What Is Cold Calling & How Do You Get It Right in the Digital Age?

It doesn’t have to be that way. 

Cold calling is moving away from the old-fashioned image of the pushy salesperson, with modern techniques enabling you to have much more productive conversations.

Let’s look at why it should still form part of your sales strategy, and discuss some tips on how to cold call successfully.

What is cold calling?

Let’s start off with a cold calling definition. Cold calling is the practice of contacting potential customers with whom you’ve had no previous interactions. These individuals may not have expressed any prior interest in your product or service.

Also known as telemarketing, this approach is typically used in outbound sales where reps introduce the company’s offering. Although cold calling is associated with making a hard sales pitch, nowadays it’s evolved into a softer approach where the aim is to generate interest.

This modern method is technically “warm calling”, because reps call people who’ve been identified as likely leads—as opposed to completely random outreach. However, it’s still “cold” in the sense that the recipient isn’t expecting the call.

Does cold calling still work?

Now that we understand the cold calling meaning, does this practice actually work? After all, the sales environment has changed and there are plenty of other options for cold outreach, including email, SMS, and social media.

These methods can be more convenient for customers, as their busy lives don’t get interrupted for a “live” conversation. And they can also save time and resources for sales teams. In addition, fewer people even have a landline phone service these days, including many businesses.

But if you think cold calling has had its day, think again.

There are still plenty of potential customers who appreciate or even prefer a phone call, such as older and more senior decision-makers. 57% of C-level and VP-level buyers say they prefer to interact via phone. And emails or texts can easily be overlooked, whereas phone calls are immediate.

66% of companies say voice calls are “essential” or “very important” to achieving their goals, such as making sales. That’s why cold calling remains surprisingly effective, with 82% of buyers saying they’ll accept meetings with sellers who reach out.

One reason for its continued success is that the methods have changed. As we mentioned already, today’s cold calling is more targeted. Reps are no longer expected to call a long list of numbers and push hard for a sale.

Instead, they’ll do a little background research into each prospect before calling, and focus more on individual customer needs. It’s all about building relationships and selling the value of the product, showing people how it can solve their problems.

It’s especially useful for B2B customer acquisition, when leads are already qualified by the marketing department. Cold calling enables you to get real-time responses, gather useful information, and handle any potential objections.

Is cold calling legal? Legislation and regulations to be aware of

You’re probably wondering about the legality of cold calling. Hasn’t it been outlawed in certain areas? Well, no—but there are a number of regulations and cold calling laws that restrict the way you do it. These are applicable in most countries, although the details vary.

The various laws and regulations are designed to minimize unethical practices and protect consumers from being bombarded with cold calls. For example, the US has state-specific rules governing the times of day when you’re allowed to call prospects, and making calls on weekends and holidays.

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has a specific Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) which states that reps may only call residential numbers from 8am to 9pm, local time. Within two seconds of the recipient answering, you must state your name, company, and the purpose of the call. It also mandates keeping call records to show how many are answered, unanswered, or abandoned.

Meanwhile, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) says that you must obtain prior express written consent before making calls via auto-dialers, prerecorded messages, or AI-powered tools. This consent must be specific to your business. Consumers can revoke it through any medium, and you must honor the request within 10 business days.

Another requirement of the TCPA is that you must not call any number listed on the national Do Not Call Registry, although this applies largely to householders and not business-to-business calls. You should check the database regularly and remove any of these numbers from your lists.

Under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations, telemarketers cannot call cell phones without consent from their users. In general terms, reps should avoid making multiple calls to the same person, and always inform them if the call is being recorded.

Other parts of the world have different laws that cover similar ground. If you or your prospect is based in Europe, you’re bound by General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations. Some European countries have additional rules, like Germany’s double opt-in method.

GDPR also applies in the UK, alongside the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). Plus, you’ll need to avoid cold calling anyone on the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) list, which allows individuals to opt out of unsolicited calls.

Challenges of cold calling

Cold calling isn’t an easy thing to get right. Apart from the legal issues, sales reps have to think about the ethics of cold calling. They have to know how to handle rejection, and carry out research to ensure the prospects are worth calling. 

Here are the key challenges:

Maintaining compliance

As we discovered in the previous section, there are lots of laws and regulations for cold calling. It’s crucial that you know which rules apply to you, especially if you’re calling other states or countries. Specific industries, such as financial services, also have their own regulations for cold calling.

Bear in mind that regulations are subject to change over time. 

