What do I say in the first ten seconds of a cold call?

Your name, where you're calling from, and the truth that this is out of the blue. Mine is: "Hey, this is Drewbie Wilson with Call The Damn Leads. I know I'm catching you out of the blue here. You got a minute?" Naming the interruption and asking permission is what keeps them on the line. Once they give you a minute, they've chosen to stay, and the call gets a whole lot easier.

Won't a cold call script make me sound like a robot?

Only if you haven't practiced it. People can hear reading, and that's what they're rejecting. Actors work from scripts every day and you never catch them sounding scripted. Say your opener five different ways before you dial, then run the whole script until it feels like your own words. The structure stays, and the delivery turns into you.

How many cold calls before I know if the script works?

Thirty days at 100/10/2 volume: 100 attempts, 10 real conversations, and 2 closes a day, with the numbers written down every day. Twenty calls on a Tuesday tells you nothing. At the end of the month you'll know whether the script fits your market, and you'll usually find the script was never the problem.

prospecting · sales skills ·Sep 03, 2026 · Updated Oct 28, 2026

Cold Call Script: The One I Read From, Word for Word

Q: What is the best cold call script?

The one you can say without reading. Mine runs on C.A.L.L.S.: Confirm the reason you're speaking, Ask relevant questions, Listen intently and take CRM notes, Lay Out a plan, and Secure the bag. It's on this page word for word, with the three brush-off lines. A good script is a map of the call, and you practice it until the words are yours.

Q: What do I say when they say "not interested"?

Give them an exit and ask for thirty seconds. I say, "Totally fair. Most people I call say the same thing before they know why I called. Can I take thirty seconds to tell you, and then you can tell me if it's relevant or not?" They've got no context for your call yet, so dismissal is the reflex. Hand them a way out and most people stop looking for one.

by Drewbie Wilson

I hate cold calling. So… but I do it.

I used to wear khakis and sit at a desk in a room with four white walls making cold calls… and what got me through the day was knowing what I'd say next, whatever came back at me.

That's all a cold call script is. Mine runs on C.A.L.L.S., it's right below, word for word, and it includes what I say to the first three brush-offs. Say it out loud a few times tonight and you can run it tomorrow morning!

Key Takeaways

Name the interruption in your opening. "I know I'm catching you out of the blue here. You got a minute?" beats a polished pitch because it asks permission instead of assuming attention.
The first thirty seconds have one job: earn the right to ask one relevant question. You are not closing anything yet.
Every brush-off response should hand the prospect an exit. Give a person a way out and they stop looking for one.
Run the call on C.A.L.L.S.: Confirm, Ask, Listen and take CRM notes, Lay Out a plan, Secure the bag.
Type the prospect's exact words into your CRM while they talk. Their phrasing is your closing ammunition later.
Close for a meeting with two specific times, not an open-ended "when are you free?"
Judge the script at 100/10/2 volume over thirty days, not after twenty calls on a Tuesday.

What does a full cold call script look like from hello to close?
Why do most cold calls fail before you even finish your opening line?
What should you say in the first thirty seconds of a cold call?
How do you handle the first three brush-offs without sounding desperate?
How does the C.A.L.L.S. framework turn a script into a conversation?
How many calls should you make before you decide cold calling doesn't work?

What does a full cold call script look like from hello to close?

This is the script I read from. It follows C.A.L.L.S. step by step, and the three brush-off lines are at the bottom. Say the opener five different ways before you dial, because the goal is to sound like you, and you'll get there faster than you think!

Opening: "Hey, this is Drewbie Wilson with Call The Damn Leads. I know I'm catching you out of the blue here. You got a minute?"

If they say yes, Confirm the reason: "I'll be quick. I work with sales teams who have leads sitting in their CRM that nobody is calling. I called you because I think we might be able to help you close more of those leads. That sound relevant, or am I off base?"

Ask relevant questions: "Let me ask you this. How many leads came in last week? And how many of them got a call within the first hour?"

Listen intently and take CRM notes: Whatever they say, write it down. Then ask one more question based on their answer. If they say they don't know, ask "Who on your team would know that number?" If they say the leads are getting called, ask "What happens after the first call? How many follow-ups do they get?"

Lay Out a plan: "Here's what I'd suggest. Let's hop on a quick call this week and I'll show you the exact follow-up sequence I use with my own leads. You can steal whatever works for you. What works better, Tuesday at 11:00 or Wednesday at 2:00?"

Secure the bag: "Perfect. I'll send you an invite right now. And if something comes up, just text me back and we'll move it. Sound good?"

That last move matters more than it looks. Two specific times force a decision. "When are you free?" invites a maybe, and a maybe is just a no that wants to be polite about it.

If they hit you with a brush-off, here are the exact responses.

"Not interested": "Totally fair. Most people I call say the same thing before they know why I called. Can I take thirty seconds to tell you, and then you can tell me if it's relevant or not?"

"I'm busy": "I figured you might be. That's why I'll keep this to ninety seconds. If it's not worth your time, I'll let you go. Fair?"

"Send me an email": "I can do that. And so I don't send you something useless, let me ask you one quick question first. That way the email actually applies to you."

That's the whole thing. It works because it gives you a path through the call without turning you into a machine. If you want the script builder and the follow-up process that turns these conversations into closed deals, Closing the Loop is the training I built for exactly that.

Why do most cold calls fail before you even finish your opening line?

