Samir is the CEO and Co-founder of Veloxy. After spending 20+ years creating corporate systems, boosting revenue, and eliminating inefficiencies, Samir started Veloxy to help sales professionals shorten sales cycles, accelerate pipelines, and close more deals.
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Cold Calling is not dead! Despite what you might be hearing in some trending podcast or from your sales team, cold calling is more alive and more profitable today than ever before. There are some thought leaders who disguise the term cold calling with ‘warm calling’. In short, they’re associating the use of high-quality business intelligence as warming a cold
We’re nearing the end of another successful year of cold calling! As always, our persistence, belief in ourselves, and commitment to delivering value has paid off with more meetings and deals. This is the perfect time to unwind, get loose, and share some laughs around the myths, truths, and common occurrences around cold calling (and sales in general). We’re not
If you want to learn cold calling, you’ve come to the right place. Despite the prevalence of overflowing email inboxes, cold calls remain a popular way to start sales conversations. However, many struggle to make the necessary number of calls to improve their chances of booking meetings. A recent study found that B2B tech sales reps should aim for 60 calls per day but are
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Getting and keeping your prospect’s attention on a cold call can be done in four ways.
You can either:
The cold call opening lines below all help you do one or all of those things.
(Yes, these are actual opening lines, unlike other blog posts that give you mere tips.)
1. I am happy to be speaking with you today!
Most cold callers can suffer from having a mundane or forced tone to their voice.
No one, especially your ideal customer, wants to talk with someone like that.
Couple this with the fact that 63% of salespeople say that cold calling is the worst part of their job, and what do you get?
Only 69% of buyers taking one or more cold calls each year.
Put a smile on your face. Inject some enthusiasm in your opening line. And have a sincere desire to help the person on the other end of the phone.
It’s human nature to smile when someone is excited to speak with you, and your buyers are no different.
Your average time on a call will more than double. And your quota will either be met or exceeded every quarter and year.
3 examples of this cold calling opening line:
2. I was going to call you next week/month, but...
Your ideal prospect is your number one priority, right?
Then be sure to communicate that in your opening line.
The prospect on the other end of the phone is priority number one. Help them understand that. Tell your prospect that you moved them to the top of your list at this very moment.
By doing this, you’re discouraging your prospect from telling you to call back at another time. Goal accomplished!
Plus, this strategy adds FOMO to your cold calling. If your prospect hangs up, what will they miss if you followed the plan to call him next week or month?
3 examples of this cold calling opening line:
3. Congratulations on your recent...
Business intelligence software like ZoomInfo is a must have.
The ability to track key contacts is critical to the success of a cold caller. Near instant notifications on promotions, new jobs, and acquisitions is valuable insight.
Buyers want you to personalize outreach. They don’t want to tell you about their promotion. They want you to be proactive and be the first to congratulate them.
Customer expectations are higher than ever. Customer Experience is the number one sales KPI. And there’s never a bad time to stroke your ideal customer’s ego.
Lead your cold calls with a congratulatory message. You’ll find that your prospect will express gratitude in the form of a longer call.
3 examples of this cold calling opening line:
4. How can I help you with [problem]?
Most cold call opening line blog posts suggest you ask the prospect for help. Don’t do that. It’s not your prospect’s job to help you. Rather, it’s your job to help them.
This opening line highlights one of the greatest cold call strategies. Always lead with an open-ended question.
If you start with, “Can you help me?” You’ll receive a close-ended response, such as “No.”, 90% of the time.
If you ask “How can I help you?” You’ll either receive a question, such as “How can you help me?”, or insight to your prospect’s hottest pain point.
This works especially well when you already have intelligence from previous calls. Further, don’t hesitate to use this as a cold voicemail message to get more call backs.
3 examples of this cold calling opening line:
Recommended reading: Complement cold call opening lines with the best cold email templates
5. [Contact] from [Client] thought you'd be interested...
Most companies ask their clients to write a one sentence testimonial. The review sits on the company website for visitors to read a few times a year.
