It can be nerve-wracking to fire off a sales call to someone who isn’t expecting it.

If you’re not prepared for how they’ll respond, it’ll reflect in your stagnant sales pipeline and you’ll end up making more discovery calls than necessary.

When you nail your sales script and distribute a winner to your sales reps, you’re one step closer to generating new leads and increasing revenue.

Let’s take a look at the non-negotiables of an effective cold calling script.

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What Makes Up an Effective Cold Calling Script

1. Building rapport

The best salespeople in the SaaS world build rapport before the first 20% of the call. Therefore, finding common ground and understanding who you’re speaking with is far more important at this stage than diving deep into your sales plan.

Your goal here is to become familiar to the prospect and not hide your intentions.

By using your name, they have something to call you. By using the company you work for, you build credibility. By asking questions, you create a conversation.

For example, when Mary from SaaS Superstars LLC asks how long it takes to file your expenses, it’s a lot friendlier than an unnamed caller asking if you want to buy their product.

2. Address commonalities

When you’ve built a buyer persona and researched your prospect online, you know at least something about them.

By addressing commonalities, you have a mutual topic to discuss before diving into sales mode.

This both helps build rapport and creates a natural conversation.

Preparing for this phase takes the shape of three key factors:

• Identifying pain points that address your prospect’s needs.
• Considering options they’ve taken to address these pain points.
• Creating a value proposition that explains how your SaaS solves those problems.

Talk about how their life will be better in the future if their pain point could go away.

What we’re doing here is personalizing the experience and creating a desired future state.

3. Ask open-ended questions

To ensure the conversation remains two-way, make sure you ask open-ended questions. 

Asking questions that can be a yes or no will fail to uncover specific needs you can help with.

Once you’ve clarified your prospect’s pain points, try asking them what will happen if they don’t solve that problem? 

What you’re doing here is agitating the pain. When you remind someone there is a problem—and there doesn’t have to be—you can start to introduce how your product solves that issue.

Try out these open-ended questions on your next cold call:

• How highly does [PROBLEM] rank on your priority slide?
• How long has this been happening? How often does this happen?
• If you could wave a magic wand and solve anything when it comes to [PAIN AREA] in your day-to-day, what would it be?

When something isn’t clear, try these one liners to gain clarity so you’re best informed:

• Can you provide an example?
• What is the result of that problem?
• What effect does that have on the wider business?

4. Social proof

Social proof — be it through referrals, testimonials, or case studies from your site — serves as a powerful catalyst for establishing trust and credibility.

It isn't about narrating a detailed success story. Sometimes, a simple mention of a satisfied client in a related industry or with a comparable company size can be incredibly persuasive.

Back social proof with data, and you have a winner.

Utilize this straightforward template to craft a compelling narrative:

“We helped a [COMPANY IN A SIMILAR INDUSTRY] to overcome [SPECIFIC CHALLENGE] last year, leading to [RESULTS AND DATA].”

Creating the Best Cold Calling Script Templates

When you develop cold calling script templates, you benefit in several ways:

• Clear structure and flow of conversation
• Aware of possible answers and how to respond
• All staff are talking about a consistent message
• Thorough process you can test and apply changes to
• Craft a successful lead generation machine and duplicate

Ready to create your own effective cold calling scripts for your sales team?

Here are five tips to get you started:

1. Focus on the customer’s pain, not your product
2. Conduct thorough research into your buyer persona
3. Get input from senior salespeople and marketing teams
4. Aim for a baseline template you can tweak as you learn
5. Create a value proposition that demonstrates you know the customer’s pain better than they do

No cold calling script template is perfect. It’s important to embrace on-the-fly and even on-the-call learning. 

Finding your “best yet” template may take some time. 

Let’s look at some examples of successful cold calling script templates from some of the biggest companies.

5 top examples of successful cold calling script templates

1. Pclub 

Here is Trent Dressel’s example using his Intro > Reason > Qualify > Ask process.

Cold caller: Hey this is first name from company name. How are you?

‍Prospect: Who is this?

Cold caller: The reason I'm calling you specifically is because you lead the HR vision & strategy role assumption at company name. I work with other HR leaders who are interested in programs to improve retention and stay connected to their employees through disruption value outcome.

Cold caller: How do those priorities resonate with what your team is focused on today? Broad leading question playing into your solution being relevant to them.

Prospect: Yes we have something in place today.

Cold caller: I figured you did. We help other companies in your space to close employee experience gaps and drive more business impact through helping you take action. Succinct value prop and outcomes.