Most cold calls die because the rep treats the script like a monologue. I've done it myself. I opened my mouth and dumped a paragraph of features and credentials on a person who never asked for any of it. They hear noise, decide it's a pitch, and find the fastest exit.

The first fifteen seconds have one job: show the person you know this call is an interruption, and that you respect their time enough to ask before you take more of it.

Call The Damn Leads card: getting past the fear of cold calling, from the C.A.L.L.S. framework series

And one bad opening costs more than that call. I've watched reps get hung up on before lunch and then find every reason in the world to stay off the phone for a week. The fear outlives the call by a long way, and it's a bigger problem than the script ever was. If that's where you're sitting right now, I wrote about call reluctance and how to get past it separately.

The other thing that kills an opening is reading. People can hear reading. A good script is a map: where the call starts, where the potholes are, where you want it to land. Actors work from scripts every day and you never catch them sounding scripted… because they practiced until the words were theirs.

That's what C.A.L.L.S. does for me. Five clear moves, and the conversation happens between them.

What should you say in the first thirty seconds of a cold call?

Say hello, say your full name, say where you're calling from, and then name the awkwardness out loud. They know it's a cold call. Pretending it isn't makes you sound like every other salesperson they dodge.

Mine sounds like this: "Hey, this is Drewbie Wilson with Call The Damn Leads. I know I'm catching you out of the blue here. You got a minute?"

That line works because it names the interruption and then asks permission. When someone gives you a minute, they're choosing to stay on the line, and that tiny yes changes the whole call. They're a participant now.

Keep it short. If you can't say your opener in thirty seconds, you're overthinking it. Personalization means sounding like a person who's been on the other end of a cold call, because you have. Their LinkedIn bio can stay closed.

The first thirty seconds buy you one thing: the right to ask one relevant question. The offer can wait. If the lead called you first, the opener is different, and I wrote that one up in how to start a call with a lead.

How do you handle the first three brush-offs without sounding desperate?

Brush-offs are part of the game. Most of them are a reflex. People say no to a cold call the way they swat a fly, without thinking about it, and your job is to stay calm and give them a reason to think twice.

"Not interested" usually means "I don't see why this matters to me yet." They've got no context for your call, so dismissal is the default. I say, "Totally fair. Most people I call say the same thing before they know why I called. Can I take thirty seconds to tell you, and then you can tell me if it's relevant or not?" That line gives them control and a clear off-ramp.

"I'm busy" means they don't believe the next two minutes will be worth it. So I respect the clock and ask for less. I say, "I figured you might be. That's why I'll keep this to ninety seconds. If it's not worth your time, I'll let you go. Fair?" Most people will give you ninety seconds when you promise to leave.

"Send me an email" is a polite way to hang up. I keep the conversation alive by making the email depend on one question first. I say, "I can do that. And so I don't send you something useless, let me ask you one quick question first. That way the email actually applies to you." One question is often enough to find the hook.

Notice the pattern. Every one of them hands the prospect an exit. Give a person a way out and they stop looking for one! Desperation is what kills these moments, and confidence with a soft touch keeps the door open.

How does the C.A.L.L.S. framework turn a script into a conversation?

C.A.L.L.S. stands for Confirm the reason you're speaking, Ask relevant questions, Listen intently and take CRM notes, Lay Out a plan, and Secure the bag. It comes from my book, Call The Damn Leads, and I built it because I needed something that worked on calls, texts and DMs without turning me into a robot. The framework is a structure to hang your own words on.

Call The Damn Leads card: what is the C.A.L.L.S. Framework? Confirm, Ask, Listen, Lay out a plan, Secure the bag

Confirm the reason you're speaking means you've said why you called and they haven't hung up. "Go ahead" or "what's this about" is all the confirmation you need before you keep going.

Ask relevant questions is where the selling happens. Years ago, back in insurance, we built a script that ran more like a customer survey… a series of questions the prospect would say "yes" to. When I ask about their current process or their biggest headache, I learn exactly what to say next. And they start to feel heard, which matters more than any pitch I could deliver.

Listen intently means you're typing while they talk. I put the prospect's exact words into my CRM notes, because those words become my closing ammunition later. When I repeat their phrasing back to them, they know I was listening, and that builds trust faster than any credential.

Lay Out a plan and Secure the bag are the close. You set the next step and get agreement on it, a meeting or a follow-up call, with a day and a time on it. The full breakdown is in the C.A.L.L.S. sales framework article if you want to go deeper.

How many calls should you make before you decide cold calling doesn't work?

More than you think. I've watched reps make twenty calls on a Tuesday, get hung up on twice, and decide the script is broken. Twenty calls is a warm-up.

The 100/10/2 standard is the daily target I run: 100 outbound attempts, 10 real conversations, and 2 closes. Hit any two of the three and you've had a good day. The full breakdown is in the 100/10/2 outbound sales standard article.

Run this script for thirty days at that volume and write the numbers down every day. At the end of the month you'll know whether the script works in your market… and you'll know whether the script was ever the problem. My money's on the second one.

And if the hundred attempts keep getting skipped, ask yourself which one it is. Not calling is either a belief problem or a script problem, and you've got to fix the right one. The script half is this page.

This script lives in the scripts and follow-up cadence library next to the texts and voicemails that go around it. Print this one, tape it to your monitor, and read it out loud until it sounds like you.

Now go call the damn leads.