There’s a better path for leveraging happy clients. You ask their permission to use their name and recommendation on cold calls. Voila!
This is especially true when your client works for a competitor of your prospect. Competitive buyers don’t want to fall behind or lose ground to their competitors.
Recognizable brands also work to intrigue buyers. Coca-Cola, Apple, Tesla. You’ll be sure to double your engagement times by choosing this path.
3 examples of this cold calling opening line:
6. I think you'd be interested to know [outcome]. Would you like to know why/how?
As I shared earlier, cold call opening lines work best when they fan the buyer’s intrigue.
One of the best ways to do this is by sharing a client outcome or a fact from research. Immediately afterwards, you ask the buyer if they’d like to know more.
You shouldn’t pick any random outcome or insight, either. Make sure it matches the prospect’s persona profile. It should be a common pain point, project, or actionable trend that is top of mind.
Tone is also important here. Don’t merely say, “Would you like to know more?” Raise your eyebrow, extend the ‘r’ sound in the word ‘more’.
Think of Frau Blucher from Young Frankenstein. “Would the doctor care for a brandy before retiring?” Hope you enjoyed this laugh.
You want to make answering “Yes!” so irresistible to your prospect that they can’t say “No.”
3 examples of this cold calling opening line:
7. I was going to call [competitor], but I wanted to talk to you first.
Namedropping in opening lines is a key tactic when cold calling.
When you tell your prospective buyer that you chose to call them before their competitor—you’ll have their undivided attention.
It’s not just flattery. They’ll be curious as to WHY you called them first. And if they choose not to take you up on your offer, your prospect will wonder what they’ll miss out on.
Hook. Line. And sinker.
This is a favorite opening line of cold callers. The list of curious questions that will run through your prospect’s mind is near endless.
And similar to opening line number four, this works especially well as a cold call voicemail. “I was going to call [competitor], but I wanted to talk to you first. Please call me back before the end of the day.”
3 examples of this cold calling opening line:
8. Would [CEO] be impressed to hear that you [result]?
Everyone answers to the CEO, even your prospect.
Therefor, it’s partly your job as a salesperson to help your buyer look really good in front of the CEO.
This fact should simplify what pain point, solution, and result you lead with in your opening line.
Your prospect uses dozens of solutions every single day. Salesforce. Email Marketing. Word Processor. But how many create a positive impact that resonates across the account? Very few.
It’s your job to convince and prove to your buyer that your solution will get the attention of the CEO.
Everyone you talk to wants recognition, raises, and promotions. There’s no faster path for them than being an all star to the CEO.
3 examples of this cold calling opening line:
9. Did you see [common interest] [latest happening]?
LinkedIn is a treasure trove of insights not found anywhere else.
Before you call your prospect, check out the following sections on their LinkedIn profile:
There should be one or two things that you have common interest in, or that you can reference on your call.
Buyers don’t like cold calls because of the absence of a professional relationship with the caller.
What better, faster way to establish one than by sharing something in common?
3 examples of this cold calling opening line:
10. I’m reaching out to you, and I’ll be reaching out to [their colleague] later today…
First we referenced competing companies in opening lines.
Now we move on to inner-office competition. Yes, your prospective buyers are competing for promotions and recognition with their colleagues.
For many salespeople, the entire Org Chart is up for grabs. Some are decision makers, while others are influencers.
Giving off the impression that you have something valuable to offer, and that the prospect is getting first crack, is a huge FOMO enticement.
This opening line will do two things. It will encourage your buyer to act on your offer. And they’ll tell you not to bother with calling the other colleague.
Cold call opening lines is an art. You’re about to be Picasso!
3 examples of this cold calling opening line:
Final Thoughts on Cold Call Opening Lines
Using cold call opening lines to get and keep your buyer’s attention is a great skill to have. This goes for both inside sales and outside sales reps. These are our clients’ ten favorites. Start with these and create your very own once you get a good feel for captivating your buyer personas.
If you want to learn more about cold calling and cold emailing best practices, here are some of our other popular resources: