The Only Cold Call Script Resources You Will Ever Need

Summary:

• Tailored cold-calling scripts increase confidence, engagement, and conversion rates—but reps need training and the right tools to sound natural.
• Your scripts should act as guides that help your reps handle different scenarios while allowing them to personalize their delivery.
• Effective scripts focus on solving the audience’s pain points, which is crucial for advancing prospects through the sales funnel.
• Scripts should also improve call efficiency for your reps by helping them stay prepared, maintain focus, and reduce mental fatigue.
• Keep testing and adapting your scripts to fit specific campaigns. This will help ensure ongoing success in your outbound calling campaigns.

Sales call scripts get a bad rap. Nobody wants to sound like a mindless robot as they read through pre-prepared text.

Creating outbound calling scripts tailored to your team’s specific needs gets you better results. Your reps will grow more confident in their outbound sales outreach, more prospects will engage with your calls, and conversion rates will improve.

But creating a cold call script isn’t enough. You also have to give your reps the training and tools for effective outbound calls. This helps them get comfortable with the script so they can speak it on the phone to prospects in a way that sounds organic and natural.

That’s why we collected these cold calling script resources. Below, you’ll learn how to create the best script possible and discover how to effectively use it during outbound calls without sounding like a robot.

As a bonus, we scoured the sales community to find the most useful cold calling script resources, including some of the ones our own sales team uses at PhoneBurner. By the time you get to the end of this post, you’ll have everything you need to level up your efforts.

Disclaimer: “Cold calling” is a popular term, but we do not recommend reaching out to prospects who haven’t opted in to receive your communications. To get the best results, focus your efforts on prospects who have indicated that they’re interested in speaking with you—this will help improve your answer and conversion rates while avoiding potential spam flags and regulatory penalties.

Learn more: PhoneBurner’s commitment to Responsible Communications™

What Is a Sales Script?

A sales calling script is any guide your team refers to during their cold calls. The best sales scripts are:

• Detailed: they provide the exact language to use when speaking to different segments of prospects.
• Specific: based on the distinct challenges and pain points of different prospects.

This is especially important when considering new team members who may need extra support. In these situations, your sales calls scripts will be helpful guides that move them toward success.

At the same time, the scripts can be helpful memory boosters for your established sales reps to ensure they hit the necessary talking points during their discussions and handle potential objections with the proper responses. Even if they know the product inside and out, the script serves as a tool to ensure they don’t miss anything important and make the most of every opportunity.

Always remember that your sales calling script is not a dictator. Encourage your reps to put their own flair and flavor into it as they get more comfortable with what’s on it. That will keep them from becoming automatons in their delivery.

Be sure to download our eBook Outbound Sales: 10 Strategies to Close More Deals, for even more strategies like this that will help your reps avoid robotic cold calls.

Why Create a Sales Script?

A sales script is more than just words—it's a vital tool for helping your team achieve their goals. Here’s why having a well-crafted script is essential:

Increase Quality Conversations

Let’s start with the obvious. A good script opens the door to quality conversations so that your team can unlock more opportunities and drive more revenue.

Avoid Awkward Moments

A sales script prevents those uncomfortable silences where reps don't know what to say. It guides them through the conversation and clearly outlines the next steps for the prospect.

Stay Prepared

A good script anticipates different responses, including objections, ensuring reps always have a reply ready. It helps them present tailored solutions without hesitation.

Boost Confidence

Being prepared boosts confidence. A thorough script equips your team to handle unexpected questions, making them more confident with each call.

Maintain Focus

Scripts keep calls focused on the goal, whether it’s qualifying a lead, booking a demo, or closing a deal. They help your team stay on track and present your offering as the solution to the prospect’s needs.

Save Time

Scripts streamline calls by reducing distractions, making your team more efficient and focused on moving prospects through the sales cycle.

Reduce Mental Fatigue

Dialing dozens of prospects daily can cause mental fatigue. A script eliminates the need to constantly think of new ways to present the same information, allowing reps to personalize the message without losing focus.

How to Write a Sales Calling Script

Now that you understand the ins and outs of a cold calling script, let's dive into the specific tactics and best practices to keep in mind as you create your script.

