On the very practical side:

- Separate clearly preparation time from execution time. Prepare your pitch. Prepare a nice long list of targets with the relevant information (why you picked them) + contact info. Make it so you don't have to go back to this while executing.

- Block off a 1-2 of hours to do the calling. No distractions, no over-thinking. If you are doing phone calls: it is you, a phone, your list of contacts, pitch help, and note-taking material in a room. You will be making back to back calls. Execution time is not the time to think of why you are getting rejected so much, or you will be making 2 calls when you should have made 20. This assumes you have a long enough list of targets to be able to just go through them.

- Start with lower stakes targets. Keep more important, more strategic, bigger, targets for a little later. In particular if you think you have a better chance of landing them for some reason. Preferably not for the first session. There is a warm up period for each session, and you should also be getting better after the first session. The first session is definitely a test more than anything else.

- Note down everything you can. Verbatim as much as possible.

- Make it conversational. The opening sentences are going to be scripted, and you can use a more scripted version of the rest of the pitch for the first few calls of a session, but as you warm up, let things be more conversational. This will be a more pleasant experience for you and the persons you call.

- Sales calls are all about asking questions and making a connection. Be curious about the persons you are talking to and use the time they give you to satisfy your curiosity. Ask follow-up questions. Chime in with an opinion or a sentiment now and then. Use what they give you (any answer or info) to dig deeper to understand their problem. You are typically better off selling a solution to a problem they actually have than selling a product/features. The difficult part is to get them to tell about their problem - because people who like to open up about their problems to strangers are pretty rare.

- Immediately after you are done with a session, look at your notes, organize them, complete them as needed from memory, and list all the follow up you have to do. You will be following up in a timely fashion. The people who did not pickup the phone are on the list for next time.

- Now is also a good time to reflect on how the next round can go better: What worked? Did you repeatedly hear a theme when they were pushing back? Do you need better proof? Handling objections is a key part of selling, so having notes of all the objections and devising ways to handle them is crucial. Were you targeting the right people, the right title? Was it the right time of day/week/quarter/year (budgeting cycles)? When things went better, was there a pattern you can identify?

- If you are working in a team of people conducting the same effort in parallel, share this feedback with them. Are they doing something that works? What are you guys learning about your customers? If one of you is having more success, them letting the others listen in on some of their calls can be gold.

- Rinse and repeat.

The thing is even when you are being rejected, you want to build knowledge about the market. That is an added value of this approach vs just listing your services on some marketplace and having a website.

And yes, like others have commented, any warm lead or referral will have 50x better success rate. BTW, if you can score a referral (even weak) from one of the people you are cold calling, that counts the same: "I spoke with xxx and she indicated you would be a better person to have this conversation".

Also, I am not implying cold calling is the right approach for your company and product, just giving a few practical tips if you are going to be doing it.