Justatitle

Account Executive

Cold Calling, does it still work?

After constantly seeing posts about how cold calling is dead and people trying to push the narrative that it is dying to benefit their own personal gain I come here to say it is still very much alive in my opinion. Here is why

E-mai is becoming noisier and noisier where prospects inboxes are inundated and your outreach is likely ending up in their spam folders
Social media outreach through whatever channel is a lot of work for little to no return
The fastest way I can get in front of someone is through the phone

But wait, what do you say to them

Hi This is title from title company, I'm reaching out because we typically help with xyz I also work with (similar brand) and this is what we do for them. Is this something you deal with?

If I get asked how did i get their number or whatever else I will straight up tell them what source I used to get their number and if I get told to just e-mail them I'm crazy enough to say back "More than happy to e-mail you, I have a few times already, but usually e-mails are inundated so I want to make sure this is something you care about or I don't want to waste your time or mine."

Works with a higher success rate than other methods so yeah...

Discuss and debate below

🔎 Prospecting

📞 Cold Calling

23

26 comments

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oldcloser

Arsonist

6

💀

“Cold calling is dead” is a weak-ass justification for not picking up the phone, and consequently, failing at sales.

I got PIP’d because cold calling is dead. Not fair!

CuriousFox

WR Officer

6

🦊

Somebody call the wahhhhmbulance 🚑🚨

2

Sr. Enterprise Account Executive

100%

0PercentCloseRate

Politicker

4

Oh boy

It all works. use every tool and method available to you

(but cold calls are king)

Pachacuti

Politicker

4

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Anyone who says Cold Calling is Dead is trying to sell you something. Its not dead - you just need to know how to do it right.

Gasty

Notable Contributor

4

War Room Community Manager

Omni-channel approach is the key. Everything works.
Sometimes some ways work better than others but can’t escape the cold calling route.

waterjugsales

Politicker

3

Account Executive @ Funemployed

Yes it works.

BigShrimpin

Politicker

3

Account executive

is asking if cold calling works dead?

Justatitle

Big Shot

1

Account Executive

the hard-hitting questions

oldcloser

Arsonist

1

💀

fine point here

countingmyinterest

Politicker

2

Account Executive

Cold calls are harder to get through. It's not dead, but it is definitely harder to filter through all the AI call filters and people just don't pick up their phones as much.

SalesBeast

Politicker

2

Sales Leader

I have not seen more than a handful of deals close from cold calling in almost 20 years of selling SaaS tech solutions.
It might work for some industries, but across hundreds of sales reps and SDRs, I have seen nothing but vanity metrics come from it. Sure it appeases upper management and investors in rough times and is great at pumping up meeting numbers. But as for actual closed deals -it almost never pays off. Most BDR set up meetings end up thinking it’s a job interview or have no idea what they are walking into. People answering phones is at an all time low.

Justatitle

Big Shot

0

Account Executive

Respect your opinion, in certain industries, yes contracts and such make it difficult for cold calling to be effective and marketing along with inbound and strong product is all you have. In my world if it wasn't for deals closing from cold calling I'd have been fired 8 months ago.

SalesBeast

Politicker

-1

Sales Leader

What are you selling, is it >50,000 ACV software technology? Are you at a no name company or known big name?
In tech, especially cybersecurity most these bastards don’t answer calls, some hide their LinkedIns, do not trust or answer any emails or links/attachments you send them. People are skeptical AF. Also how long have you been at your spot? Most outbound deals take >12+ months to get budget, buy in, and build a business case from scratch.
Sounds like you are a beast at cold calls. Nice work.
I still do them, but I understand they are about as effective as trying to boil the ocean one cup at a time.
I’ve seen teams of 12-15 outbound SDR reps bring in a combined total of $80,000 ARR across the full team in a period of 6-7 years- An absolute awful ROI, when they cost the company over a million a year across the team in salary and benefits to be in their seats.

Justatitle

Big Shot

2

Account Executive

Id say it’s a known name but even then it’s still educational when I first call people, don’t get me wrong there’s days I feel like I’m boiling the ocean but I’ve closed deals that are more than 100k ACV in 2-3 weeks due to the nature of what I sell

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

1

ERP Sales

Using all methods is always the best since you don’t know how the prospect prefers to interact with reps with

Beans

Big Shot

1

Enterprise Account Executive

Still the best.
AI tools are just going to make emails spammier, it's rare to near impossible to get referrals to the right person via email too.
And incoming spam filters from hosting services.

eusales

Opinionated

1

Senior Account Executive

What alternatives are there? None in my opinion as prospects are getting spammed to death through email and LinkedIn. I use to ask for referrals and it works but, whenever I get the prospects number I just straight call. Also it’s not a cold call if you have sent them email and messages before. Every touchpoint helps

detectivegibbles

Politicker

1

Sales Director

If cold calling is dead, then I just lost 40 pounds and got a 6 pack.

Justatitle

Big Shot

1

Account Executive

Margot Robbie just dm'd me too

RyanHowardWHUPF

Contributor

1

Account Executive

I love the cold calling part of my job. It’s a grind but it pays off when I’m top of the leader board simply because I would rather make as many calls as I can til I get someone on the phone than complain that the leads aren’t picking up or research an incomplete lead til it’s time for another coffee break like my peers

MrPapi

Executive

1

Enterprise Account Executive

I believe that you can turn cold calling into warm calling if you do your fair research about who you going to be calling to.
I remember that I started my career as an SDR making 100 calls/day and scheduling 3-4 Demos/week. After 1 month of doing that, I realized that it wasn't about the quantity but on how much I knew about the prospect before my call. I ended up making 12-15 calls a day scheduling 2-3 meetings a day.
I got promoted to AE after 3 months of being an SDR.

ChiefConsultingOfficer

Personal Narrative

1

Executive Manager

I've never had someone respond to an email with, "well now that I know you're trying to sell me something I definitely want to listen."

I've had multiple prospects pick up the phone and begrudgingly ask what I'm calling about before saying some variation, "I'll be frank, this is a sales call and I'm reaching out to gauge your interest in X service. Is this something that you use or might be interested in?"
Cold calls are still more personal than emails and personal + personality wins business more often than product alone.
Is it harder?
Yes.
Are there lower levels of return on your time investment?
Absolutely.
But build a call block and dial through it. Build your outreach campaign while mindlessly dialing and saying the same voicemail prompt in two dozen variations. Start working on other prospecting items, post on LinkedIn, find your next networking event/mixer, or shit, get done what you need to get done otherwise or dick around, it's your time and it's as valuable as you make it.
But I've closed more deals from being candid, upfront, and personable over the phone than I ever have from an Outreach campaign. As more and more inboxes are inundated with shitty email campaigns, the salespeople who still have the tenacity to pick up the phone are just going to keep being even more successful.

Diablo

Politicker

0

Sr. AE

It works 100% if you know your ICP and strategize well.

LeadMachine

Big Shot

0

Sr. BDR

Cold calling builds strong bones and muscles!

salesbd

0

Sales Manager

I think we cannot generalize, because cold calling clearly works in some industries and not so much in others. I found that when working for a well-known company nobody hung up on me, while when at a small unknown company you are almost always treated like one of those people offering duct cleaning services. In this case warm calling (through referrals) and trade shows work better at generating leads. Again, there is no single universal truth.

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