From freight brokers to SaaS sales reps—these are the cold calling strategies that consistently get results.
An article from 2024, boldly claimed that cold calling is dead, and since many sellers want to avoid the predicament of cold calling the article generated tons of attention.
But is this true?
Sales call remains an essential part for prospecting, despite the domination of LinkedIn DMs, AI emails and marketing automation, cold calling may appear to be old-fashioned, or a thing of the past. But it is foundational for delivering your sales pitch and can be detrimental for presenting your product or service.
So does this mean that cold calling is in fact dead?
As per Rain Group’s Sales Prospecting Benchmark Report: 70% of buyers accepted a call from a new salesperson in the past year, and 82% agreed to meetings that began with a cold call.
We at Anybiz, understand more than anyone else that each channel — LinkedIn, email and cold calling — offers a unique opportunity in the sales process or type of sales outreach you are focusing on.
And this is a great way to explore this opportunity, perhaps what other sales leaders lack is the appropriate strategy to make cold calling work in their workflow.
But first, let’s discuss the basics cold calling tips to help you get started.
The Basics — Cold Calling Tips for Beginners
Most sales leaders often forget the basics of cold calling, which is foundational to ensuring that you get the right prospect and close deals. Anybiz offers a rich set of features that can help you achieve the most successful cold calling, and here are the following cold calling techniques we’ve evaluated that we can guarantee work and improve your sales process.
Understand Your Prospect
Research before you pick up the phone. Know who you’re calling, their role, their company’s mission, and recent news if possible. Dedicating a few minutes — or hours — for research can help you tailor your approach to your prospect and establish a more meaningful connection.
How Can You Achieve This?
Anybiz is capable of integrating its systems with your social media account, along with its database of 400 million prospects that can give you access with a rich set of potential leads. Our AI system can intelligently locate your ideal prospect and will perform an initial outreach sequence before setting up a call.
Setup a Strong Opening Line
Your product can capture your prospect’s curiosity, but a strong opening line can capture their attention — this is the foundation of an effective cold call. And this will only take you about 5-10 seconds, so you need to be creative and make sure that you do not succumb to the robotic and generic template of “How are you today?”, start with something more relevant that will make you sound natural, curious and respectful of their time.
Example:
“Hi [Name], I noticed your company, [company name] recently launched [project]—quick question about [pain point related to your offer]…”
Utilize the Right Tools and Technology
Using the right tools is vital for this operation, setting up the right tools means you are setting yourself up for success, there are a variety of tools in the market that can help you develop your cold calling strategies, but none can do it as intelligently as Anybiz.
Anybiz is equipped with tons of features dedicated to improving your AI SDR process — its 400 million prospect database utilized by the most advanced AI sales rep is capable of not just AI cold calls but other multichannel engagement systems such as email and LinkedIn.
You can also use the following features such as:
- CRM Integration – You can integrate Anybiz with popular CRM systems such as, Hubspot, allowing you to track leads and conversations with prospects.
- Personalization – Set the tone of voice and language and setup a start with a strong opening line.
- AI Dashboard – This can help you monitor your AI agent’s activities, including Call Activity for tracking call outcomes, whether your calls are getting ignored, or have been responded to.
Stay Updated With Current Trends
Artificial Intelligence, Account-based marketing and social media are just some of the few technologies that we can now consider as a marketing and sales necessity.
Simply updating yourself with current trends not only helps you adopt smarter tools, but also allows you to connect with prospects more effectively. Understanding the current technologies and challenges should be part of your sales tactic and sales training.
When you understand the technologies and challenges your buyers are dealing with, your pitch becomes more relevant, timely, and valuable.
Advanced Tactics — Best Cold Calling Tips from the Pros
Once you’ve established the foundation of your cold calling initiatives by mastering the basics, you can move forward with incorporating pro-level strategies that can help you stand amongst your competitors.
Pattern Interrupts and Tone Variations
A “pattern interrupt” means breaking the expected flow of the conversation to re-engage the prospect. This is important whether you are trying to reach your prospect personally, or using AI cold calls.
Example:
Instead of asking, “Is now a good time?” say,
“I know I caught you off guard—I’ll be brief, and if it’s not relevant, you can hang up. Fair?”
