Cold Calling Playbook Tips: 10 Proven Tactics for Sales Leaders and Reps

Hello and welcome to The GTM Newsletter by GTMnow – read by 50,000+ to scale their companies and careers. GTMnow shares insight around the go-to-market strategies responsible for explosive company growth. GTMnow highlights the strategies, along with the stories from the top 1% of GTM executives, VCs, and founders behind these strategies and companies.

GTMfund hosted an inaugural event called The GTM Workshop x Founders this week (some photos here). One theme was clear: AI is touching every part of go-to-market. We’ll be sharing more content soon on how AI is reshaping GTM, and this week’s podcast dives deep into what you need to know about AI agents.

But one unassuming topic that kept coming up? Cold calling. Despite all the AI buzz, the phones are still ringing — and still driving pipeline. Seemed like the perfect time to share some proven cold calling tips that are working right now.

Tips for sales leaders

1. Set clear expectations.Establish minimum viable activity metrics, such as 150-200 cold calls per week, to ensure consistent engagement without overwhelming your reps. The magic formula is finding the activity metrics that balances both quality with quantity.
2. Cultivate a cold calling culture and lead by example.Normalize rejection as a step toward success. Rejection is a data point that provides feedback so you can iterate. Lead by example – when leaders actively engage in cold calling, it reinforces its importance to the team. Anyone who has made a cold call can certainly agree that it’s not only a humbling exercise, but a great feedback loop from your ICP.
3. Equip your team with the right tools (and training!).Invest in platforms and tools that streamline cold calling efforts. For example, consolidating standalone tools into one platformand parallel dialers.
4. Motivate with gamification and incentives.Create healthy competition within your team using leaderboards and contests. Reward both the quantity of calls and the quality of engagements.
5. Align cold calling with broader sales strategies.Integrate cold calling into a multi-channel outreach strategy, ensuring consistency across all touchpoints, including email campaigns and social selling.

Tips for sales reps

1. Tackle cold calling first thing in the morning. Make cold calling your first task of the day when connect rates are highest. Use tactics like the “10 dials, no pee” rule to overcome reluctance and build momentum.

2. Perfect your opener. Avoid generic openers. Instead, lead with a context-specific statement that shows you’ve done your research. Example opener:
“Hey [Prospect], I just finished reading your latest report on [specific topic]. This is a cold call, but it’s well-researched. Can I get 30 seconds to tell you why I called?”

3. Focus on the problem, not the product. When pitching, emphasize the specific problem your product solves rather than its features.

4. Handle objections by agreeing then asking a trap question. When faced with objections, agree with the prospect first to lower their defenses. Then, ask a “trap question” that subtly highlights a gap in their current solution. Example objection handling:
“Prospect: “We’re already working with [Competitor].”
You: “Great choice, [Competitor] is solid. That must mean you’re not dealing with [specific problem your solution addresses], right?”

5. Integrate cold calling with email outreach. Use a multi-touch approach by following up cold calls with personalized emails.

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More for your eardrums

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GTM 139: AI Agents Are Changing Everything — Microsoft’s VP of AI Agents on the New Era of Work and Software | Ray Smith

Listen on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts by searching “The GTM Podcast.”

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Paid – Manny Medina officially launched his new company, a business engine for AI agents, along with €10M raised. This marks the second pre-seed investment into Manny’s companies that GTMfund GP, Max Altschuler, has made – first into Outreach in 2015 and now into Paid in 2025.

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Hottest GTM jobs of the week

• Account Executive at Mutiny (New York)
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See more top GTM jobs on the GTMfund Job Board.

If you’re looking to scale your sales and marketing teams with top talent, we couldn’t recommend our partner Pursuit more. We work closely together to be able to provide the top go-to-market talent for companies on a non-retainer basis.

GTM industry events

Upcoming go-to-market events you won’t want to miss:

• Spryng by Wynter: March 24-26, 2025 (Austin, TX)
• Pavilion CMO Summit: April 17, 2025 (Atlanta, GA)
• Web Summit: May 27-30, 2025 (Vancouver, CAN)
• Pavilion CRO Summit: June 3, 2025 (Denver, CO)
• GTMfund AGM: June 5-6, 2025 (NYC)
• SaaStr Annual: September 10-12 (San Francisco, CA)
• Pavilion GTM Summit: September 23-25, 2025 (Washington, DC)

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This newsletter was entirely written and edited by Sophie Buonassisi and Scott Barker (not AI!).