Define the Reason for Your Cold Call

Before drafting your sales script, clarify the purpose of your call. Remember, it's not about making a sale immediately. Your goal is to qualify the prospect and move them to the next stage of your sales funnel. Keep this in mind as you write your script.

Understand Your Target Audience

Identify your audience's pain points and craft your script to show how your solution addresses these needs. If you're not solving a problem they care about, you won't move forward in the sales process.

Using the right CRM to track key prospect information can really help with this. Learn about PhoneBurner’s built-in CRM features or explore the 200+ integrations that work with our dialing platform.

Research/Know the Prospect

When it isn’t scalable to do individualized research, segment your audience so that you know the goals and pain points of the person you’re speaking with. For the highest value and potential calls, research the prospect or notes before calling. Review their social media, company website, and relevant details to personalize your approach.

Introduce Yourself

Start your script by clearly stating your name and company. Speak slowly enough to ensure the prospect understands without needing a repeat.

Get Permission

“Permission based” approaches, in which you request permission to pitch are both popular and effective. It sounds something like this, “Hey Sally, I know you weren’t expecting my call this Friday morning, but can I have 15 seconds to share why I’m calling you today?”

State the Benefit

Immediately explain why you're calling by saying, "I’m calling because," and then mention the benefit you offer. A targeted list, clear pain points, and compelling benefits pave the way for a productive conversation. For example:

"We help restaurants increase takeout orders by 23% in 3 months, and I’d like to ask you a couple of questions to see if our platform could help your business grow."

Ask Qualifying Questions

To ensure you're talking to the right people, follow your introduction with questions that qualify their interest or need. This could be as direct as, "Are you doing any takeout orders today?" or a softer approach like, "Do you have a few minutes to see if our program might fit your needs?"

One technique that can help your questions move the conversation in a productive direction is called the yes ladder. By starting with simple questions that encourage the prospect to say yes, you can lead them towards saying yes to questions that align directly with your goals—like booking demos or making purchases.

Know Your CTA

Once you've qualified the prospect, be clear about the next step. Whether it’s booking a demo, scheduling a meeting, or sending a contract, your script should clearly state the call to action.

Plan for Objections

Prepare for objections by including responses that keep the conversation going. For example, if a prospect says they're too busy, you might respond with, "You're not looking to grow your takeout business right now?" Anticipating objections helps keep the door open for future engagement.

Get Past the Gatekeeper

Gatekeepers are doing their job, not blocking you out of spite. Use your research to build rapport with them, which can make it easier to reach the decision-maker. Remember: you’ll go further when you can get gatekeepers on your side.

Prepare for Voicemail

Expect to leave voicemails and have a solid voicemail script ready. You can even pre-record messages for quick delivery, enhancing your chances of a callback. Consider following up with an email or text to reinforce your message. Phoneburner’s workflow automations can make this incredibly easy.

A Free Script Template For Your Outbound Sales Calls

To help start you on the path to creating the best outbound calling script possible, we wanted to share a free template here. If this seems simple, it’s by design.

Remember, your reps don’t have long to grab a prospect’s interest. You want to get down to business as quickly as possible. Try starting like this:

Benefit Approach

Hello [lead's name]. This is [your name] with [your business].

I am calling because we help [kind of person/business you are targeting] to [achieve specific benefit/fix specific problem or pain point].

[Qualifying question or permission to ask qualifying questions to assess fit].

Pain Point Approach

Hello [lead's name]. This is [your name] with [your business].

A lot of [kind of person/business your are targeting] that I speak with are facing one of two challenges. Either they [one common struggle] or [other common struggle]. Does this resonate with what you’re experiencing at [business name]?

[Qualifying question or permission to ask qualifying questions to assess fit].

Tweaking the Template to Match Your Dialing Campaigns

Scripts are meant to be tweaked and adapted for particular campaigns, and to learn what works for a given list or situation. Plus, you’ll need to put in specifics around your own industry and product offerings.

You should test different concepts to see what works. And don’t be afraid to infuse some of your own flair, soul, and style into the script template.

Take this script for example, which has worked well for our own sales team at PhoneBurner. We use this when targeting a specific niche in which the contacts may or may not have heard of us before.

By design, the script immediately aims for a demo. While atypical, it frequently grabs interest in contacts who don't recall hearing of us and prompts a follow-up question where they ask us what we do.

