What should a cold sales call script include?
Four parts, in this order: an opener that owns the interruption, the reason you called this person, one question, and a small ask for a meeting. Each part has call research behind it. All of it comes from companies that sell call software or sales training, so read it as direction, not proof.
| Part | What it does | What the research found |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Opener | Says who you are and admits it's a cold call | In Gong's 2018 post on its recorded cold calls, opening by asking whether it's a bad time made a booked meeting 40% less likely. Our post on the permission opener and Gong's 300M-call data compares the openers that scored best. |
| 2. Reason | Ties something you saw about them to a problem they have | The same Gong post says stating the reason for your call raises the success rate 2.1 times. In 30MPC's guide to 300M+ Gong calls (15 April 2026), pitches that described the prospect's problem turned 16 of every 100 past-the-opener conversations into meetings, against 12 for social proof and 5.5 for buzzwords. |
| 3. Question | Checks they own the problem | Gong's 2018 post says a cold call is for selling the meeting, not for discovery, and found a higher talk-to-listen ratio on successful cold calls than on unsuccessful ones. |
| 4. Ask | A short meeting, booked before you hang up | Gong's post recommends closing with "Do you have your calendar handy?" and found winning cold calls spend more time on next steps. |
Plan for a conversation, not a speech. Gong's cold calling page says successful cold calls average 5 minutes 50 seconds and unsuccessful ones 3 minutes 14 seconds, without giving a sample or period. 30MPC's guide puts the median successful call at 4.8 minutes, which it says is typically enough to get through at least two objections. Three limits: Gong's post was first published on 3 May 2018 (last modified 4 March 2026) and drew on a database that held over 100,000 cold calls at the time (its opener analysis cites 90,380); it links success to booking a meeting without a fuller definition; and 30MPC's guide gives no time period for its calls.
What does a full cold call script sound like?
Here is the whole call for a sample founder, Priya Shah of Acme (a made-up company selling invoice-reminder software), calling Sam Lee, the owner of Northwind Ltd, a sample agency. Swap the brackets for your own product and trigger. The wording is ours.
How to adapt each line:
- Say your full name and company. Gong's 2018 post recommends both up front, so the prospect doesn't have to ask who is calling.
- Use a reason they can check. A job ad, a launch, a funding round or a post they wrote. One sentence, then the problem it points to.
- Ask one question only. Its job is to confirm you have the right person. Keep the rest for the meeting, where our discovery call questions for founders take over.
- Pitch the problem, not the product. In 30MPC's figures, problem language booked about three times as many meetings as buzzwords (16 against 5.5 per 100 conversations).
- Book it while they're on the line. Send the invite from a booking page that checks your connected calendars before you hang up.
How do you get past the gatekeeper?
Ask for the person by full name, give the receptionist the same one-line reason, and ask for help if they won't put you through. In 30MPC's guide to Gong data, reaching a gatekeeper instead of the prospect cut the chance of booking by 39%. The guide says top reps prioritise direct lines over company switchboards, and it suggests dialling direct lines and calling off-hours where possible.
Don't pretend Sam is expecting you. Beyond being a bad start, the FTC's exemption for business-to-business calls in 16 CFR 310.6(b)(7) still leaves in place the rule's bans on misrepresenting material information and on false or misleading statements. This isn't legal advice.
What should you say in a cold call voicemail?
Leave a short voicemail on the first one or two attempts, then stop leaving them. 30MPC's guide to Gong data shows the trade-off:
| Measure (30MPC guide) | Without a voicemail | After a voicemail |
|---|---|---|
| Connect rate on later calls to that prospect | 7.18% | 5.17% (28% lower) |
| Email reply rate | 2.73% | 5.87% |
A worked example on those rates, for 100 prospects you will call once more and email: about 7 answered calls without a voicemail (100 × 7.18%) against about 5 with one (100 × 5.17%), and about 3 email replies without (100 × 2.73%) against about 6 with (100 × 5.87%). In our view, two fewer answered calls for three more replies is a fair trade once or twice per prospect. The guide recommends one or two voicemails per prospect, then switching to a different phone number and keeping them in your email sequence. It gives no period or sample size for these figures.
Leave it in your own voice. A prerecorded or AI-generated message is a separate legal question; our guide to what cold calling is and the US rules that apply covers the consent rules for those calls.
What do you say when a prospect says not interested?
