3 Money-Making

Sales Call Templates

Script falling flat? Buyers not buying your pitch? Sales demos riddled with awkward pauses? Try these 3

money-making sales scripts to up your cold call, discovery call, and demo call effectiveness and get

buyers to see the value.

Cold Call Script

#1 Opener

Start with your full name and company name


Hi [FIRST NAME], this is [YOUR FULL People who introduce themselves with their full name command

respect. And by stating your name and your company’s name up front
NAME] with [YOUR COMPANY].
you control the conversation because the next question comes from

How’ ve you been? you, instead of “who is this?”

Use a pattern interrupt


Using “how’ ve you been?” performs 6.6X higher than cold calls that

don’t include it. That’s because it’s a pattern interrupt, it scrambles

your prospects brain and defuses their initial reaction (hanging up).

#2 Reason

State the reason for your call


The reason for my call is … Our research shows a 2.1X higher success rate for sales reps who state

their reason for calling than those who don’t. That’s because human

beings crave reasons. Their second question after “who is this?” is

“why are you calling me?” – and giving the answer upfront will satisfy

their curiosity and defuse their natural defensiveness.

#3 Permission

Avoid asking if it’s a bad time to talk


Did I catch you at a good time? 
 Our data proves that opening your cold call with “Did I catch you at a

bad time?” makes you 40% less likely to book a meeting.

If there is such a thing…

Use humor


No one likes being cold called. Being personable will help you stand out

from the crowd and earn your prospect’s time. This short phrase signals

you realize you’re interrupting them.

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#4 Personalization

Acknowledge the interruption


I know I’m calling out of the blue, Use tactical apologies to keep earning time from your prospect.

Successful cold calls are almost twice as long as unsuccessful cold

but I was researching [COMPANY
calls: 5:50 for booked meetings vs 3:14 for no meeting booked.

NAME] and noticed [3X3 RESEARCH].

Show you’ve done your homework


As an outsider looking in, it seems The 3X3 research approach is all about spending three minutes finding

three relevant pieces of information about a prospect. LinkedIn gives a

like a big challenge right now is
wealth of information on companies (headcount, growth rate) as well as

[PAIN POINT]. Is this something your the person you’re reaching out to (what are they responsible for, how do

they use to describe their role). Use these to tailor your pitch to their

team is focused on?

pain points and vernacular.

Don’t make assumptions


Nothing can end a cold call faster than a wrong assumption. Caveat

your information with statements like this or “I’m trying to put the

pieces together…” or “I’m doing some detective work here, maybe you

can point me in the right direction…”

Limit open-ended questions


They require more work, and your prospect doesn’t know yet if the

effort is worth it. Keep your questions simple to answer and use

questions that move the conversation in the right direction like:

“Curious, have you heard of us before?”

#5 Value Prop

Use social proof correctly


At [YOUR COMPANY], we help Wrongly applied, social proof backfires and win rates plummet by 47%

in early stage deals. Pick logos that belong to your prospect’s “tribe” –
customers like [SIMILAR COMPANY]
companies with similar industry, size, and geography.

solve [PAIN POINT] by [HIGH LEVEL

Use an interest CTA


VALUE PROP]. Does it make sense We tested the data on cold emails and the Interest CTA performs 2X

better than other CTAs. It reflects a new and highly effective approach
for me to give you more detail
to prospecting: selling the conversation, not the meeting. Once you get

about how we do that?

the nod that your prospect is interested, then you can move toward

setting a meeting.

#6 Closing

Frame your ask as an offer


It sounds like it might be worth Answer clearly “what does it cost” (a meeting), “what do I get” (why

should I do it), and “what do I need to do” (answer yes).

scheduling a call so we can provide

Use a specific CTA


more context on how we can
They’ ve already decided to meet with you, so their interest is

support your team to achieve established. That’s why you need a direct approach that gets straight to

the point. This technique works because removing friction helps your
[DESIRED STATE/OUTCOME/
buyer make decisions faster.

RESULTS]. How does [DATE/ TIME]

work for you?

www.gong.io
#7 Next steps

Give a nudge


Great, do you have your calendar in Don’t leave any outs after you have the nod from your prospect.

front of you? Perfect, I’ll send the Get the meeting before you hang up


Capitalize on your buyer’s interest while they are still on the phone – it’s
invitation now, did you get it yet?
harder to decline an invitation you’ ve already accepted than it is to

decline an invitation that you haven’t answered yet.

#8 Objection handling

Validate their objection


I totally understand if you’re busy Don’t steamroll. Instead, fall on your sword and acknowledge their

objection. This is the best way to prevent a call from ending on the spot.

right now. When is a better time

for you? Labelling


This is an advanced selling technique. Done right, it makes buyers feel

heard, understood, and more likely to respond positively to your follow

up ask.