Also, vary your tone throughout the call. Sound energetic but not scripted—real conversations have ups and downs.
But what if you are using AI? Would it sound too robotic?
Many sales leaders utilize AI for their cold calling initiatives, but often find it lacking since it can still be too robotic.
We at Anybiz have taken this initial challenge in using AI and developed the most advanced AI sales agent, programmed with next-level machine learning algorithms and Large Language Models (LLM), to ensure that it can interact with prospects like an actual human being during the AI cold calling process.
Personalization vs. Scripts
A call script is helpful to provide structure but dangerous if they make you sound robotic. The best cold callers:
- Personalize the opening line.
- Insert micro-personalizations throughout the call (reference their company, their role, etc.).
- Use scripts as guidelines, not crutches.
Golden Rule of Sales and Marketing: Make it about them, not you.
Is there a way to personalize scripts if you are using AI?
Some AI tools should provide you with the capability to personalize your AI agent, however, there are some that may not have this specific program.
Anybiz understands more than anyone else the foundational advantage of personalization for the success of your business campaigns. Hence, we’ve developed a way to ensure that you maximize the full potential of AI. Here is how.
- Messaging Tab: You can select the type of message you want to send. It can be an email introduction, follow-up or a LinkedIn message, giving you the ability to personalize your communication depending on the prospect’s engagement in the sales process.
- Language Tab: We understand that many professionals across the globe are more comfortable using their own language. This tab allows you to develop your engagement capabilities, and will make your prospects feel like you’ve taken the time to understand their language and culture.
- Tone of Voice: You can choose from:
- Formal
- Professional
- Friendly
- Conversational.
Handling Objections Like a Pro
You will face objections and get rejected —embrace them! Top sellers view objections as buying signals.
Framework:
- Acknowledge the concern (“Totally get that…”)
- Clarify (“Can I ask what’s most important to you in [area] right now?”)
- Respond with value (Show how your solution aligns with their needs).
B2B Cold Calling Tips That Drive Results
Selling B2B often means multiple decision-makers, longer cycles, and bigger deals. Here’s how to stand out:
Timing Your Calls Right
Research shows that the best times to cold call are:
- 8:00–10:00 AM (before meetings start)
- 4:00–6:00 PM (after meetings wind down)
A study suggests that the best time to call your prospect is during Wednesday and Thursday, avoiding the hectic schedule of Monday, and giving your clients the quiet time of Friday. This can give you the undivided attention of your prospect’s attention, and qualify your leads.
Since it can operate 24/7 you can leverage the AI capabilities of Anybiz, allowing you to reach your prospect any time of the day, no matter the timezone or location.
Leaving Voicemail with Intent
Don’t just say, “Call me back.” Leave a value-driven teaser.
Example:
“Hi [Name], it’s [Your Name]—I have a quick idea that could help [Company] reduce [problem] by [percentage]. I’ll send a LinkedIn message too. Hope to connect!”
Leveraging Multichannel Engagement and Social Selling Alongside Cold Calls
The best sales process includes diversity. Anybiz enables a multichannel approach that does not just call prospects it allows you to interact with prospects via email, and LinkedIn that works alongside AI cold calling.
- Email will be the initial channel that will send personalized messages to potential customers.
- Then an automated follow-up sequence will ensue. During the follow up process, the AI agent will include a link of a customized landing page showcasing your business to your potential prospects. The designs are automatically and immediately implemented allowing you to showcase your company in an exciting and professional way.
- LinkedIn is the most renowned social media platform where various professionals meet up. Anybiz’s AI agent takes advantage of this fact and utilizes the platform of LinkedIn to help you develop your marketing and outreach strategies.
- The AI agent can send profile connection requests, and engage with your emails — however, this may warrant further touchpoints and rapport building. Once the AI agent was able to successfully establish a connection, it will then reinforce further communication and inspire further engagement via follow-up messages.
It can also integrate with various social media platforms—helping you establish your brand, build recognition, and fully leverage your social media strategies. With integrations across platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter), it enables engagement opportunities such as creating posts, liking, sharing, and commenting.