Agree, ask one easy question about why, and keep the next step small. Not interested is the most common objection in 30MPC's guide, at 17% of objections, tied with not for us. Gong's post on the same 300M-call data (31 July 2024) calls it a dismissive objection, one of the most common knee-jerk reactions to a cold call. It puts dismissive objections at 49.5% of all objections, situational ones (budget, bandwidth, fit) at 42.6% and existing-solution ones at 7.9%.
| They say | Share (30MPC) | Type | Your next line (sample) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not interested | 17% | Dismissive | Fair enough, you weren't expecting me. Before I go: is that because invoicing is handled, or it's just not a priority right now? |
| Not for us | 17% | Dismissive in 30MPC; situational in Gong's post | Out of interest, what makes it a poor fit? (30MPC's advice is to ask what makes them say that.) |
| No budget | 16% | Situational | Makes sense, and I'm not asking you to buy anything. Would 20 minutes be worth it to see what late payments cost you now? |
| Not my responsibility | 13% | Dismissive | Thanks. Who does look after invoicing? (30MPC: don't hang up without a name.) |
| Hangs up | 11% | Dismissive | Nothing to say. Log it and dial the next number. |
| Send me an email | Not in 30MPC's top five | Dismissive (Gong lists send me some information) | Happy to. So I send the right thing, which matters more to you, [problem A] or [problem B]? |
30MPC says the five objections it lists account for 74% of every objection on a cold call. Cognism's 2026 cold calling report, on 2025 data, also lists too busy, send me an email among its five most common. If they say no a second time, thank them and end the call; that rule is ours. For price, timing and competitor answers, see our guide to common sales objections and answers.
How do you test a cold call script in one week?
Keep the script fixed for 50 conversations, log where each call ended, then change only the part where most calls die.
Monday: fill in the brackets
Write your trigger, problem and pitch lines, read them aloud and cut every word you can. Gong's post suggests imagining you're paid $100 for each unnecessary word you remove.
Tuesday to Thursday: call in the morning
30MPC's guide says to call between 9 and 11am and that rates drop after noon, though its own hourly chart shows 8.0% at 10am and 7.5% at 3pm. Block that time before email pulls you away. Gong's 2018 post, citing outside studies, named 11am to noon and 4 to 5pm instead, so note the hour of each call.
Log every answered call
One row each: the last part you reached (opener, reason, question, ask), the objection in their words, and the outcome.
Friday: count
30MPC's guide puts an average rep at 4.6 meetings per 100 conversations and a top rep at 16.7. Over 50 conversations that is about 2 meetings (50 × 4.6%) against about 8 (50 × 16.7%). If most calls end at the opener, change the opener; if at the reason, change the trigger or the problem line.
Once a meeting is booked, Siela's Call Agent can run a first qualifying call on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams from a brief you write in plain words, then send a summary with the person's answers in their own words and a suggested next step. It doesn't make phone calls, so the dialling stays with you.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a cold call last?
Longer than most people expect. Gong's cold calling page puts successful cold calls at an average of 5 minutes 50 seconds, against 3 minutes 14 seconds for unsuccessful ones. 30MPC's guide to Gong data says the median call that booked a meeting ran 4.8 minutes and that calls under three minutes almost never convert, so leave room for a couple of objections.
Should you talk more than you listen on a cold call?
On the first call, yes. Gong's 2018 analysis found the talk-to-listen ratio was higher on successful cold calls, and that prospects spoke in shorter bursts on calls that worked: 3.5 seconds on average against 8 seconds on unsuccessful ones. Gong also found 77% more speaker switches per minute on successful calls, so short back-and-forth beats a long pitch.
How do you become successful at cold calling sales?
Work the numbers you control. 30MPC's guide says top reps mark bad numbers as they go and favour direct lines over switchboards. It also advises calling between 9 and 11am, and its data shows problem language booking more meetings than buzzwords or social proof. Leave one or two voicemails per prospect, log every answered call, and change one part of your script at a time.
What is the best closing line for a cold call?
Gong's 2018 post recommends asking whether the prospect has their calendar handy, straight after you suggest a meeting. Ask for something small, such as 20 minutes, and say they can judge for themselves whether it fits. Then send the invite while they're still on the line, so the meeting exists before you hang up.
Should you read a cold call script word for word?
Learn it, then speak it. Gong's 2018 post says a cold call script must be economical and compelling, and 30MPC says most objections are reactions to the interruption, so you will leave the script within seconds on many calls. Write each line, practise it aloud until it sounds like you, and keep the branches for gatekeepers and objections beside you.
Sources
- 30MPC: How To Master Cold Calls, data from 300M+ calls (15 Apr 2026, checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Gong: Essential cold calling tips, 17 proven techniques (published 3 May 2018, modified 4 Mar 2026, checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Gong: Cold calling quotes and statistics (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Gong: We found the top objections across 300M cold calls (published 31 Jul 2024, modified 27 May 2026, checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Cognism: The State of Cold Calling in 2026 (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- eCFR: 16 CFR 310.6, Exemptions (up to date as of 2 Nov 2026, checked 5 Nov 2026)