

Once you’ve generated enough interest, ask for the meeting, overcome the objections, and schedule a time on the calendar.

Think of a script as training wheels. 

As you gain experience, you can cold call without one.

💡Check out our hub of cold calling scripts for more examples!

One of our best tips for cold calling is to work on your opening lines. According to new data, the average cold call lasts around 93 seconds, but only 10% make it past two minutes. So, you really need to work on how you hook a prospect into staying on the line and hearing what you have to say. 

As Jason says:

“Only 10% of calls make it past 2 minutes. So, really the first 60 seconds is exactly what you want to nail... I need to make it really hard not to want to hear what I have to say because I’m working with their peers, and I’m showing that I researched their problem. That’s really hard to say no to.”

6. Prepare engaging opening lines

As our cold calling sales tip mentioned above, opening lines are vital for cold call success.

Your opening line could be a relevant observation about their business, a mutual connection, or a compelling statistic.

Here are some ways to make the most of them:

• Show them you know them by mentioning something you found in your research about their job or company that inspired you to give them a call. 
• Name 1-2 pain points that are common to leads like them. 
• Ask an interesting question that makes them think about fixing these pains. 

Just be sure to avoid generic openings; personalise your introduction to demonstrate genuine interest and relevance.

One of Josh Braun’s best cold calling tips and tricks is to ask your prospect for permission to continue.

He says this is the best way to build trust with your prospect from the beginning. People are usually very unlikely to say “no” to someone when they’re asked for their time.

“The truth behind every conversation with a prospect is one of two things - yes, they want to continue talking to you, or no, they don’t want to talk to you now.”

Here’s an example:

“Hi (first name), you’re probably going to hate me because this is a cold call. Would you like to hang up or roll the dice?”

Watch this video for more B2B cold calling tips from Josh:

7. Use a cold calling checklist

If a script feels too restrictive, try using a cold calling checklist. 

A checklist ensures you don’t overlook crucial steps before, during, and after the call. It should include the actions listed in order of what you’d do on every cold call to maximise the likelihood of success. 

Here’s an example:

• Open CRM to prospect’s record.
• Review research/notes.
• Set specific call goals.
• Create a custom opener.
• Pull up your objection rebuttals list.
• Ready prospect’s website/LinkedIn.
• Place call.
• Introduce yourself and your company.
• Ask about 1-2 pain points.
• Ask for a meeting.
• Log outcome immediately.
• Schedule follow-up tasks.
• Update contact info if needed.

The checklist can also consider the preparation and closing actions surrounding the conversation.

8. Practice active listening

When a prospect feels heard and understood, they are more likely to work with you. 

This is where active listening comes into play. Active listening involves fully concentrating on the prospect’s words, understanding their message, responding thoughtfully, and remembering the information.

This skill helps build rapport and trust, showing respect for the prospect’s opinions and needs.

Here are some ways to practice active listening: 

• Repeat the last three words of their sentence to get them to elaborate. 

• Rephrase what they say to you in your own words before starting your next statement. 

• Summarise the key things you heard from the lead before asking for the close. 

And always, always avoid interrupting them. If you can’t help it, apologise afterwards. “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt you.” Acknowledging one’s mistake builds trust. 

When it comes to active listening, our most effective cold calling tip is to listen and repeat:

Repeating what a prospect says back to them shows you’re listening and engaged.

For example - after your prospect reveals how they’re finding sales leads, you can respond with something like:

“Your SDRs are finding their leads through LinkedIn and reaching out via cold calling and email. Fantastic, so…(next questions/follow up with how you can add value.)”

9. Ask open-ended questions

Open-ended questions are a great way to encourage leads to share more about their needs, values, and concerns. 

Questions starting with “how,” “what,” “why,” or “can you explain” prompt detailed responses, providing insights into the prospect’s situation and how your product or service can assist them. 

This approach fosters a two-way conversation rather than a one-sided sales pitch. Plus, Open-ended questions are a great way to overcome objections! 

For example, on cold calls, leads often say, “Can you send me information over email?”

A good way to overcome this is to ask an open-ended question: “What exactly would you like me to include?” 

Now, the lead shares what they need from you, shedding light on their actual hesitations regarding your solution. 