That’s fair, it seems like you're

Follow up with a secondary ask


not the best person to speak

Don’t leave empty handed. Put your detective cap on and try to uncover

clues that will help you as you continue to prospect into that account.

with. I’m curious if you know who

is in charge of projects like this at

[COMPANY NAME]?

Thanks for calling that out, 


it sounds like I missed the mark,

could you tell me what your main

priorities are right now?

www.gong.io
Discovery Call Script

#1 Shoot for 11 to 14 questions

There’s a sweet spot for how many discovery questions 
 Don’t take it as an invitation to do “set it and forget it”

you should ask during a discovery call: Ask too many sales discovery.

discovery questions, the conversation will feel like an

Average reps ask all their questions at the beginning of the
interrogation. Too few, and you won’t unearth enough 

call. They frontload discovery. It’s as if they’re completing a
pain points.
to-do list of questions before launching into their pitch.

But top performers spread their discovery questions for sales

S hoot for 11-14 targeted questions per call evenly across their sales calls. To them, discovery is an

ongoing process, not an event.

80%
Here’s how to check in at the start of every call with a
74%
66% 67%
60% discovery question:

Success rates

40% 46%

Great, do you have your calendar in

20%
7-10 7-10 15-18 

1-6 (Low) (Med) (Med) (Very High) front of you? Perfect, I’ll send the
0

Number of questions asked per call invitation now, did you get it yet?

Source: gong.io/blog/best-discovery-call-tips

#2 Meet them where they stand

Start with sales discovery questions that respect the buyer’s Latent pain questions


journey stage. Discovery questions aimed at uncovering latent Your goal is to uncover potential fit between your buyer’s

pain make no sense (as a starting point) for a buyer already priorities and your solution. Ask “ you” questions so you can tie

evaluating products. But a question like: What do you hope to in your offering with their current initiatives:

achieve by implementing a solution? is frictionless. Because

it’s what your buyer wants to talk about.

What’s your biggest strategic priority

for this year?

Latent Pain
What initiatives are you rolling out as
Active Pain part of your plan ?

Solution Development Where are you in the process?

Evaluation

Decision

www.gong.io
Active pain questions
 Decision


Ask diagnosis questions to evaluate the symptoms, current Decisions are made by committee. Understanding who’s a part

fixes, and urgency. Any discrepancy here is more ammo you of the decision and what their priorities are can make or break

can use to move into impact questions. your deals.

How is this presenting itself as a Does [your solution/product]

problem to the business?

completely address [business

challenge]?

How are you currently addressing

[pain/problem]?
Who would feel left out if they didn’t

attend the demo?

Where does solving [business

challenge] sit on your priority list? Who else will these changes affect?

Solution development questions
 Take a step back


Ask questions that get buyers to spell out the potential impact Start with sales discovery questions that respect the buyer’s
a solution like yours might have for your buyer. journey stage. Once (and only once) you’ ve done that, can you
go back to the first question:

What would happen if we solved You: What are you hoping to achieve
[business challenge]?
by implementing a solution?

What happens if we don’t address Buyer: We’re looking to increase

this [pain/challenge] now?
sales skills .

What is your [boss/CEO] looking for in You: Good to know. What’s causing
this area of the business? you to prioriti ze that right now?

Buyer: Our revenue target has

increased, but our marketing budget

Evaluation questions

has not. We’ ve got to do more with
Try to glean information about their expectations: What results?

What buying process? What has motivated them to talk to you –

less. So, better selling skills is a big
this will keep them motivated to carry on the discussion.
part of that answer.

What do you hope to achieve by

Notice the second discovery question in that dialogue. It goes

implementing a solution?

BACK to the beginning stage of the buyer’s journey (pain).

What do you find the most But only once your first discovery question for sales
j
acknowledges that the buyer is already well into their ourney.
interesting about this offering?

Walk me through how you 


purchased [incumbent].

www.gong.io
#3 Trigger long responses

Don’t you HATE it when buyers answer your discovery call Start with your basic who, what, when, where, why, or how

questions with one-word responses? And guess what? question. Got one? Now, start your question with one of

According to our data, there’s a strong link between buyers’ these phrases:

response lengths and closed deals.

Can you help me understand…

.8

Can you walk me through…

.6
Success Rates

.4 Can you tell me about…

.2 Talk to me about...

0
50 100 150 200 250
Customer Story Length
For example:

Source: gong.io/blog/best-discovery-call-tips

What’s your biggest challenge? becomes Can you help me

understand your biggest challenge?

