Cold Calling Scripts and Cadence

A cold call is decided in the first ten seconds, before most scripts have delivered their first full sentence. The opening has one job — earn permission to keep talking — and most scripts spend it on a pitch instead.

The opening has to survive the pattern-interrupt moment

Weak     "Hi, this is [name] from [company], how are you today?" —
         recognized instantly as a sales call, met with a reflexive
         "not interested" before you've said anything real
Strong   a direct, honest statement of why you're calling, in one
         sentence, followed immediately by a genuine permission
         question

"How are you today" is the single most reliable trigger for an immediate, reflexive hang-up, because it's the universally recognized opening of an unwanted sales call. State the reason for the call plainly and quickly instead — people respond better to directness than to a script trying to disguise itself as a casual conversation.