Before calling, you can engage with prospects using our AI system by:
- Liking or commenting on their LinkedIn posts.
- View their profile
- Mention something relevant during the call.
Blending social touches with cold calls builds familiarity and trust.
Freight Broker Cold Calling Tips
Freight brokers operate in one of the most competitive and fast-paced sales environments. With razor-thin margins, overloaded logistics teams, and time-sensitive shipments, cold calling in this space requires a blend of speed, precision, and trust-building.
Here’s how to navigate those conversations with confidence:
Unique Challenges of Freight Brokers
Carriers and shippers are often bombarded with dozens of calls per day. They don’t have time for generic sales chatter.
To stand out, you need to:
- Respect their time immediately.
- Speak with confidence and clarity.
- Lead with a hook or insight that shows you understand their world.
Example cold open:
“Hi [Name], I know you’re probably getting 10 calls like this today—I’ll keep it quick. We helped [Similar Company] shave 8 hours off their delivery coordination last month. Could I ask how you’re handling that right now?”
Building Trust Fast in a Competitive Market
In the freight world, you’re not just offering a service—you’re offering reliability. That means:
- Mentioning specific outcomes you’ve delivered.
- Speaking their language (mentioning lanes, load types, drop windows, etc.).
- Highlighting your responsiveness and dependability.
Use social proof:
- “We’ve worked with [industry peer] on short-notice LTL shipments for the past 6 months.”
- “We helped a shipper in [region] cut fuel surcharges by 10% last quarter.”
It’s about building a reputation for being helpful, fast, and consistent.
Pricing Conversations: When and How
Freight is often a price-sensitive industry, but leading with rates is a race to the bottom. Instead:
- Start by asking questions about their current shipping strategy.
- Identify pain points—slow carriers, missed pickups, unresponsive brokers, etc.
- Only discuss pricing once you’ve:
- Proven your value
- Understood their real needs
- Built some trust
- Proven your value
Position pricing as a solution, not a cost:
“Once I understand the full picture, I’ll show you how our pricing not only matches your budget—but helps you reduce missed loads and downtime too.”
Bonus Tip: Follow-Up with Purpose
Many freight deals aren’t closed on the first call. Always follow up with:
- A custom lane rate sheet
- A brief case study
- A recap email with key takeaways and next steps
Freight brokers who follow up with value win more business than those who don’t.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Even the best reps make mistakes—the key is catching and correcting them fast. The following are some of the errors that we’ve discovered to help improve your cold-calling.
Sounding Robotic
Scripts are tools, not walls. If you sound like you’re reading off a page, prospects will tune out. Practice until you sound conversational.
Talking Too Much, Listening Too Little
If you are new to cold calling, it can sometimes put a lot of pressure to your workflow, forcing you to talk more, than listening to your clients.
If you made this mistake once, then your next cold call should be different.
Remember that the person on the other end have an existing problems that your product or service can solve; the more your prospects talk, the more information you can gain. It is therefore wise to ask open-ended questions like:
- “What’s your biggest challenge with [problem] right now?”
- “If you could wave a magic wand, what would the ideal outcome look like?”
- “How are you currently handling [specific task or issue]?”
- “What would a successful solution look like for your team?”
- “What’s stopping you from reaching [specific goal] today?”
- “If this [pain point] didn’t exist tomorrow, what would that mean for your day-to-day?”
Remember: The more they talk, the more you learn—and the more they trust you.
Allowing Rejection Get the Best of You or Giving Up Too Early
Persistence wins deals. Most prospects won’t reply to the first call. It often takes 5+ touchpoints (calls, emails, LinkedIn) to close a meeting.
Polite persistence, combined with value in every message, makes a difference.
Not Using AI Tools
The effects of AI in the sales process upholds great significance, especially when it comes to its capability of implementing automation. Instituting AI is now considered as one of the best strategies for cold calling, and make successful cold calls.
There are tons of AI sales systems in the market, but none offers the complete package of Anybiz and its rich sets of features that can help you improve not only your cold calling capabilities, but your overall sales performance.
Try Anybiz today at a very affordable price, or book a demo to understand its full potential.
