You’re at work, and it’s just turned 9 am. It’s time for your reps to start cold calling.
You’ve given them lists to dial, but you’ve got a nervous rumble in your stomach...and no, it’s not because you forgot to eat breakfast. 😬
It’s because your team didn’t do any sales call planning.
As a sales manager, it’s essential to help your team hone the preparation skills that make cold calling easy.
Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered! Keep reading for tips on planning a sales call. 👇
It’s like the old saying goes: fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
If you don’t do the research, how do you expect to master sales pre-call planning?
Here are some of the best ways to research your prospects before picking up the phone.
We’d be silly not to mention it!
Sales software is a game-changer when it comes to conducting research and exceeding your call objectives.
A sales prospecting tool like Cognism can help you quickly and compliantly connect with your dream decision-makers.
Find out how - take an interactive tour below. Then, press the button to sample our sales data.
You can’t sell anything to anyone if you don’t know who you’re selling to! This is where your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) comes in.
Undertaking careful research to identify the perfect buyer is a key part of call planning in sales. It will save you hours of speaking to prospects who aren’t interested in (or even in the market for) your product.
What should your ICP contain?
It should consist of buyers who will benefit from your product or service while giving you enough value in return to make your business profitable. This ROI could include referrals, buyer insights, testimonials, and revenue.
In most cases, your ideal customer should be able to use your product to boost their bottom line, as well as:
Top tip:
Align your sales and marketing teams so that both pursue the same type and quality of prospect.
Another great way to research prospects as part of your pre-sales call planning is to connect with them on social media.
You may already be building a personal brand online in places where your prospects hang out, such as LinkedIn.
Sales superhero Morgan Ingram explained the benefits of connecting with your prospects online. He said:
“The fastest way to build brand affinity is to have conversations with your audience.”
“If someone has taken the time to engage with your post and left a comment, then don’t ignore it. Ask questions, share insights and spark friendly debates.”
It’s essential to build that sense of familiarity before starting the cold calling process. That way, when you pick up the phone, you’ve already established a small connection with your prospect.
We get it. Cold calling can be an uncomfortable and nerve-wracking experience.
However, there are plenty of resources available for salespeople planning sales calls. David Bentham, VP of Sales at DinMo, says it best in this LinkedIn post. 👇
Practising with a cold calling script is a great way to keep your nerves in check for those first few calls. The more times you practice, the more you’ll be able to recall the points you want to share with your prospect and the less time you’ll spend on sales call scripting.
Run practice sessions or tune into Cognism’s Cold Calling Live workshops; these are great ways to get constructive feedback from other sellers about your approach.
When it comes to starting a conversation with a prospect over the phone, how do you do it?
For Jason Bay, Founder & CEO at Outbound Squad, it’s all about your tonality and pacing. He said:
“You should talk about half as fast as you think you should talk and really enunciate the words in your opener.”
There’s more than one way to start a conversation. So, it’s a great call plan idea to experiment with different openers to find out what works best for you.
Review your calls and make a note of the openings that give you the best responses from prospects. If you’re unsure what to use, check out 17 of the best cold call openers from the Cognism team.
Once you’ve experimented with different openers and found what works for you, stick to it. This means you won’t worry or think too much about what to say in your calls’ crucial opening seconds.
It’s a cast-iron rule of pre-call planning:
You will encounter objections on your cold calls. Knowing how to handle them is a key part of sales call prep.
Active listening is the best way to kick-start your objection handling process. So, speak less and listen more! That way, you’ll find it easier to pick up on the customer pain points that might be blocking a sale.
Use the 70/30 rule as your guide. It’s the number one rule of communication when making sales calls. The rule states that a prospect or lead should do 70% of the talking, and the rep should do only 30%.
Combine active listening with asking open-ended sales call questions, and you’ll be able to learn from prospect objections and help them solve their problems.
Cold calling isn’t just about booking demos; it’s about starting real conversations.
If you sound overly pushy or scripted, your prospect will switch off fast. Your goal isn’t to go hard on a sales pitch; it’s to connect. You must show your prospects there’s a human on the other end of the line who understands their world and wants to help solve real challenges.
So, when you plan your calls, focus on building dialogue, not delivering a monologue. Most prospects won’t be ready to buy on the first call anyway - Chet Holmes’ Buyer’s Pyramid shows only around 3% are in-market right now. The rest need time, trust, and relevance.
And in the B2B SaaS industry, you’re rarely selling to one person. You’re selling to a buying committee. That means every conversation counts, even the ones that don’t end in a meeting. If your product isn’t the right fit today, but you’ve taken the time to understand their needs and add value, you’ll stay top of mind when they are ready.
This approach builds more than pipeline - it builds credibility. You’re not just another rep chasing quota. You’re someone helping prospects make smarter decisions, even when that decision isn’t you (yet).
So, you’ve done your research, practised your intro, prepared yourself to handle objections, and are focused on having meaningful conversations with prospects.
But how do you close out your call?
Be prepared to address any questions prospects have about your competition ahead of time. Your approach should be similar to practising objection handling. Make sure you acknowledge their questions and provide value with your answers.
Here’s how to do it:
If you’ve had a positive result and you’re booking your prospect in for a demo or getting them to sign on the dotted line - congrats! Closing is one of the most exciting parts of the sales process.
And if the result wasn’t what you wanted, don’t worry. Ask for feedback so you can learn and improve your approach.
Regarding handling cold calling rejections, Ryan Reisert, co-founder of CallBlitz, told us that reps should look at their sales stats holistically rather than in isolation.
“Some days, you will have more rejections than others, but have a look at your stats across the month. They generally normalise over time.”
“If you have a hard day, but you only had six conversations, maybe those were the 6/10 that were never going to be interested.”
“Make some more calls; the next few might be better! You have to hang on for the layup. If you let the first ten get to you, you might give up, but stick to the process. The numbers usually work out.”
“If not, then go back to your call list. Review the suitability of your prospects for your product or service and adjust your message where necessary.”
Most importantly, stay respectful and shake off the rejection. Move on to the next call!
Preparing for a sales call might seem daunting at first. But we hope you’ve learnt some new tricks that should make those cold calls run more smoothly!
Here are our sales call planning highlights again.
As for your first next step? Get a free sample of Cognism’s data to see how it can power your sales strategies and calls 👇