For example, the FCC made a new rule mandating stricter consent when sending text messages to consumers (which is a version of cold outreach). It was meant to take effect in January 2025, but the deadline has been pushed back pending a legal challenge.

What we’re saying is: Make sure you stay up to date on any new regulations or amendments. 

If you don’t comply, your business can face hefty fines as well as reputational damage. Aside from actual regulations, you also need to conduct cold calling in an ethical manner.

High rejection rates

While it’s disheartening to have your email or SMS ignored, it’s far more demoralizing to be rejected in person during a phone call. But unfortunately, rejection is one of the main challenges in cold outreach.

Some potential customers will terminate the call part-way through hearing about your product. Others won’t even let you get that far, hanging up the moment they realize you’re a salesperson. In the worst cases, they might even give you a mouthful of verbal abuse.

This makes it daunting to call someone out of the blue. Plus, it’s often hard to get through to the right person—the decision-maker—when cold-calling a business. You might be blocked by an officious gatekeeper, which is always frustrating.

But remember, cold calls aren’t about making the sale; they’re about getting prospects to the next stage of the pipeline. The call puts your brand on their radar, and it can also tell you whether or not this lead is worth chasing.

Ensuring quality of leads

You’ll get nowhere fast if the prospects you talk to aren’t a good fit for the product or service you’re selling. If your cold calling campaign is to be successful, you need to be speaking to high-quality leads. And finding them is the next challenge on our list.

Conducting research into prospects’ backgrounds is time-consuming, although it has the advantage of weeding out those who aren’t worth calling. Sales reps also need to think about lead quality during calls—gathering information and asking open-ended questions to match leads with ideal customer profiles and discern genuine intent.

There are tools you can use to help with improving lead quality. For instance, Dealfront provides a comprehensive database of B2B company and contact information, and also tells you in real time when the right companies are visiting your website so you can reach out quickly.

Protecting brand reputation

Let’s face it, cold calling—at least in its traditional form—has a poor reputation. 

Customers still assume that sales reps will call at the most inconvenient times and try to push them into a sale. To make matters worse, scam artists often use cold calling, leading to further loss of trust.

All of this means that reps can face resistance from prospects, but it also means that even the act of cold calling can create a negative perception of your brand. It’s super-important that sales teams do everything they can to offset this with respectful communication.

This includes avoiding aggressive tactics or misrepresentation of the product’s capabilities, and letting prospects know why they’re calling from the start. It’s crucial to respect the prospect’s time and privacy, and remain professional in the face of objections or rudeness.

Cold calling tips for nailing your preparation

Before you start dialing, there are a few things you should do to prepare for the call and help it to go smoothly. 

Here’s our selection of tips for cold calling preparation:

Plan ahead

Start by setting out your objectives for each call. You might aim to schedule a meeting, qualify the lead, or sign them up for a product demo. 

You can then design a cadence of calls or emails for that prospect, and have a clear plan for the next steps you’ll take based on each response.

Do your research

Now it’s time to find out as much as you can about the prospect, and figure out if they’re likely to be interested in your product or service. You can discover plenty of valuable data via social media, and by checking your own company records to see if this prospect has ever interacted with you before.

For B2B sales, research target companies through their websites and blogs, their social media, and any news articles that feature them. Think about the type of pain points they might have. Remember, you’ll need to identify the decision-makers within that organization.

If you don’t find enough to go on, take a look at similar prospects for inspiration.

Look for connections

The best way to establish a rapport with the prospect is to find some kind of connection or common experience that links you to them. During your research, try to identify something you can use to your advantage—maybe you have a mutual friend online, or maybe you attended the same college.

You can also look at what they’ve posted on socials recently and find a business-related talking point.

Find their cell numbers

A cell number can give you a faster connection to the right prospect. Think about it: With so many people working from home at least some of the time, there’s less chance of your target answering the office landline. And plenty of businesses operate entirely remotely.

If you can find your prospect’s cell number, you’ll catch them wherever they are. Plus, you won’t have to go through a gatekeeper, such as a receptionist or an assistant. 

N.B. Cold calling via business cell phones is more common in the US than in Europe.

Timing is key

Think carefully about the best time to place the call. Mondays and even Tuesdays are out, as people tend to be busiest then. And nobody will thank you for calling on a Friday afternoon! Mid-week is the optimum time, and research shows that the best time of day to call is between 4pm and 5pm.