Objective: To schedule a demo

Me: Hey, this is [NAME] with PhoneBurner.

We haven't spoken before... The reason for my call is that I lead the outbound business development efforts at PhoneBurner, and I am reaching out to coordinate an introduction meeting at some point in the coming weeks.

Would you be open to meeting next ____ or _____?

[SILENCE]

Prospect: What is PhoneBurner?

Me: We’re a power dialing solution that can boost team productivity by 4x without the awkward beep, pause, and delay that you get with traditional auto dialers. We also help protect your numbers from showing up as spam so more calls result in live conversations. Do you have a direct sales team or are you selling primarily through channel partners?

We are working with other [industry] companies like [company name] helping them move from door-knocking to dials.

Their team was able to create a brand-new phone sales process from scratch and generated [result] in just one week on our platform.

Does this sound like something you'd be open to learning more about in the next week or two?

[SILENCE]

Ok, how does your calendar look over the next week? Are you more of a morning person or an afternoon person?

30 Free Cold Calling Script Templates and Resources

You’ve seen the cold calling script templates we use at PhoneBurner, but we know variety is the spice of life. That’s why our team rounded up 30 resources to further help you create the best cold calling script possible for your team.

Outbound Sales: 10 Strategies to Close More Deals

Created by our team at PhoneBurner, this eBook brings together insights, strategies, tactics, and advice from five cold-calling experts:

• Greg Woodward, Founder and CEO of Woodward Strategies (Greg also does the sales training for us at PhoneBurner)
• Haylee Taylor, Senior Associate at ClozeLoop
• Dan Bigelow, CEO at Sandler Training Utah
• Jason Bay, Chief Prospecting Officer at Blissful Prospecting
• Josh Braun, Founder of Josh Braun Sales Training

The guide is filled with real-world examples from their careers spent helping sales teams master cold calling and outbound, including free cold calling script templates you can use. You’ll also learn the psychology behind outbound and how it impacts cold calling, what openers invite prospects to connect with your reps, and how to handle objections to keep prospects talking.

The Only Cold-Calling Script You’ll Ever Need

This is a quick read but it gives you the inside scoop on the basic structure of a cold-calling script. Sales leader Kent Holland shares some tips on how to keep the conversation fluid—and how to avoid getting hung up on.

The Best Cold Call Script Ever [Template]

HubSpot delivers a cold-calling script template and several variations designed for different situations. You’ll also find a free download of 10 sales call templates for outreach, and a video about cold-calling techniques that really work.

Fix Your Sales Script to Grow Revenue

If you think your sales script needs some work, Michael Pedone, CEO/FOUNDER of SalesBuzz.com, an online sales training company has your back! This article walks you through what to say, when to say it, qualifying questions, handling sales objections, and more.

The Ultimate Cold Calling Script for B2B Sales

You can get your hands on the script that Cognism's SDRs used to go from $0 to $4 million in ARR and 0 to 300+ customers in under 2 years. The accompanying training video breaks down how to tweak the script and increase your likelihood of success.

The Ultimate Guide to Cold Calling: Frameworks, Scripts, Tools, and Resources to Make You a Cold-Calling Pro (Part I)

This post gives you the 3 major reasons that salespeople fail at cold calling, tips to help you prepare for a cold call, scripts to use, and more. Sales pros will love the science-based hack that can help you stay motivated.

The Ultimate Guide to Cold Calling: Frameworks, Scripts, Tools, and Resources to Make You a Cold-Calling Pro (Part II)

Part 2 of Pouyan-Salehi’s ultimate guide has scripts and frameworks the author sourced from various places, magic words and phrases for cold calling, and how to scientifically test scripts. There’s even a section on how to get “in the zone” before your next sales call.

The Complete Cold-Calling Guide for SDRs

If you want to level up your cold-calling skills, you’ll love this guide. Anja Jeftovic shares common cold-calling mistakes, interesting statistics about cold calling, and the best time to make a cold call. You’ll also find proven cold-calling techniques that SDRs can use to make more effective cold calls.

Cold-Calling Techniques: 12 Tips to Achieve Better Outcomes

Josh Slone lays out 12 cold-calling techniques, 10 sales statistics, and a 4-step framework for effective cold calls. This blog post is packed with tips you can use to get prepared for your next cold call.

