Cold calling tips to make it less daunting: prepare, open and ask for the meeting

• Before you dial, know who's on your list, why you're calling them and which meeting you want.
• Say your name, your company and the reason for the call in the first breath. Gong analysed its own recorded cold calls and says those that opened with the reason did 2.1 times better.
• Skip "Did I catch you at a bad time?" Gong put that opener at 0.9%, against a 1.5% baseline.
• Ask two questions, then ask for the meeting with two times to choose from.
• For a marketing call to a Singapore number, check the Do Not Call Registry first, unless you have clear consent.

Gong's figures are its own, from a post first published in 2018 and last updated on 4 March 2026. Every other number here is a made-up example, labelled that way.

As of November 2026.

A call goes better when there's a real reason this person might want to talk to you. Ten minutes on the list will save you an hour of calls that had no chance.

• Pick one kind of buyer for the block, such as office managers at dental clinics with 5 to 20 staff. The same opener then works on every call.
• Write down the one problem you solve for them, in the words they'd use.
• Find one true thing about each name: a new branch, a job ad, a post they wrote. A single line in your notes is enough.
• Decide the meeting you want, 15 minutes on video or 30 in person. If you don't know what you're asking for, you won't ask for it.
• Check the numbers against the Do Not Call rule below.

The cold calling script has a space for each of these at the top.

The person who picks up is deciding whether to hang up. Give them your name, your company and the reason for the call before they have to ask, then ask for 30 seconds. With made-up names:

"Hi Marcus, it's Priya from Brightbooks. This is a cold call. I'm calling because you've just opened a second cafe. Can I have 30 seconds, and then you tell me if it's worth talking?"

Gong studied its recorded cold calls to see which openers booked meetings. Calls that stated the reason did 2.1 times better. "Did I catch you at a bad time?" came in at 0.9%, against a 1.5% baseline, and it hands them an easy way to end the call.

Gong's top line was "How have you been?", at 10.01%. It suggests you've met when you haven't, so we'd leave it out, because a buyer who works that out won't trust the next thing you say.

Keep it to two questions, then stop and listen:

• "How are you handling [the problem] now?"
• "What happens if that's the same in six months?"

Then let them talk. Gong also found that successful cold calls had a higher talk-to-listen ratio than unsuccessful ones, so keep the deeper questions for the meeting you're selling. If their answers show there's no problem to solve, thank them and move on. That call took two minutes and crossed a name off your list.

Finish with the meeting, never "Can I send you some information?":

"It sounds worth 15 minutes. Would [day] at [time] or [day] at [time] work better?"

Confirm it on the call. Say the day and time back, get their email and send the invite before you dial again. A meeting that's only in your notebook isn't booked.

Most brush-offs come out before the person has decided anything, so agree, ask one question and stop talking.

If the second answer is still no, take it. If they ask you to stop calling, take them off your list and don't argue.

Whoever answers the main line decides who gets through, so ask them for help: "Hi, it's Priya from Brightbooks. Who looks after the accounts there? Could you put me through, or is there a better time to catch them?"

Keep a voicemail under 20 seconds, say your number twice and give one reason to call back. If you promise to call on a day, call on that day. The voicemail scripts cover seven situations.

Nobody can give you this number, because it depends on your list and your offer. Work out your own from a week of calls. Here's a made-up example:

In this example one meeting takes 20 dials. A rep who needs 6 meetings a week needs 120 dials, and at about 30 dials an hour that's four hours of calling. Spread it over four blocks of an hour each, with email and chat closed. Ten calls squeezed between other jobs means ten cold starts.

Every call ends in one of six ways: booked, call back, no, gatekeeper, voicemail or no answer. Note which, and the next date if there is one. The call log template has a row per call.

Once a week, look at dials, conversations and meetings. Plenty of dials with few conversations means the list or the hour is wrong. Plenty of conversations with few meetings points at the opener or the ask.

Here's the plain rule, from PDPC, the regulator. It covers voice calls, SMS and apps such as WhatsApp that use a Singapore number.

• Before a marketing call to a Singapore number, check the number against the Do Not Call Registry. PDPC says: "Results are valid for 21 days from the date the check was conducted."
• You don't need the check if the person gave you clear and unambiguous consent that you can show later. PDPC says a failure to opt out is unlikely to count.
• Keep your caller ID on, and say who you are and how to reach you.
• A call to a company about the company's own needs is outside the rule. PDPC's example is a seller phoning an HR manager on her business number about a product for her company. Once he asks if she'd like something for herself, the rule applies again.

PDPC's page, read on 2 November 2026, puts the one-time set-up fee for a Singapore-registered organisation at S$32.70 including GST, with 1,000 free credits a year and a charge per number checked after that. Ask your manager whether your company already has one, and which lists are cleared.

• Talking for a minute before saying why you called.
• Pitching the product before you know they have the problem.
• Pretending you've met.
• Ending with "Can I send you some information?" instead of two times.
• Arguing with a brush-off when one question would do.
• Promising to call back on a day, then forgetting.

Palby Sales Tracker doesn't dial or record calls. You log each call and meeting in one tap on your phone, or with /log in a private Telegram chat, and the board moves within seconds. Undo a wrong tap, or log several at once after a block. One activity in a week keeps your week streak, and your weekly goal stays between you and your manager. It never asks for your location. See how logging works.

• Gong, 17 Cold Calling Techniques to Enhance Your Sales Strategy, first published 3 May 2018, last updated 4 March 2026, read 2 November 2026
• PDPC, How to check numbers against the Do Not Call Registry, pdpc.gov.sg, read 2 November 2026
• PDPC, Advisory Guidelines on the Do Not Call Provisions, revised 1 February 2021, pdpc.gov.sg, read 2 November 2026