9 Steps To Write An Engaging cold call scripts with templates

Cold calling is one of the oldest sales techniques out there and has been used by businesses in virtually every industry as an initial step of their sales process. They work on a simple principle. You create a list of potential prospects who’ve never had any contact with your business before, and you call them with your offer. Still, cold calling is far from simple to execute. The truth is it takes a good strategy and a well-planned approach to use cold calling successfully. This is why salespeople have been using cold call scripts to help them strive in any given situation. To help you write a killer cold call script, we’ve put together this guide — 9 steps you need to make to write a great cold call script.

We’ll break it down together:

9 steps to write a great cold call script

Do the preparation

Writing cold call scripts requires a specific preparation phase that incorporates various steps. 

Depending on who you’re calling and what you’re trying to present to them, you’ll be writing different cold call scripts. This is why your preparation phase is crucial.

Find the answers to these questions:

• Who’s your target audience for this cold call?
• What industry are they in?
• What is the primary purpose of the call?

The goal of the call can be:

• Getting a second call
• Scheduling a video call
• Scheduling an in-person meeting

You should go deeper into these questions and identify all the details and information available to you. This especially goes for the prospects themselves.

Study your list

Putting together a list for your cold calls can be something that you personally do. Also, you can simply receive the list from your superior without knowing how it was designed.

Still, I strongly recommend that you study the list and learn about each prospect before you make that call.

Whether you’re using LinkedIn or some other source of information, try learning these things about each prospect:

• Their full name and its correct pronunciation
• Their company information
• Their current job position and what it implies
• Some peculiar detail about them 

If you learn more about the prospect, you’re increasing your chances of doing a better job with the cold call. Also, the person on the other side of the phone will feel more comfortable talking to you.

So, these steps can be considered preparation steps that are essential for you to make before starting to write the script.

Now, let’s move further into the action.

Watch your tone

Now we’ve reached the tricky point in our cold call process. When you’re making your cold call, you want to avoid sounding like a typical salesperson.

But that’s pretty much who you are! So, what can you do?

All you have to do is adjust your tone and voice and talk to your prospects in a more down-to-earth manner.

Let’s specify:

• Use understandable, everyday vocabulary
• Avoid pompous phrases
• Use a friendly tone
• Make sure they understand everything you’re saying

Consider the two examples below:

Example 1: “Hello, there! How are you doing this afternoon? My name is Elisabeth from the DataSecurity company. I’d like to inquire about your current data security system and offer you a chance to improve it immensely, so would you consider giving me a minute of your time?”

Example 2: “Hello, [prospect’s name]! I am Elisabeth from DataSecurity. I hope you are doing great. Would you mind telling me about your current data security system and how happy you are with it? Because we have something interesting to offer, and we thought you might be interested.”

The second example is much more friendly, relaxed, and open to communication. The first one might come across as hostile and too pushy.

So, consider the tone you’d be using and make sure you keep it consistent throughout your entire script. In case you need help with writing a uniform script, take help from some agency or company providing writing services.

Introduce yourself

The opening line of your cold call might and probably will make you or break you. You don’t have much time to win over your prospect. They’ll start losing their patience soon if you don’t make the right move.

The golden rule of cold call scripts is clear:

ALWAYS INTRODUCE YOURSELF.

Nobody wants to talk to a stranger that they have no information about.

So, use the following formula for all your cold calls:

“Hello [prospect’s name], I am [your name], and I work for [your company’s name].”

This is absolutely mandatory if you want your cold calls to lead anywhere. After the initial introduction, you should continue to explain the reason for your phone call.

Once again, plan this step and create a formula similar to the one we’re suggesting:

“My company deals/works with [name something that relates to your company’s field of expertise and would relate to the prospect you’re calling].”

So, whether you’re making calls while sitting in your office or working from your home, you have to sound equally professional and well-prepared.

This way, you’re making it clear that the call is specifically designed to meet the prospect’s needs. Once they see this isn’t just a random cold call, they’ll start listening to what you have to say.

Start conversation with a question

Now it’s time for you to get positive feedback from your prospect. In the beginning, all you want to achieve is to simply get an answer that is not “I don’t have the time right now” or “I’m just not interested.”

So, think of a question that is simple and requires a minimal response from your prospect.

