I would say the most important thing for a cold caller to have is confidence. Yes product knowledge, good sales skills, ability to ask questions is all great and important. However, those things can be taught. Confidence on the phone is something you have or don't. People are more apt to open up and have a conversation if you come across as engaging and interesting.

@Johannes Berger when i first started i was so obsessed with research and messaging to that specific thing. Then I found out, it doesn't really matter. The goal is to get them to talk, and all the research in the world won't do you any good if they don't talk to you.

there are a few agents I work with that have built their business on cold calling. They either call expired listings, for sale by owners, or internet leads. So it's for sure something that is a viable way to build a business from.

@Samuel Průša Sorry took so long to get back to you. So I got a coach over the summer to help me focus my work and brain storm some new avenues for leads. My scripts kind of evolved over the last few months. One of the more common recruiting calls in my area is a 3rd party out sourced (usually from a foreign country) spam calling agents. So part of my script is to use humor to acknowledge recruiters are really interrupting peoples days. I also say I'm going to be more interesting than the previous recruiters. It has worked pretty well for me. Though, i did post my opener on the "roast my opener" page and was told it's too long.

I don't answer the phone :) I used to, but it's such an awkward conversation. I always leave a voicemail and send an email about the call. So the call back is probably just knee jerk. They'll be back on my call list in 2 weeks, so better for me to just push forward.

emulate your audience. If they are laid back and cursing up a storm the less formal you sound the better. If it's prim and proper mr or m(r)s business than you better polish off that thesaurus and start sounding like you know a thing or two about a thing or two. I say all that say, be authentic. People can feel fake.