How many prospecting calls do you actually make in a day? Let's be honest now...

Question

I'm an Account Executive working in acquisitions (I know, pretty big deal, right?) Prospecting is part of the job. I get it. I've had way more success using a strategic outreach approach by trying to coax the ol decision maker out of there cave with some sort of incentive just long enough for me to get them in my crosshair.

That's all well and good but my company still wants us to make cold calls. They expect 20 dials a day. I know that's not crazy but I seriously look around me and have a feeling that literally no one is actually making dials. Most of our BDRs rely heavily on inbounds and just spamming people with emails. They don't even get on the phone for a qualifying conversation before sending some would-be customers over to us.

Listen people! What I'm getting at is, are people actually making the cold/warm calls anymore or are we just pretending too??? For me, it just depends on the day and which side of the bed that I woke up on.

Accepted Answer

I spend about 2 hours a day calling which is 20-30 calls for me. If you can't manage 20 calls a day then I hope you have a massive amount of inbounds. I would be out of a job if I didn't prospect.

Answer

This is an interesting thread to read on from a leadership perspective. I personally don't have any "activity minimums" in place for my crew - but I do have "results expectations" for opportunities created per week.  I find it surprising how many folks have this set "number" that they do (email and phone) and then "hope for the best".  Sales (especially from an activity perspective is a very fluid thing.  Some weeks will be seasonably slow, some weeks you'll be flat, some weeks you'll be on fire.   Selling (especially outbound) is constantly self evaluating and pivoting to drive consistent success.

Answer

Well not to be a D*ck, but 20 dials a day is literally NOTHING. Our new reps are supposed to ramp up to 100 dials a day in their first 30 and maintain that until they have a steady pipeline of activity and leads built up. BTW we work 5 hour days so 20/hr is doable for newbies.

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Dials don't matter. I want 3 real conversations a day.

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Hi welcome to the War Room! We are so glad you're here ❤

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I set anywhere between 15-20 original demos a month solely by picking up the phone and having conversations. Average of 60 dials a day made between 1-5pm. If you are not making calls, you are missing out on making money, amigo.

Answer

I aim for 30-40 a day. I’m a full cycle AE with an SDR team though.

Answer

BDR here. Anywhere between 20-40 calls a day + Heavy email sequences usually yields to around 200 touchpoints per week and my pipeline is pretty healthy. I prefer to prospect and do research that just blast dials since I figure out who I'm calling vs just smile and dials without regard to who the person is.

Answer

I never make less than 40. Though I'm no where near the 160 I would regularly push in my early days I'm a big proponent of cold calling.

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Don't do much cold calling these days. When I do outbound I'm good for a customized sequence of 4 email with 2 call in between. Spread this across 30 days because I'm not one to spam.

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I’m an SDR, so calling is basically all I do. I make 75 to 100 dials in Outreach, and then spend 3 hours in our autodialer. In between I enrich SFDC and dos other admin stuff.

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Capital equipment med device company here- I’m the only rep that does actual cold calls in our 4 man sales team. VP of sales talks to us once a quarter and literally is like just do more than you did last year. Top 2 reps do little to no cold calling but somehow have largest territories. Also, leadership makes a point to not evaluate based on activity. I’m the only one that brings up activity in our monthly meetings. Every territory has shit growth except mine- up 526% from 2018-2020. I only make 10-20 calls/day with some exceptions. I’ll send a mailchimp blast once a month too. Def a different market than you software people. I’ve always hated that the top reps do no cold calling and the company has no sales leadership… but welp… that’s why I was hired. Makes me look like a rockstar in my company even though I feel like an asshat knowing what others do.

Answer

Varies - generally between 10-20 a day. That's a mix of new prospects & deals in progress.

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Honestly, I've been ignoring my KPIs for # of calls a day and just trying to make quality ones and it's made a world of difference. KPIs are at 300 calls a week and I'm probably hitting 150-200 but as long as I'm scheduling my Sales Development Manager has no problem with being under the KPIs for # of dials.

Answer

i can hit 100 pretty regularly unless a number of (useless) meetings (that could be an email) get in my way, of that 100 I try to keep at least 30 new logo potential

Answer

Now that I'm running a full sales cycle I only make 10 - 15 cold calls per day.  However, in jobs where my job was lead generation minimum 100 calls.  Usually 150 calls.  Not unheard of to make 200 cold calls in an 8 hour day.  ---- Why are the BDRs handling inbounds?

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My previous KPIs were 125 dials a day in b2b SaaS

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35 a day for me. It needs to be more imo but not enough time in the day.

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120 dials a day. When I was working with a different client at the height of my career I was getting about 3-4 bookings a day off of 60 dials - however, more recently, I am putting up to 200 dials up a lot of days in order to get at least one booking for my current client (I work for a third party / outside sales team consulting company).

Answer

I hate cold calling. Yet it’s part of the job. I usually block out 2 hours for cold emails or calls to prospects.

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enough a day.

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I’ll make a few warm dials but I’m working an unreal BDR-AE ratio to be spending time on cold calling

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0-20, just depends on how my sequences stack up

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50ish

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My BDR supports 6 reps. I operate as if he does not exist. A “colorful” SVP said to us once “You are solely responsible for 100% of your #. An ISR is responsible for anything above that. Do your own fucking prospecting.”

Answer

As an account manager, 15-20 calls per day

Answer

30-40 calls for me.

Mr.Saucey

How many prospecting calls do you actually make in a day? Let's be honest now...

47 comments

Mr.Saucey

How many prospecting calls do you actually make in a day? Let's be honest now...

47 comments

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