Here’s a list of the most common objections from our latest cold calling report, so you can prepare questions of your own in response: 

And if our tips for successful cold calling couldn’t get any better, we’ve also got this handy objection response generator 👇

10. Know your product well

Up next on our list of best cold calling tips is to know your product well.

A deep understanding of your product or service enables you to confidently address questions and tailor your pitch to the prospect’s needs. A good salesperson can pitch their product as the solution to almost any of a lead’s problems. 

This is not the result of mere creative talent but of a wide-ranging knowledge of their product, its features, and the various use cases. 

Be an educator, not just a salesperson. Know your product and share your knowledge and enthusiasm about it.

Do this by sitting down for 20 minutes each day to study it:

• Read a case study for a feature you’re unfamiliar with.

• Attend a live demo with a product expert.

• Read the white paper to learn how certain features work. 

An added benefit of knowing your solution inside and out is that you’ll appear more informed and confident during cold calls and be able to answer every question a lead asks. 

As a result, you’ll earn their trust.  

11. Explain why your tool will help

Instead of listing features, explain why your tool is the solution to their pain points. By following this cold calling technique, you’ll also have a chance to showcase how your solution is different to your competitors and why you win. 

Use the information gathered during your research and from the conversation to highlight the relevant benefits. Personalised explanations demonstrate that you’ve considered your prospect’s unique situation, increasing the perceived value of your offering.

Josh Braun has a cold calling technique he refers to as “poke the bear.” 👇

Josh elaborates on his concept:

“You’ve got to get them to think differently, scratch their head and think ‘hmm, maybe I do need this, let me look into this some more’.”

12. Confidently handle objections

Too many sales reps give up after hearing one sales objection. 

A single “we’re not interested right now” doesn’t mean the opportunity is closed. It just means you haven’t convinced them yet. 

When your lead makes an objection, use the LAER framework: 

• Listen attentively. 
• Acknowledge the objection by paraphrasing it — “it sounds like you’re concerned about X.”  
• Explore the objection by asking questions to uncover the real, underlying objection. For example, “not interested” could really mean “I don’t understand your offering.” 
• Respond with a rebuttal — your team should build out a list of these for common cold call objections. 

💡If you want to learn more about this cold calling sales tip, check out our article on handling cold call rejections. 

13. Personalise your approach for each call

Every lead should feel that your cold call is specifically for them. 

Here’s Morgan Ingram’s structure for personalising each call: 

“Whenever I train sales teams, there are three components that I tell them to focus on, when making a call: persona, personal, and what’s happening at the company.” 

• Persona: Know this buyer persona’s goals, challenges, and worries. 

• Personal: Scan their LinkedIn to see what they’re posting and commenting on. 
• Company News: Search Google for interviews of their company executives to learn about their current focus and initiatives. 

You can then use these details to create an opening line that shows the lead you understand their situation and to select pain points and features that solve problems uniquely. 

As a result, the call will be much harder to make than if you were to use a cookie-cutter script. 

14. Leverage social proof to build credibility

When you provide social proof, you instantly build credibility. 

Testimonials, case studies, or notable client logos can serve as social proof, building credibility and trust. 

You can build credibility on a cold call by: 

• Sharing real-world examples of use cases.  
• Dropping the names and numbers of how many customers you’ve helped.
• Paraphrasing or quoting a client testimonial.

Pro sales tip for cold calling:

15. Time your calls for maximum effectiveness

It’s best practice to make cold calls at a time of day when the chances of reaching decision-makers are highest. 

The exact time frames when your leads are most chatty depends on your industry. 

Cognism's latest cold calling report states that the best day to call is Tuesday. 

And the best time to cold call is between 10 am and 11 am.

A warning: don’t let this data convince you that making cold calls at any other time is useless. If you’re at your most alert, motivated, and focused at 12 am., make your cold calls at 12 am. The difference in lead availability between those two time slots is likely slim. 

What matters most is building a cold-calling habit, where you make your calls at the same time every day. This ensures you put up high numbers week after week while improving with each effort. 

16. Use the word “imagine”

The word imagine fires up the projector of a lead’s mind. They can’t help but see whatever follows. 

For example, if you said, “Imagine that your sales reps are reaching twice as many leads but with the same exact quality of outreach. How many more leads would that generate?” 