Here’s a discovery call tip to help you do that: S GNAL to your I

buyer that you want a long response. Do that by phrasing your This phrasing signals that you want your buyer to answer in

questions so they’re open-ended. depth. You’ll get richer answers that help you close deals.

#4 Mirroring

Now that you have them talking, here’s how to keep them talking so you can learn even more.

When they’ ve finished responding to your discovery question, do this:

Repeat the main 1-3 words your customer used in their response.

Do it with an upward voice tone, like you’re asking a question. Like this:

Buyer: We’re losing deals to competitors. Our product is strong, but our reps back peddle
when customers ask how we’re different.

You: Back peddle?

Buyer: Yes. They don’t respond with a crisp, strong answer. They stumble. And their
answers are inconsistent.

You: Inconsistent?

Buyer: Yeah, that’s another problem we have. I have 70 sales reps running 70 different
sales processes …

Used correctly, this technique from master negotiator Chris Voss opens the floodgates.

You’ll get long, rich answers that are perfect for solid discovery.

www.gong.io
#5 Labelling

Hint: NO ONE does this. When you notice your buyer’s emotion,

label it. If you labeled their emotion right, you did something You: It sounds like you feel

magic. You made your buyer feel deeply understood.

overwhelmed every time a new

Complete one of these sentences to do it:

onboarding class starts.

Buyer: I do! I feel a sense of dread

It sounds like you __________.

every Sunday night before the work

It seems like you __________.

week starts.

It looks like you __________.

The key is to shut your mouth after you’ ve voiced your label.

(Haven’t I said that already!?!)

An example might sound like this:

Let your buyer talk uninterrupted. They’ll love you for it AND
you’ll get to the deep, emotional, motivators that are

pushing them to act.

Buyer: It’s a TON of work to onboard

new sales reps. Creating the training

material is bringing our enablement

department to its knees.

#6 Ask questions based on what they said

Don’t start a new thread with every question. Go deep. Base

your next question on what your buyer just told you. Your Buyer: After they see a product demo.

discovery call questions should feel spontaneous.

The buyer gets excited. But then they

When you DON’ T take this approach, it seems like you’re zig have the daunting task of getting their

zagging through the conversation without a clear focus. It

VP scheduled for a sales call with us.
doesn’t feel like a natural conversation.

Weeks go by. We follow up. And then

Instead, ask your questions as a follow-up to what your
never hear back.

customer said:

You: Interesting. What would you need

to change in order to prevent that

You: Can you help me understand

from happening?
where you lose deals most often in

your sales process?

This is grossly oversimplified. But it illustrates the point:

Your second question shouldn’t start a new thread. It

should go deeper into an issue the buyer raised.

www.gong.io
#7 Ask questions only an expert would ask

You know the saying, “There’s no such thing as a dumb Sounds like a script. Whereas this question asks the same

question”? It doesn’t apply to sales calls!

information but signals a level of seriousness and expertise:

There are plenty of dumb questions. Many of which can bomb

your credibility.

Top rep: Can you walk me through

The best questions you can ask are ones that only an expert your sales process, from when you

would ask. They’re questions that make your buyer think

first generate a new lead, through to
rather than just recite information.

a closed deal?
Take this as an example:

The wording of your questions matters. Also: Don't ask

Average rep: What’s your sales

questions you can answer online. Do your research before

process?

the call.

BONUS: Don’t Use Slides

Slides kill discovery.

It’s not that slides are bad for sales — it’s that slides are

bad for discovery.

We found a strong negative correlation between the use of

slides in discovery meetings and the likelihood of earning a Here’s why: When you share slides, you move from a

follow-up call: conversation to a presentation. That’s a problem

because presentations are about delivering information,

but successful discovery calls are about exchanging

Selling with slides decreases information.

discovery call success rates

In other words, your buyer wants to be heard.

Success rates booking Screenshare – off.

follow up meetings
-17%

Discovery calls Discovery calls

with slides without slides

www.gong.io
Demo Call Script

Sales demos are easy and intuitive, right?

Wrong. ACTUALLY, sales demos are hard and counter-intuitive.

Here’s an example:

#1 Start with the end

Common advice for sales demos is to build anticipation.

In other words, start your sales product demo with the

problem you spent the most time on during discovery. Then

“Save the best for last,” they say.

move to the business problem you spent the second most

In fact, the most persuasive sales demos start with the end.
time on during discovery. And so on.

Here’s what the perfect “Upside Down” demo looks like: This approach is called “solution mapping” and it helps you

get straight to the point. Here’s how to do it:

You: Based on our conversation last

Surface Problems

Coaching
Onboarding week, it sounds like [Problem #1] is
Business Reasons

top of mind for your team this quarter.