25 Cold-Calling Script Templates and Cold-Calling Tips

If you’re looking for inspiration to develop a winning call script, Pipedrive has you covered. In this post, you will find a boatload of cold-calling scripts. There are scripts for B2B, SaaS, and real estate. Plus, you can get a script to help bypass gatekeepers and even tips to help with your account-based marketing efforts.

25 Expert Cold Calling Tips You Can Use to Get Meetings With Anyone

At the time of this writing, 231,836 people have checked out Jenny Keohane's epic blog post so far and it’s not hard to see why. She includes tips on how to turn cold calls into booked meetings, research-backed cold-calling tips, and advice on preparation and prospecting.

You can also score your own pre-call research checklist, sales call scripts, and a spreadsheet you can use to calculate how many cold calls you need to hit your monthly quota.

How to Cold Call: 5-Step B2B Cold-Calling Technique

Sales pro Derek Jankowski delivers the goods in this blog post. You’ll find an example of his company’s cold-calling process along with cold call openers and cold-calling scripts.

Derek also teaches a sales technique called question stacking you can use while talking with prospects to get the information you need to set an appointment.

How to Create Your Own Sales Cold-Calling Scripts

Mailshake co-founder Sujan Patel tapped experienced sales leaders to find out what goes into a successful sales script. He also shares cold-calling tips, best practices for creating your cold-calling script, and a couple of ways to redirect common sales objections.

There’s plenty of valuable information here that will help you develop your own unique sales script.

Cold Calling 101: 13 Steps to Cold Calls That Work! [Video]

In this video, Marc Wayshak of Sales Insights Lab — also the author of 25 Tips to Crush Your Sales Goal! — breaks down how to make a sales call that closes the deal. Wayshak has the proof to back up his advice. He also tells salespeople what not to do saying, “The data shows that when salespeople talk about themselves or their own companies, they do significantly worse with prospects.”

Heating Up the Hotline: A Guide to Cold Calling (+Templates)

George Rowlands tapped his customer success team to bring you cold-calling best practices, a winning cold-call structure, and several cold-calling scripts. In this blog post, you’ll find some tips and tricks for maximizing your chances of success like how to do pre-call research. As a bonus, you can also download NetHunt's “Sizzling-Hot Guide to Cold Sales Emails.”

How to Write a Cold Call Script (Step-By-Step)

YouTuber Jordan Platten shares some of the techniques he uses when creating scripts for outbound calls. Find out how he used this approach to build a 7-figure agency from the ground up.

10 Best Cold-Calling Scripts for 10 Crucial Situations

SalesIntel has scripts for outreach, discovery, asking for introductions, following up, and more. You’ll want to personalize these scripts but you will save some time since you won’t have to start from scratch.

With these templates in your arsenal, it's pretty hard to go wrong.

Sales Call Scripts – Cold Call Like a Pro [FREE TEMPLATE]

Melissa Williams’ doozy of a blog post has a template you can grab plus call script do’s and don'ts, a sample sales call script outline, and a 3-part formula you can bake into your sales call scripts to overcome prospects' objections.

She also shares helpful insights like the right time to call based on an analysis of over 25,000 calls. You’ll be glad you read this one.

15 On Point Cold Calling Scripts for Your Sales Squad

If you want to improve your sales performance, block out 24 minutes to read Kashyap Trivedi’s article on cold calling. In addition to giving you 15 cold-calling scripts, Kashyap covers the essential elements of a cold-call script and different use-cases for the various scripts.

The Ultimate Guide to Cold Calling

This cold-calling guide is value-packed. The Sell To Win Team delivers cold-calling scripts and tips from the experts. Plus you’ll find popular qualifying methods sales reps can use during cold calls, example questions to ask on sales calls, the 4 pillars of prequalifying, and red flags to avoid.

Cold Calling Is Alive! How to Cold Call, Connect, Convert, & Crush on the Phone

Anastasiia Holovnenko's guide on the CIENCE blog answers all of your cold-calling questions. There's tons of good stuff in this resource from the components of a good cold-calling script to cold-calling scripts that work.

If you’re looking to improve your sales conversations, the cold-calling tips from sales pros included here will be invaluable. Holovnenko also covers the 12 principles of outbound and how to get phone numbers for cold calling.