The VP of Sales is already running calculations, imagining themselves presenting the uptick in SQLs to leadership during the next meeting and hearing the champagne bottle pop.  

The word is persuasive. 

Use it before describing the results the lead can expect to see if they buy your solution. They’ll envision success and become emotionally invested in the purchase. 

17. End positive calls by confirming next steps

At the end of the call, state your next steps. 

If the next step is a meeting with an AE, say, “I’ll send an invite to your email address.” 

If they also had a question you couldn’t answer, say, “I’ll send over the calendar invite along with some information about your question X.”

After stating the next steps, get confirmation from them.

That can be as simple as saying, “Does that sound good to you?” 

This confirmation step has a psychological effect. 

Once the lead agrees, they’ve verbally committed to the next step, and it’ll be a lot harder for them to back out. (See Cialdini’s 2nd law of persuasion: commitment and consistency.)

This is a good cold calling technique to follow because breaking a promise, even to a cold calling stranger, goes against the average person’s moral code.

18. Use tech to power your cold calling strategy

Sales software can dramatically speed up the efficiency and effectiveness of your cold calling efforts.

Here are some examples of tools that make cold calling easier:

Sales intelligence software

Use an AI-powered sales tool like Cognism to find the mobile and direct-dial numbers of decision-makers, research their business, and build targeted lead lists. 

CRM:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, like Salesforce, help track interactions and manage prospect data. You can review the contact and company records to find valuable intel for personalising a call. You can also record the outcome and jot down notes after the call. 

As the Cognism sales team says:

“If it isn’t on Salesforce then it doesn’t exist!”

Here’s one of our best tips for cold calling:

Power dialer:

This tool dials the next number on your contact list after the previous call ends. It also detects busy signals, voicemails, and disconnected numbers. Most integrate with your CRM. 

Conversation analytics software:

A tool like Gong will record and analyse your cold calls, providing insights into how to improve them. 

These B2B technologies enable you to focus more on building relationships and less on administrative duties - which is a major win for any cold caller!

💡You might also be interested in seeing the sales tech stack our team uses!

19. Follow-up to maintain engagement

An excellent tip for cold calling in sales is always to follow up after a call. 

This keeps you top of mind when prospecting, and when you send a personalised email or message recapping the main points of your conversation, it shows that you value their time but also reinforces your commitment to helping them. 

Include any promises you made or additional information you mentioned during the call. Also, include a clear call to action, whether scheduling another call, providing further details, or inviting them to an event. Keeping the tone friendly and professional can help maintain that initial connection.

You can also consider a follow-up voicemail or voice note: 

Customised voice messages and videos are excellent strategies for encouraging prospects to engage. They are particularly effective for prospects you’ve struggled to connect with. Data shows that using voice notes on LinkedIn can lead to a 7x boost in response rates. 

Here’s an example to try: 

“Just wanted to have a quick chat to see if anything has changed since our last discussion.”

“Um, also {laugh} as I am sure you can probably tell, but I have just started using these voice notes, so any feedback on what I am doing here is much appreciated.”

“Thank you {prospect name}.”

💡Check out this guide to voicemail scripts for more!

20. Analyse past calls

Implementing conversation intelligence tools into your cold calling strategy can increase success rates by 39%. 

Tools like Gong analyse your past calls across your team and help you identify what’s working and what isn’t—which messaging converts and which gets you hung up. 

For example, you might find that dropping the “time-saving” benefit results in far more meetings booked than the “cost reduction” benefit. 

These tools can help you refine your script and find the ideal time to make sales calls. 

21. Utilise ChatGPT

ChatGPT can help you make better calls in two significant ways: 

1. Generate cold call scripts:

Tell ChatGPT about your product and target client, then ask it to write a cold call script. Even if the output needs some editing, you have a solid foundation. 

2. Conduct prospect research:

Ask ChatGPT questions like “What are some trends in [industry] right now?” or “What keeps a [job title] in [industry] up at night?” Use the answers to gain context around their job and to write highly personalised openers. 

Check out our article on how to Use ChatGPT for sales for some prompts. 

You can also use ChatGPT to review sales calls, like our cold calling tip above. It’s quick and easy and a great cold calling technique to get feedback on your call. 

Morgan is a massive fan of this tactic:

“You can use ChatGPT to analyse the specifics of a cold call, such as your tone.