However, prospects in senior positions still may not have time to answer an unsolicited call at those times. To avoid being blocked by their assistants, you could try to call them outside of the nine-to-five (although not too early or late!).

One more tip on timing; before you make the call, check your CRM records to make sure that this prospect hasn’t received a call from your business in recent months. If it’s not that long since your team put the feelers out, avoid trying again for a while longer.

Create a script

A script is essential to make sure you ask the right questions and steer the interaction in the right direction. You’ll definitely need to script the opening lines, and include information the prospect will want to know.

For example, it can be hard to remember statistics about your product, so putting them in the script will give you a reminder. It’s a good idea to script the end of the call, too, asking the prospect to agree to a follow-up call or a meeting.

Don’t forget to practice with your script until you feel confident. It’s important to make the conversation sound natural rather than robotic.

Predict objections

It’s likely that the prospect will raise various objections to your offering, so make a list of possible reasons they might give for not continuing—they’re too busy to chat, they already have a solution in place—and plan how to handle them.

As well as objection handling, you could add different pathways to your script to cover all the ways the conversation might go. For example, what to do if you encounter a gatekeeper or the call goes to voicemail.

Effective cold calling techniques during the call

Now let’s move on to making the call itself. Follow our tips on cold calling to make sure you engage the prospect from the get-go:

Make a good impression

When the prospect answers your call, you’ve got about 30 seconds to grab their attention before they shut you down. 

Greet them warmly and state why you’re calling—remember, they don’t know you from a hole in the ground at this point, so give them a reason to listen and to trust you.

However the call goes, always be friendly and relatable, and try to stay positive and confident in your offering.

Ask open-ended questions

Asking open-ended sales questions can reveal a lot about your prospect, because it gives them the chance to share their needs and pain points.

For example, don’t say: “Are you happy with your current solution?” They’ll probably just give a one-word answer—and if it’s “Yes,” you’ve got nowhere else to go. Instead, ask: “What do you like and dislike about your current solution?”

This encourages them to think about their needs and to tell you more, and gives you an opportunity to ask supplementary questions.

Use active listening

After encouraging the prospect to talk, you better make sure you listen! 

Active listening involves tuning in to the meaning behind their words, and not interrupting the flow. Repeat what they’ve said back to them to prove that you’ve understood, and show that you empathize with their problem. It’s all about building their trust.

Sell the benefits

It’s very important that you learn about the prospect’s pain points, so that you can show them how your solution can help. It might be tempting to talk about all the bells and whistles of your product, but you don’t need to do that at this stage. Leave that for a follow-up or a demo.

Instead of discussing the features, demonstrate value by focusing on the benefits and the impact they would have on the specific problem. This will also show that you’re listening and understanding what they need.

Be flexible

Don’t be afraid to deviate from the script if the conversation demands it. It’s there to give you guidance and make sure that you include the key points, not to restrict you.

The path of your conversation will depend on what the prospect says, and you’ll need to be ready to follow it—while not losing sight of the overall objective. You can modify your language and tone according to the prospect’s personality.

Don’t discuss pricing

Pricing discussions have no place in a cold call. You’re introducing your business and its product or service, not closing a deal. Although knowing the prospect’s budget is useful information, you can find this out later once you’ve established the initial spark of interest.

Okay, so what if they ask about the price? Don’t commit to anything. Say something like: “We do have prices to suit various budgets, but I’ll need to know more about your requirements before I can quote you.” Then offer to set up a meeting to discuss their needs.

Manage obstacles

We already mentioned predicting possible objections and working out how to get around them. But there are other potential obstacles, too. Your call might go straight to voicemail, or you might need to persuade a gatekeeper to pass on your message or give you the prospect’s cell number.

Voicemail is easy to handle, as long as you’ve got a script for what you want to say. Keep it short and to the point, and don’t forget to include your contact details! 

Gatekeepers can be trickier, but always be polite and explain why your offering would be of value to their boss.

Know when to quit

Sales reps do need to show persistence, but there’s no point in talking to a brick wall. If the prospect is adamant that they don’t need your solution, it’s okay to end the conversation. You can then move on and focus your efforts on somebody who’s more receptive.

Cold calling best practices for after the call

The end of the conversation isn’t the end of the process. Here’s some handy cold calling advice for what to do afterward:

Follow up promptly

It’s crucial that you follow up with the prospect after this initial cold call. 

If you got them to agree to a meeting, send them the calendar invite. If you didn’t, you should still follow up strategically, using a cadence of further calls and emails (or voicemail, SMS, social media DMs. . . whatever works).