Two Cold-Calling Scripts to Help Your Team Schedule More Meetings

Chorus.ai analyzed more than 1 million cold calls and now they’re presenting their findings along with some tips and cold-calling scripts you can use. I have a feeling that once you start reading you’ll see some things that interest you.

In addition to the scripts and tips, you’ll find solid advice on the fundamentals of cold calling and information you can use to overcome obstacles and objections.

Cold Calling with Cognism

Cognism is a prospecting platform that helps companies narrow down potential prospects to find the ones they’re most likely to connect with—and they also have a YouTube channel where they share tips on how to reach out to those prospects over the phone. Check out their tips on virtually every part of the process.

Perfect Your Sales Script: How to Pen Winning Cold-Calling Scripts

According to Erika Granath, “Salespeople need a new type of sales scripts and to completely change their way of using them.” Granath explores 3 key strategies you can use to improve the effectiveness of your sales script.

You’ll want to pay close attention because out of every 100 calls, Vainu’s salespeople book 8.5 meetings on average. Since every third call is usually answered, their hit rate from conversations to booked meetings is just over 25%. And when you’re following a cold-call script that works, the sky’s the limit.

Building a Six-Figure Cold Call Script

If you want to know what to do — and what not to do — when writing your cold-call script, check this article out.

Joseph Alzein shares what he learned making thousands of cold calls to secure around $28K of MRR in 3 months. He also talks about how his company built their 6-figure cold-call script. You’ll see what Alzein calls, “the same structure that has my cold-call closing rate at 6.3% (according to our CRM) over the past 6 months.”

Gatekeeper Script: Turn Gatekeepers Into Advocates Instantly

Entrepreneur and corporate strategist Greg Woodward, Founder of Woodward Strategies, has expertise in outbound that’s favored by many of the fastest growing companies and largest private equity firms, has a solution. In fact, he works directly with our own sales team here at PhoneBurner.

In this post, he discusses how to eliminate the struggle between sales reps and executive assistants. Further, he shares a free cold calling script that’s targeted specifically at gatekeepers. If used right, it can turn them into fierce advocates.

Analyzing Grant Cardone’s Cold Call Script, Word for Word

After watching Grant Cardone closing clients over the phone, Leon Shi decided to deconstruct one of Heath Powell’s sales calls. Powell is the Sales & Marketing Manager at Cardone Training Technologies. Leon transcribed the call and breaks down Powell’s sales approach in this Medium article.

Cold Calling: Tips and Scripts from the #1 Sales Training Expert

Speaking of Grant Cardone — because, as he says, “You have to have a script,” —Cardone wrote a blog post tackling everything cold calling related. You’ll learn about creating your cold-call script, the benefits to cold calling, and the things you need to do before calling.

There are actual live sales call sales training videos you can watch to learn even more about successful cold calling.

12 Sales Call Scripts for Any Situation – Take Your Pick

Content Marketing Specialist Mary Clare Novak packs a lot of value into one blog post. She has compiled 12 sales-call script examples you can use in different scenarios. Novak’s scripts cover everything from leaving a voicemail to trying to generate referrals.

A Sales Voicemail Script That Crushes It

You need a specialized cold call script for when your calls go to a prospect’s voicemails. Leaving a well-planned, detailed voicemail can score your reps a callback, and it won’t diminish your efforts for future calls to the same prospect.

Use this free voicemail script template to ensure you’re captivating your prospects so they listen to your entire voicemail, and then follow through on your CTA with a callback or note.

Create the Best Cold Calling & Sales Calls Scripts Possible

When your team makes a sales call, it’s crucial that they go into that call armed with every advantage possible. The right outbound calling script is an often overlooked tool, but it’s a critically important one.

Spend time together as a team outlining the best sales scripts you can, empower senior reps to create their own scripts, and draw inspiration from sales script examples in this blog post to refine yours. That way, when your prospect throws an objection at your reps, tries to push them off the phone, or attempts to shut down the conversation before it begins, they’ll be ready.

And remember: the right technology is also vital for helping your team deliver their calling scripts successfully. Start a free trial of PhoneBurner here to see how our power dialer can help you reach up to 4x as many prospects for the kinds of one-to-one conversations that help you hit your targets and achieve your sales goals.

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