Find out more about how ChatGPT can help your outbound technique in the recording of a live workshop below with Morgan and Jed Mahrle, Founder of Practical Prospecting 👇

22. Don’t pitch too early

When making your introductory sales call, keep the conversation going for as long as needed before explaining to potential clients why you’re calling.

For example:

If you ask them how they are and they ask how you are, don’t just jump straight into your pitch - answer their questions genuinely and honestly.

What’s more, don’t pitch to the gatekeeper! 

This is B2B sales 101!

Don’t mention what you’re selling to the gatekeeper. It just gives them more ammunition to turn you away. Save your pitch for the prospect!

Morgan, rightly pointed out that understanding the role of a gatekeeper matters:

“Often the gatekeeper and the executive assistant are confused to mean the same thing. This isn’t the case - if you get through to the assistant you should pitch to them as if it’s the C-Suite. Because they have an idea of that particular C-Suite's priorities.” 

Once you’ve reached your prospect, avoid mentioning your product until you’ve established the pain points or challenges you intend to solve. 
 
This positions you as a problem-solver, not a B2B telemarketer. Demonstrating knowledge about the challenges in your potential customer’s industry also builds your credibility, thus making the lead feel more interested in your pitch. 
 
Here’s how it looks in action:
 
“A lot of B2B eCommerce stores are struggling with data silos and slow legacy systems. It’s causing delays, inefficiencies, and lost business. Is this something you’re seeing?” 
 
If the lead says yes, dig a bit more. Ask an open-ended follow-up question. 
 
Then, once you understand the issue, make your pitch. 
 
The lead will be far more receptive now that they know your offer is related to their real problem.

23. Stay positive

Keeping a positive mindset is crucial—both for your mental well-being and for your job performance.

Cold calling can be a stressful vocation, with SDRs facing a daily grind of difficult conversations and rejected calls.

Counteract this by getting a good amount of exercise—30 minutes each day is the recommended amount. Even if it’s just a quick walk in the morning or at lunch, it will help you release endorphins and clear your mind.

This brings up another key tip for staying positive when cold calling:

Make your daily goal a numerical goal, like 30 calls per day. If you hit it, reward yourself. You’ve succeeded for the day. 

You’re in risky territory once you start tying your mood to the outcome of the calls. “Zero meetings booked! Today was a failure! I’m a disgrace!” 

Do what novelists do with daily word counts. Focus on the output, not the results, and the results will come. 

24. Respect your prospects’ time

If a prospect tells you they’re busy, best to accept it. 

You can ask for a better time to call. 

Sometimes they’ll give you one. 

Sometimes they won’t.

Even if they don’t, at least you’ve proven yourself to be a kind, reasonable person. Maybe when you call back they’ll answer and thank you for being so respectful.

25. Leave a voicemail

Did you know that leaving a voicemail isn’t to get a call back? 

Instead, you should use cold call voicemails to get leads to respond to your cold emails. 

According to Gong’s data, leaving voicemails more than doubles your email reply rate.  

To leave high-quality voicemails, start with the intel you’ve discovered about the lead and keep the voicemail under 30 seconds. 

Also, pitch your email, not your product or service — for example, “I left you an email about how I think we can help you X. Hope to hear from you soon!” 

Oh, and don’t ask for a call back. They won’t anyway. 

26. Sell a trial over an immediate purchase

If you can’t get the prospect to commit to a sales meeting or live demo, consider offering something lower-friction, like a free trial:

“Well, would you be interested in a free trial? It’s a great way to test out the solution without making any long-term commitment.”   

This works best for SaaS brands but, with a little creativity, can be applied across any sector. 

Pro cold calling tip:

If you don’t have a free trial, sell them your lead magnet, a helpful checklist, template, or micro-service that opens their eyes to the value of your actual solution. 

27. Leverage Cognism AI 

Our last and best cold calling tip is to invest in Cognism. Our AI search makes it easy for sales, marketing and RevOps teams to prospect and build lists in minutes. 

All you have to do is describe your ideal lead and click search. Then Cognism will deliver you a prospecting list that contains mobile numbers, direct-dials, emails, and other important intel like technographics and company details, which help you personalise your cold calls.

Try a free demo today, and let Cognism support your most successful cold calling sales techniques!