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How to Make Cold Calls Warmer (Without Sounding Like a Sales Script)
The Luxury Of Choice - Sales Skills Podcast
Cold calling has a reputation—and not a good one.
In this episode of The Luxury of Choice, Steve Vaughan is joined by the George James training team and special guest Manel Berga to explore a simple but powerful question:
How do we make cold calling… warmer?
From rejection and low pickup rates to the rise of LinkedIn, AI, and changing buyer behaviour, this conversation unpacks what modern prospecting really looks like in B2B sales—especially in technical and life science environments.
The big shift?
Cold calling isn’t about calling strangers anymore. It’s about earning the right to the conversation before you pick up the phone.
What You’ll Learn
- Why cold calling still matters (even if nobody enjoys it)
- How to “warm up” a call using LinkedIn, AI, and smart research
- The role of personalisation—and why most salespeople get it wrong
- How to add value before asking for a meeting
- Why generic outreach destroys trust (and what to do instead)
- How AI can dramatically improve your prospecting efficiency
- The importance of treating B2B as person-to-person (P2P)
- When (and how) to ask for the meeting without turning people off
Special thanks to Manel Berga for joining us on this show. https://www.linkedin.com/in/manelberga/
Steve Vaughan, Jonathan Cooper, Pru Layton, Christian Walter, Pascal le Floche, Jayne Green and Jonathan Slasinski are Sales Trainers from george james ltd. You can email the show at: Podcast@georgejames-training.com
The trainers on LinkedIn:
Steve Vaughan https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-vaughan-salestrainer/
Jonathan Cooper https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-cooper-18716b1/
Pru Layton https://www.linkedin.com/in/pru-layton-b46a3528/
Christian Walter https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-walter-a1857b1/
Jayne Green https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayne-green-salestrainer/
Pascal Le Floch-Riche https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascal-le-floch-220ba46/
Jonathan Slasinski https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-slasinski-449a655/
george james training website https://georgejames-training.com/
