Easy Tips to Boost Your Cold Call Confidence

Before we all take a break for Thanksgiving next week, we figured we should share some tips you’ll be thankful for.

We’re packing this week’s newsletter with the advice you need to close out Q4 strong:

• 5 ways to boost your cold calling confidence
• How to navigate end-of-year sales challenges
• What your peers have to say about ZoomInfo

Let’s dig in!

How to Cold Call with Confidence

Prospects decide if they’re going to listen in just a few seconds. 

If you sound unsure, they're out. If you sound like you believe what you're saying, they'll give you a shot.

The good news? Confidence is a skill. You can build it. 

And once you do, everything else — trust, rapport, conversion — gets easier.

1. Speak "forward,” not “up”

Drop the customer service voice. You know: sing-songy upspeak, signals inauthenticity. 

Instead, talk like a real person. Keep your tone level and conversational. Speak forward at your normal inflection. 

2. Slow down

The faster you talk, the less trustworthy you sound. Speed reads as nerves. And nerves read as desperation.

Slowing down does two things: 

• Makes you sound more confident
• Gives your prospect time to process

3. Use intentional pauses 

Pauses are breathing room so your prospect can jump in, ask a question, or signal interest.

Rushing through key points makes you harder to understand and easier to dismiss. Speak clearly. Let your words land.

4. Use definitive language

Think: 

• “This will help you to” instead of “you might be able to” 
• “Here's what happens next,” not "we could maybe do ..."

Don’t overpromise, but speak with clarity and conviction.

5. Master product knowledge

Confidence comes naturally from knowing your product inside and out. 

• What problems does it solve? 
• Who's it for? 
• What outcomes can customers expect?

When you know the answers cold, you stop second-guessing and just talk.

Bottom line

The real goal is to feel confident. Because when you actually believe in what you're saying, it shows. You can't fake that.

Confidence on cold calls is about being clear, calm, and certain. And that only comes from doing the work: knowing your product, cleaning up your delivery, and putting in the reps.

Do that, and trust follows.

Want even more tips to build your cold calling confidence? We’ve got you covered. 

Survey Says … Selling Through Q4 Challenges

We asked, you answered.

Our LinkedIn audience represents over 200,000 go-to-market professionals. We regularly survey them to get a pulse on selling strategies, purchasing behaviors, and general thoughts on all things tech.

Recently, we asked you the toughest part about selling in Q4. Your responses told us what you already know: budget freezes and calendar chaos are crushing Q4 pipelines.

Here's how to work around both without losing momentum.

The Budget Freeze Reality

Not every budget is frozen; some are just waiting for the right reason to unlock. Many finance teams operate on "use it or lose it" policies, where unspent budget gets cut next year. That means urgency for buyers who have surplus to allocate before December 31.

Your move:

• Reframe the conversation. Position your solution as a way to protect remaining budget now, whether that's locking in current pricing before Q1 increases or solving a problem that's costing them more by waiting.
• Offer flexibility. Phased rollouts or pilot programs lower the barrier to entry and make it easier for cautious buyers to say yes.
• Target the right accounts. Use your data to identify companies with fiscal years ending in December, recent funding activity, or a history of Q4 spending.

The Distraction Problem (and When to Actually Reach Out)

Our research on out-of-office reply rates confirms what you're feeling: OOO rates spike around Thanksgiving, settle briefly, then explode the week between Christmas and New Year's, with December 27 hitting the highest OOO rate of the year.

Your move:

• Front-load your outreach before Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, you're fighting holiday travel, PTO, and year-end scrambles. You’ve got a few days left before the holiday, so get that message out. 
• Go multi-channel. Email alone won't cut it. Layer in calls, LinkedIn touches, and direct mail to break through the noise.
• Plan for the reset. Mid-January is when OOO rates plummet and decision-makers return with fresh budgets. If you can't close in Q4, tee up deals now that execute in early Q1.

Budget freezes and distractions are real, but you can still reach your goals. The reps who hit quota in Q4 know which accounts to target, when to reach out, and how to make the business case impossible to ignore.

Mailbag

This one’s for our #1 ZoomInfo fans! Want to be featured? Post about ZoomInfo on social and be sure to tag us.

You’re speaking our language, David!

Data can give you so much more than just phone numbers.

Thanks for the love, Zvi 🫶

Thanks for reading!

Have something you’d like us to cover in an upcoming newsletter? Let us know in the comments. We promise, we read all of them.

Subscribe to this newsletter to get notified when we post.