Don’t hound them, but don’t leave it too long either—you want them to remember you! Remind them of the conversation you had, and try again to get them to commit to an appointment. You can also send them relevant articles or reports, to show you’re not only concerned with making a sale.

Don’t give up

If you’ve done a couple of follow-ups but the prospect still isn’t biting, don’t give up on them. In many cases, a conversion won’t happen until multiple interactions have taken place. In fact, it takes an average of eight touches even to get an initial meeting with a new prospect. 

However, as we said earlier, you should know when to quit. If nothing’s happening after multiple follow-ups, send one last email saying that you’ll leave them alone if you don’t hear back this time. Reiterate that they can contact you any time if they change their mind.

Update your CRM

In any sales campaign, you’ll be cold calling companies at scale. You won’t be able to remember details about each one unless you write them down—by which we mean entering them digitally into your CRM, not scribbling notes on a Post-It.

After every cold call, log who you called and when, and what happened (did you have a chat, or just leave a message? What did you learn about the prospect’s needs?) 

Make a note of all your follow-ups, too, and any responses from the prospect. This information will be valuable to you and your colleagues in the future.

Analyze and learn

CRM entry isn’t the only task to complete after a cold call. You should also evaluate how it went, thinking about which parts were successful and where you could have done better. How did you handle objections? It’s worth recording common objections and the strategies that resolve them.

See how each call stacks up against your team’s key performance indicators (KPIs); like the number of calls made per shift, or the number of meetings scheduled. 

Supervisors know that cold calling is tough, so don’t be afraid to ask for extra training or advice from more experienced reps.

An ideal cold calling example

Here’s a hypothetical example of a sales rep nailing all the tips above and carrying out the perfect cold call. Not all calls will go this well, but you can see that the rep has taken advantage of every opportunity presented by the prospect:

- Hi there, am I speaking to Sam?

Yes, this is Sam speaking.

- Hi, my name’s Andi and I’m calling from XYZ Limited. We’ve never spoken before, but Bob Smith recommended that I give you a call.

Oh yeah? How do you know Bob?

- We’re connected on LinkedIn. I was telling him about XYZ’s recruitment platform, and he thought you might be interested. Do you have a couple of minutes to chat?

Yes, okay, I have a few minutes now.

- Okay, great! So, you’ve just set up a new Arizona office, right? How’s that going?

It’s going okay, although we only just got started. We do already have a recruitment platform, though. . .

- You do? I’ve found that a lot of small businesses use ABC software; is that what you’re using?

Yeah, we use ABC, too.

- Okay. Can you tell me what you like and dislike about it?

Um, well, we like the candidate screening tool and the employee referral portal. Dislikes. . . I guess it’s a little more expensive, but it is a good platform.

- A few people have mentioned to me that ABC doesn’t have too many integrations. Is that something you’ve found?

Yeah, that’s true, but we do like the other features.

- Okay. Well, would you be open to seeing a demo of XYZ’s product? I can show you our applicant screening tool, which is AI-powered. It’s the feature our customers love the most.

I guess a demo wouldn’t hurt.

- Absolutely—no obligation. How about we set up a video call where I can walk you through it. We could say next Wednesday morning, if that works for you?

Let me check. . . it’d need to be early because I have a meeting at 11.

- No problem. How about 9.15? That’ll give you time to have a coffee first!

Okay, 9.15 on Wednesday then.

- Perfect! I’ll send you a calendar invite with a link to the video call—you just have to click it to join automatically. You’ll get a reminder 10 minutes before the meeting, too.

Okay, thanks.

- And thank you for your time today. Have a great week!

Supercharge cold calling and all your sales processes with Dealfront

Cold calling isn’t easy—it can be scary to pick up the phone and convince someone who doesn’t know you to give you a few minutes out of their busy day. But you can nail it by using the right strategy—and the right tools.

It’s important to know a little about your prospects before calling them, so that you have something to hang the conversation on. Dealfront helps you to identify quality leads from a global database of B2B company profiles, providing a solid foundation for your pre-call research.

The profiles include information on a company’s hierarchy, finances, current tech stack, and latest developments. Plus, you’ll have access to valid contact details for the key decision-makers, accelerating the cold calling process.

The platform also alerts you when companies with buyer intent are visiting your website, giving you the chance to act quickly while the lead is hot. And you can send prospect data to your CRM with a single click so it’s there when you and your team need it.