Cold caller: Being that you value programs like these today, are you interested in setting up a brief intro call to discuss how we could deliver incremental value to your efforts today? By the end of the call you will either feel all the more confident in your existing partner today or feel confident our team could be of additional value? 

Prospect: Objection or yes.

Want to see this sales cold call script in action?

👉 Download the exact cold calling system Trent used to generate $300,000 in income by age 26

2. Sales Hacker/Blissful Prospecting

Jason Bay, Chief Prospecting Officer at Blissful Prospecting, introduced his 3-part outbound framework on the Sales Hacker podcast.

1. Identify: Think about how you segment the prospect’s you’re reaching out to. It needs to be deeper than you help companies that sell software. That’s not specific enough. Figure out what makes talking about your product or service relevant for them.

“Better identification and more segmentation so that you can do volume at scale based on situations that you see your target market in.”

2. Engage: Move from me-centric messaging to you-centric messaging. Don’t do your sales pitch there. Start the cold call with their world first.

“If you don’t fundamentally understand when you’re talking to a VP or C-level what they’re working on, it doesn’t matter how many times you reach out to someone or how cool the video is that you send them. You need to demonstrate business acumen.”

3. Create: Take a conversation and create an opportunity out of that.

Only when you’ve segmented and engaged are you ready to qualify that prospect as a genuine lead or not. 

3. JPM Partners

This approach focuses on providing a “one or the other” route to decrease the chance of saying no.

Hi, this is Jess from the Virtual Sales Academy. How are you?

We're working on some solutions to help you recruit and train a new generation of salespeople. Is that something you'd like to hear more about?

‍(If ‘yes.’)

There are two ways companies work with us. We can either help them find salespeople for a percentage of the base salary, or help them train new salespeople with our online, on-demand, virtual sales training programs that teach them how to take prospects from curious to client. Which one would you want to hear most about?

(They choose one or the other.)

Awesome. Can I ask you a few questions first?

(Ask them qualifying questions so I know what to present.)

I'll tell you a bit more and then, if it makes sense, we'll set up an appointment before we get off our call today to go over it in more detail. Sound good?

4. Zendesk

Zendesk has an example of the “perfect fit” cold calling script:

Hi, [PROSPECT’S NAME]. I’m [YOUR NAME], from [COMPANY].

I’m calling you because we do a great job at solving [PROBLEM]. Since [PROSPECT’S COMPANY] does [INDUSTRY], I imagine you might be looking for a solution.

‍Can I have a few minutes of your time so I can break down successes we’ve had with companies similar to yours in the past?

5. Ringover

Here’s an example that includes possible outcomes that don’t go as straight-forward as the Zendesk script:

Hello Mrs./Mr. [name] How are you doing? (Allow the caller to answer.) I'm [your name] from [company], I got your contact information from [white paper download, trade show, demo request, etc]. I'm calling because I understand you have [issue/recent event/liability/LinkedIn news]. Would you have 5 minutes to discuss it?

If the prospect is not available, schedule a meeting.

If the prospect agrees, follow up with:

As I said, I saw that [issue or important change for the prospect]. On the other hand, [your prospect's competitor] has [...], so I wonder if you [...].

During this phase, ask your prospect questions to encourage him to talk. Take note of the valuable information.

Are there any other points you would like to discuss?

If so, answer the prospect's questions.

If not, move on to the conclusion phase.

I will send you an email summarizing all the points discussed. I'll add in some key figures and information so you can discuss with your colleagues.

In the same email, you'll also find a link to schedule a demo, during which I'll present the service in detail.

May I ask for your email address?

The client replies.

That's great! Thank you for a great conversation. I'll talk to you soon. Until then, have a great day.

Fed up of customers not taking action?

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Cold Calling Tips: Perfecting the Sales Call with Your New Script

The ultimate strategy for successful cold calling is to plan ahead and for every eventuality.

In some cases, you might not get to the right person straight away.

Get past the gatekeeper

One of the hardest elements of cold calling is getting past gatekeepers to the decision-maker. 

The ideal scenario is you’re directly selling to C-level. In reality, there’s a process to get to the decision maker.

Apply the same basic principle at the beginning of your call: introduce yourself with your name and the company name. This immediately makes the call less cold.

What you’re not going to do here is try and sell to the gatekeeper. The goal shifts to booking some time or a call back with your target.

When you treat the gatekeeper as a resource, not an obstacle, you build a rapport. When you make friends with the gatekeeper, they’re more likely to pass on your message.

