The best question on a business phone call is "when does your current phone contract end?" It is a fact the buyer knows or can find, it has a date as its answer, and it separates the companies you can talk to this quarter from the ones you should call back in eight months. Below is a full sample call, both sides written out, then the objections, a voicemail, a follow-up email and the legal basics.
The caller is made up. Dana Okafor sells hosted phone service for Clearline Voice, aimed at offices of 5 to 40 people that still use a landline carrier or an old on-site phone box. The buyer is Gareth Pruitt, office manager at a fictional surveying firm. Read it as a model, not a recording.
The whole call, line by line
Dana: Hi, Gareth? Dana Okafor at Clearline Voice. I'm a salesperson, I'll be quick. I'm calling offices around town to ask one thing about phones. Who handles your phone system?
Gareth: That would be me. Why?
Dana: I help offices move from desk phone lines to phones that run over the internet, so calls ring on a desk or a cell, wherever the person is. Before I say another word, are you on a landline carrier or an internet-based system now?
Gareth: Landlines. Eight of them, plus the old phone box in the closet.
Dana: Eight lines, that's good to know. Two quick questions. When does that contract or service agreement end, roughly? And when the power or internet goes out, what happens to your calls?
Gareth: Contract ends in March, I think. And when the power goes out, nothing, we just don't answer.
Dana: March gives us time. What I'd like to do is look at your last phone bill with you for 15 minutes, count what you pay per line, and show you what the same eight lines would cost on our system, including a plan for when the power is out. If it isn't cheaper or better, you've lost 15 minutes. Does Wednesday at 10 or Thursday at 3 work?
Four things made that call work. Dana said she was a salesperson. She asked about something Gareth knew without looking. She got a date and a pain (calls lost in an outage) on the first pass. And the ask was about his bill, not her product.
Why the contract question matters most
Phone service is bought on a cycle. A buyer under contract has a real cost to leave early, and a buyer near the end of one is open. When Gareth said March, Dana had two jobs: book the review now and put a reminder in her calendar for 90 days before March, in case the review slips. If the contract had ended in 14 months, she would have asked for permission to call back in a year and moved on. For the same cycle logic applied to another product, see the cold call script for IT services.
When the buyer says something else
- "We're locked into a contract." "When does it end? Some contracts let you add a new system alongside while the old one runs out. I'll call you three months before the end date."
- "Our phones work fine." "Glad to hear it. When the power or the internet is down, do the calls still get answered? That's the one thing offices tell me they wish were different."
- "I don't trust calls over the internet." "Sound quality does depend on your internet connection. That's why I'd start with a test line on your own network for a week, before anybody moves a number." Offer a test, not an argument.
- "Send me a quote." "I can, but I'd be guessing without your bill. Can you send me the last phone bill, with the account number blacked out, and I'll build a quote around it? I'll email back within a day."
- "What do you charge?" "Per user per month, and it depends on features. For eight lines I can tell you in the review, using your real bill for comparison." See what to say when a prospect asks how much for the long version.
Voicemail and the follow-up email
Gareth, Dana Okafor at Clearline Voice, 555-0148. I'm asking offices around town when their phone service agreements end, and what happens to calls in an outage. I'll send a two-line email today and try you Thursday morning.
Subject: Your phone bill, eight lines
Hi Gareth, thanks for the minute. You said eight landlines, a contract that ends in March, and no answered calls during outages. I'd like to go through your last phone bill with you for 15 minutes and show you the same lines on our system. Wednesday at 10 or Thursday at 3? Dana Okafor, Clearline Voice, 72 Alder Road, Reno. Reply "stop" and I won't write again.
When to call an office
Office managers answer their own phones, so the call is easier than you think. Avoid the first hour of the day, when the office is opening, and the end-of-day rush. Mid-morning, about 10 to 11:30, and early afternoon are normal choices. Never call during a lunch you know about. If the front desk screens you, how to get past the gatekeeper covers the first sentence.
The law, short version
The Federal Trade Commission's Telemarketing Sales Rule exempts most calls from a telemarketer to a business (16 CFR 310.6(b)(7)). The rule still bans false or misleading statements about the cost, quantity or performance of what you sell (16 CFR 310.3(a)(2) and (a)(4)), so quote prices and call quality only as you can prove them, and it still covers calls that sell nondurable office or cleaning supplies. Its calling window is 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the called person's location (16 CFR 310.4(c)); that wording is about residences, but sales calls to businesses should sit inside it too. A firm's main line is a business line, though its owner often gives out a mobile number, and in February 2024 the Federal Communications Commission ruled that AI-generated voices count as artificial voices under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, so calling a mobile phone with one needs consent in the cases the law covers. Some states have their own rules, and you should check yours. This is general information, not legal advice.
If you want the calling handled while you work on the quotes, Rocketship's Launch plan and up includes AI phone calls that say they are an AI assistant and can book the meeting on the call, plus a follow-up from your own Gmail. The pricing page has the details.