Does Cold Calling Still Work in Today’s Age?

In my personal opinion, everything is cyclical. I believe those who stop cold calling solely because it isn't ldquo;t trendyrdquo; will fall behind when cold calling resurges as a viable prospecting method.

Cold calling, much like direct mail, will distinguish itself as the standout solution when automation and digital outreach dominate. Humanizing the prospecting process will offer a refreshing approach for some prospects who simply want human interaction to answer their questions.

Still Effective if You Can Get a Contact on the Phone

Let me share my experience. I made my first cold call when I was fifteen. I was given a list of phone numbers of community groups and was tasked with asking them to conduct a charity Bike-a-thon to raise money for a charity. I was the only person to get a group to participate. In fact, I organized two events which was more than the rest of the people making calls.

Later, when I worked in my family’s business, I was instructed to call companies to see if they needed temporary employees for staffing needs. I had no reluctance in picking up the phone and calling strangers, and I had some early success. A few years later, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue a music career. I sought out a job where I could again engage in cold calling. Three months after I started, the company noticed that I had won more clients than the three salespeople responsible for B2B sales acquisition. They transitioned me into outside sales.

This experience offers me significant perspective. My history with cold calling demonstrates the importance and effectiveness of this approach.

Phone First

There is every reason to start your pursuit of a first meeting with a phone call. Cold calling increases your chances of booking a first meeting with your dream client. However, it has become increasingly challenging to reach decision-makers over the last decade. It seems that voicemail is less effective than in the past. Last week, I made cold calls only to find that every voicemail was full. I believe this is intentional to prevent others from leaving a message.

Cold Outreach Using Email

You can be certain that your email will reach your prospective client, but it is equally certain that it will likely be deleted before the contact reads it. If you are the only salesperson to send a personalized sales email, you might have a chance of getting read. However, you have little chance of breaking through the noise that plagues inboxes.

The combination of data and automation used in sequences makes your email seem suspect. If only one sales organization used these tools, it would not be problematic. However, because so many sales organizations use these tools, it makes it less likely that any salesperson will get their message through to their prospective clients.

Cometh the Age of AI and the End of Cold Outreach

Think of the phone and email as a small hand grenade, and AI as a nuclear bomb. When GPT was released, an enterprising salesperson used it to connect with LinkedIn to send emails and InMails with AI personalizing the message. This was a strange idea when there was no human doing the personalizing.

We are just at the beginning of the weaponization of fully automated sequences followed by automated responses and text messages. There is already an overwhelming amount of cold outreach and AI-driven sales prospecting, and the addition of AI for prospecting will only exacerbate the frustrations of leaders and decision-makers.

If you believe cold outreach is tough now, just wait until the speed of tech companies increases in an attempt to get meetings without any human hand or brain.

The Future of Warm Outreach

When cold outreach becomes less effective, those who focus on warm outreach will have an advantage. Managing and nurturing your networks will enable you to make and receive introductions. Platforms like LinkedIn will see more people communicating to trade introductions and collaborate. There will be other groups that work on sharing information and contacts.

We are not there yet, but if AIrsquo;s adoption is any hint, things will speed up. Because our political class does not seem interested in keeping our data safe, you can expect cold outreach to evolve into something warmer.

Final Thoughts

Leaving this article, you should examine your data, including how many people open your emails and how many calls you need to make to book a single first meeting with a prospective client. Start working on new strategies for gaining meetings. Reach out to friends who do not sell what you sell to trade contacts where it makes sense.

Develop other strategies to introduce and be introduced to people you believe your clients might need to know. Stay alert to the ongoing changes in cold outreach, and consider shifting to warm outreach as it becomes more prominent.