Chrissy Allen, an account exec at Hubspot, agrees with this:

“If it's a receptionist or an assistant, they hold so much power in what the decision-maker's day-to-day looks like—so lean into that. If they aren't in a rush to get off the phone, take some time to ask how their day is going and get to know them."

Throughout this call, remain polite and confident. When you mention your target, use their first name only. This gives the impression that you know who they are and that they might know you.

Don’t skip your follow-up calls

The difference between successful cold calling and one-off failed attempts is the follow-up. Did you know that 95% of converted leads take up to six calls?

Without a follow-up call, the gatekeeper might simply forget and you fall into the voicemail black hole. A simple and concise follow-up call restating your proposal could be the key to booking your discovery call.

Secure a discovery call

The goal of your first interaction must be to build a rapport and generate interest.

So, rather than trying to shoehorn everything into the first call, aim to book a discovery call at the prospect’s earliest convenience.

When there is genuine interest, or at least agreement to hear more, ask for your prospect’s email address and send an invitation while you’re on the phone with them.

Make sure they receive the invite and it doesn’t get stuck in their spam. Wait for them to accept the invite so it’s done and 100% in their calendar.

Conducting voicemails and callbacks

Leaving an impactful voicemail is the difference between getting a callback and never hearing from your prospect again.

Here’s how to construct a good voicemail:

• Announce who you are and where you’re calling from
• State that you understand they have a pain point
• Mention you’ve helped similar companies overcome that
• Touch on the future state when that problem goes away
• Leave your phone number and email address

When you receive a call back, make sure you’re prepared with everything you need to help.

Measuring and Refining Your Cold Calling Strategies

The same cold call script won’t last forever. Times change, demand changes, and you need to adapt your approach when necessary. It all starts with testing.

1. Testing

Testing different scripts for the same product means you have several possible outcomes when sales teams are making cold calls:

• Rejection
• Maybe
• Not now
• Book a call
• Clear interest

If you’re running one script with the “make a choice” template and another with the direct, personalized template, you can track which is performing better.

If there is a clear difference to a specific audience, start using the higher-performing script more often. Likewise, if there’s a certain moment in your script that works more often than not, try embedding that into other scripts.

The more variables you have, the more you can test and improve your sales process.

To practice, take inspiration from our “perfect 5-minute sale script” below and make it yours.

2. Delivery

Even the best sales cold call script can be flawed by poor delivery.

Here are some of the more important things to consider when delivering a script:

• Patience: Letting the prospect talk or think about a decision is fine. As long as you’re together on a call, let them have that time.
• Consistency: Throughout your call, stick to their pain points and your value proposition. Don’t skip ahead to products or wander off script.
• Flexibility: know when it’s okay to chat about basketball or the weather or if you can help with a minor problem the prospect is having.
• Active listening: show you’re listening with approvals and repeating important information. 
• Timing: finding the right time to move from rapport to value proposition is vital. Too soon and you risk losing the prospect. Too late and you’re just having a chat.

Over time, you’ll find a sweet spot for when to do all these things. As you learn, create a document you can share with your colleagues so everybody knows what works.

In our research, we identified the exact words you can add to your script to help you win more competitive SaaS deals. Pair these with proper delivery techniques.

3. Timing

When new customers onboards to your product, ask them what made them take the discovery call in the first place. The response can contain a treasure chest of information to be shared with your marketing, customer success, and product teams.

If you’re an SDR or Sales Manager, use this data to refine further scripts and stay ahead of trends that may be impacting your prospects.

Utilizing LinkedIn to Diversify Your Outbound Sales Approach

Like your SaaS cold call sales template, create a template for your LinkedIn outreach:

• Introduce who you are and your company
• Mention the pain points you know they’re dealing with
• Question what life would be like if that pain went away
• Use social proof to show your credibility and trustworthiness
• Ask if they’d like to explore solving their problem

If you’re not subscribed to LinkedIn Sales Navigator or Premium but have an email database, you can apply the same process when conducting cold email outreach.

Don’t have your own templates but itching to get started?

👉 Get the exact word-for-word cold email template I’ve used 100,000 times

Upskill Your SaaS Cold Call Scripts With In-Depth Sales Training

Whether you’re a first-time seller or a President’s Club member, keeping your sales scripts updated to meet the pain points of your prospects is essential.

Selling SaaS doesn’t need to be difficult.

With the right script and delivery, and by running tests against your scripts, your sales team can feel more confident about hitting their quotas.

Ready to start closing more deals?

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