Is Cold Calling Actually Dead? (Data-Backed Answer)

Every other day, someone makes a new LinkedIn post claiming that cold calling is dead.

I get it. If you can send 3,000 emails with a click of a button, why spend hours on the phone when most of your cold calls won’t even connect?

We wanted to know too.

So we analyzed 300M+ cold calls to settle the debate: Is cold calling actually dead?

We’ll break down the cold call results from top reps vs. average reps to answer this question in two parts:

1. How many cold calls does it take to book a meeting?
2. How do cold calls impact email replies? (even if you don’t connect)

Along the way, we’ll give benchmarks for connect rates, set rates, and email reply rates.

Spoiler Alert: It sucks to be average at cold calling... but if you crack the top 25% of cold callers out there... it looks pretty good ??

Let's break it down. ?

(PS: We wrote this article in a special Gong Labs x 30 Minutes to President’s Club cold calling series that you can check out here).

Connect Rates: What % of Cold Calls Lead to a Conversation?

You can answer this question by starting with the number of cold calls it takes to book a meeting and then determining whether it’s worth it.

First, we need to look at connect rates.

Connect rate is calculated by taking the total number of calls answered by a prospect divided by the total number of dials made by a rep.

The average rep only connects with 5.4% of prospects, whereas the top quartile reps connect with 13.3% of their prospects:

That means it takes 19 cold calls for an average rep to get one conversation but only 8 cold calls for a top-quartile rep to connect with a prospect.

How? The top quartile reps work smarter, not harder.

• They prioritize direct dials: Numbers that put them straight through to the contact they’re trying to reach.
• They mark their bad numbers: If their contact information is bad, they never make the mistake of dialing a dead phone number twice. ?

Now that we’ve determined our connect rates, we need to figure out set rates, or how many conversations it takes to book a meeting.

Set Rates: What % of Conversations Lead to a Meeting?

Similarly, the top reps booked more than 3x the meetings compared to the average rep (16.7% vs 4.6%).

How? Not only are top quartile reps better on the phones, but they also target the prospects who are most likely to buy. For example, when I was selling compensation software at Pave, we’d prioritize the prospects who:

• Had a problem now: Have an upcoming compensation review, fundraised within the last 3 months, or hiring a compensation person.
• Had a problem at all: Growing over 10% per year, referenced “generous equity compensation” in job postings.
• Anyone else in our ideal customer profile: Any other venture-backed tech companies over 250 employees

Now that we have the two components let’s break down the math.

So... How Many Meetings Can You Book?

Assume each rep makes 200 dials per week for a month for a total of 800 dials:

The data shows that the average rep books only 2 meetings each month, whereas the top rep books a whopping 18 meetings.

From just one hour of cold calling per day.

But wait, there’s more!

Cold Calls Double Your Email Replies (Even When You Don't Connect)

It’s not just the meetings you’ll get on the calls.

Every cold call you make and voicemail you leave draws attention back to your emails, so you book even more meetings across other channels.

Cold calling nearly doubles your email reply rate (3.44% vs 1.81%) even if you don’t connect live:

So between those 18 extra meetings a month and whatever comes from the increase in your email reply rate of every email you send.

You’re telling me it’s not worth 1 hour a day to cold call?

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Normally I'd say all the reasons you should check out our book, but today, I'll share Jason Bay's testimonial because he was literally a guest editor for the book:

"Most sales books are filled with fluff, stories no one cares about, and psychology without practical application. Nick and Armand have, hands down, written THE best book out there on cold calling. Now go hit the phones and use these tactics to land a s*** ton of meetings! -- Jason Bay CEO of Outbound Squad and Contributing Book Editor (Sales Trainer to Gong, Zoom, Rippling, Monday.com)

So if you liked this noozy, you can preorder the book here :)