• Would you be interested in hearing some more?
• What [services/products/ software] are you currently using to solve this problem?
• Do you feel there’s room for progress in this [department/ filed/ segment]?

This way, you’re including your prospects in the decision-making process and helping them become an active part of the conversation.

All you need is a positive reply, and you’ll be ready to continue with your intended actions.

Ask more questions

If you’ve successfully included the prospect in your call, it’s time to get them more open in talking about their current position, the situation in the company, or issues they’re facing.

This time avoid asking yes or no questions.

Instead, aim for open-ended questions that will get the prospects talking about themselves:

• Where do you see your sector in 3 years?
• What are your significant issues in this quarter?
• What is the best outcome you can imagine?

Give them a chance to speak about themselves a bit more before you pitch your offer and give them the reason for your calling.

Be straightforward

After you establish some primary connection with your prospect, you need to move to the central part of the call. 

Telling your prospect exactly why you’re calling will have a positive effect on them:

• You’ll show credibility
• You’ll show you’re not trying to scam them
• You’ll show confidence

If you try playing games with them and dragging the conversation further without actually saying what you want, you can end up making them angry and annoyed.

That’s why you need to be open about the reason for your call. Consider the example:

“The reason I’m calling is that we’ve just celebrated our latest victory with [a company that does similar work] for managing to save them $112.000 a year in data security costs. I wanted to share this with you and see if you’d be interested in applying the same system to your company’s situation.”

This is a clear and straightforward reason behind your cold call. The prospect will know precisely where you stand and what your intention is.

This is important since the call needs to be brief and convenient.

So, make sure you tell the prospect why you’re calling and what they can expect from you.

Schedule a meeting

Finally, make sure that you suggest scheduling a follow-up meeting and explain what it implies:

• In-depth conversation
• Additional information
• Detailed rapport
• Finding the best solution mutually

An appointment should be your final goal. So, include it in your script as a crucial moment for you and your prospect.

Be prepared for the outcome

Even when you’ve got a perfect cold call script for yourself and give everything to your cold calls, there’s going to be rejections—a lot of them.

These rejections are all those sentences you don’t want to hear:

• No.
• I’m not interested.
• We don’t need that in our company.

Even though this is a rejection, try asking one more follow-up question that would give you even a small victory from your cold call:

• Would there be another time more suitable for me to call you again?
• Is there someone else in the company that would be interested?
• Is there another issue in your company that we could help you solve?

If you get an answer to any of these questions, you’ll be better prepared for all the future calls, and your cold call wouldn’t be a waste of time.

One more thing: Analyse yourself

Using call analytics, reports,  and call recording features provided by modern outbound calling solutions, you can evaluate the performance of yourself as well as your team members. 

Listening to call recordings of yourself and other agents, you can watch your tone, see how successful you were to answer queries of the prospects, and check your confidence level. 

Also, you can ask your team members to listen to your call recordings and give you constructive feedback. Genuine feedback from your team can help you find real quality gaps in your cold call management and make efforts to fill those gaps and do even better cold calls. 

Final thoughts on cold calls

Cold calls are challenging and complex. It’s almost like playing a video game and progressing from one level to the other until you reach your goal!

Use the tips above to write a great cold call script and make better calls that bring you the results you’re hoping to see.

How can MyOperator help you with cold calls?

With MyOperator’s cloud-based outbound call center, you can set up a remote sales team and convert leads and prospects into customers while working from any place. 

MyOperator out calling solution empowers sales teams to call business prospects and existing customers, all while working from an office or working from home. Calles can be made to build relationships with new prospects and convert them into customers, answer sales and support queries of existing customers, conduct a survey over the phone, or pursue other telemarketing activities.

Here are a few things you can do with the MyOperator outbound call center software solution:

• Manage large call-volume with click-to-call dialer and smart follow-ups.
• Set-up remote sales teams; make business calls from any location, with any device.
• Provide personalized calling experience and boost productivity with CRM integration.
• Manage sales calls on-the-go, right on smartphones with MyOperator mobile application.

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About the Author: Daniela McVicker is a passionate digital marketer. Daniela is interested in everything related to SEO and blogging. She collaborates with Essayguard and other websites where she shares her experience and helps marketers make their names in the online world.