Pipeline
Emotional Impact
Management

Is that right?

Topics Discussed in Successful Demo Flow

Discovery Buyer: Yes, that’s right.

You: Great, let’s dive right in and I’ll

show you how our solution solves that.

#2 Solve exactly

This is an underrated – and powerful – technique to drastically

improve your demos. Your demo should EXACTLY solve your I’ll pause here if there are any

customer’s business problem. No less. But, also, no more.

questions before moving on. [Mark a

Demo tips usually insist on “building as much value as

long pause]

possible!” And that usually means showing every feature in

the product. Most sales reps still cover too much ground, How do you see [yourself/your team]

believing that the MORE they show, the MORE value they build.

using this?

It’s a misguided approach that can sabotage your deal. We’ ve

found it’s much more effective to do concentrated sales Is this something you would use for

product demos. Why? Because if you say less about features,

[use case]?

your buyer has room to ask questions during your sales

product demo.

And top sellers know that’s a good thing. In fact, their buyers

ask 28% more questions than buyers in average reps’ product YOU don’t decide how much detail to give during your product

demos.
demo. Let your buyer decide if they want a 30,000-foot view or

the details on every nook and cranny.

Questions are a good sign you’ ve interested your buyer (and

that you haven’t bombarded them with too much). You’ ve

teased them and they want to know more. Here’s how to do it:

www.gong.io
#3 Focus on tearing apart the status quo

Opinion: Focus on benefits!

Benefits pitch

Reality: Focus on current pain.

Your team can get up to date metrics

Why? Because of loss aversion: It’s a psychological bias that

on their work.

means people will put in 2X more effort to avoid a loss than

to gain benefits.
Loss pitch

Your team can stop putting off

If your buyer believes that “status quo = more pain” they’ll run

toward your solution faster than they would if you painted a decisions while they wait for metrics.

vision of the benefits. In fact, they’ll run twice as hard. Notice

the difference:

Benefits pitch

Benefits pitch
Your team can streamline their work.

You’ll have more time to dedicate to

Loss pitch
other projects.

Your team can stop missing deadlines

Loss pitch due to lack of visibility into other team

You’ll stop wasting time doing members’ work.

repetitive tasks that are easy 


to automate.
Sure, benefits are nice. But they can be put off to a later time.

Losses feel more urgent: These are valuable opportunities that

are going to waste, I need to act now!

#4 Avoid generic social proof

Data-backed demo advice: Avoid one-size-fits-all social proof.

They face completely different problems, and buyers will think

“This product isn’t designed for people like me.”

I’m talking about your logo-salad slide:

Instead of naming a few big customer names, rattle off 5-7

names of customers that are from your buyer’s tribe — other

companies in their industry, operating at their level. Here’s

how to do it:

These are all the companies in your

space. We work with 17 of them: Up

from 4 just two years ago.

Why? Simple: Social proof only works if your buyers can identify Be sure that the problems you solved for those clients match

with the customers you’re showcasing. If your product is perfect your buyer’s pain points. Then you’re golden.

for the likes of Google or Apple, for example, then how could it

be right for an SMB buyer?

www.gong.io
#5 Use Before-After stories

ROI is dead. In general, attempting to prove ROI at any point in

the sales process correlates with a 27% drop in your likelihood [Customer] needed to increase sales

of closing a deal.

with equal lead flow and head count.

Why is that? When you show a buyer how you calculated their They increased their win rate from

ROI, they’ll challenge your assumptions. They’ll see your

[insert stat] to [insert stat] in 6
calculation as a weak argument unworthy of presenting to

their CFO.
months, resulting in a [percentage]

increase in revenue.
What’s a better strategy? Tell customer stories that focus on

before and after. Here’s what it sounds like:

When you build your business case with before-and-after customer stories, you’re bulletproof. There are no ROI model assumptions for

your buyer to argue with. You’re simply telling a story of what one of your customers achieved.

BONUS: Set next steps every time

Next steps are a huge part of deal momentum. Without them, Here’s how to lock in next steps before clicking “end meeting.”

you have no deal.

Need proof? Here’s the data on how next steps impacts win
Do you have your calendar in front of
rates. And the numbers are staggering:

you? Perfect, I’ll send the invitation

now... did you get it?

wins rates are significantly higher when next steps

are discussed at any part of the sales cycle
How does [Date/ Time] look for you? Is

When next steps there anyone else we should include

are not discussed
at this point in the discussion?

When next steps

are discussed
As a next step, I’d suggest [Your ideal
0% 10% 20% 30%

Close rates next step]. Does that sound good?

When works best for you early next

week?

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