Below, we’re sharing 35 cold calling statistics that will help you know what elements your cold calling strategy should include. We also share a few tactics to supplement your strategy with or to use as an alternative to cold calling.
What Is Cold Calling?
Cold calling is the solicitation of business to potential customers who have not had contact with the salesperson on the call. Salespeople use cold calling as a tactic to convince potential customers to purchase their offered products or services. Cold calling can be over the phone (telemarketing) and in-person (door-to-door sales).
General Cold Calling Statistics
Cold calling is one of the oldest marketing methods used by salespeople. As a result, there is a wealth of information on the success of the strategy. Here are a few general statistics that could help you when deciding how to leverage cold calling in your organization.
✓ A sales representative makes an average of 33 cold calls a day (Zety, 2021)
✓ In 2019, 69% of shoppers reported that they had accepted one or more cold calls over the past year. (RAIN Group)
✓ 82% of buyers have accepted a meeting after multiple cold calls from a salesperson. (RAIN Group)
✓ Between 40 and 50% of business owners have stated they would rather get a cold call since their phone is the most effective asset to their job. (RAIN Group and Sales Insights Lab, 2020)
✓ Successful cold calls last an average of 5:50, while unsuccessful calls last an average of 3:14. (Gong)
✓ Each representative makes an average of 6 phone calls before they sell a product or service (Velocify)
✓ A successful sales pitch is around 37 seconds long, which is about 50% higher than the average. (Gong)
✓ Companies that did not implement cold calling had 42% less growth than businesses that did. (Invesp, 2020)
Customer's Perspective Cold Calling Statistics
Understanding your customers are the best way to accomplish a high-conversion call center. Learning about your buyers’ preferences before making the call will help set you apart from other cold callers.
✓ 49% of buyers preferred to be reached through phone calls. (RAIN Group)
✓ 60% of customers reject offers at least 4 times before they say yes. (Invesp, 2020)
✓ 75% of online buyers do not want the same calls after 2-4 attempts. (Invesp, 2020)
✓ 58% of customers stated sales meetings are unimportant. (RAIN Group)
✓ 12% of people do not mind being contacted multiple times. (Invesp, 2020)
B2B Cold Calling Statistics
Many B2B marketing strategies include cold calling techniques as a way to discover new leads. When organizations are prepared beforehand with interesting offers, many contacts are willing to set up a meeting to learn more.
✓ The cell phone was 41% of sales representatives' most valuable work tool. (Marc Wayshak)
✓ 82% of B2B buyers stated they would be okay accepting meetings with sellers. (RAIN Group)
✓ 27% of salespeople believe B2B calls are effective for prospecting strategies. (RAIN Group)
✓ 57% of B2B cold calling statistics showed C-level executives preferred being contacted by sales reps through the phone. (RAIN Group)
✓ Of customers who accept sales calls, 75% answer due to interest in the product. (RAIN Group)
Cold Email Statistics
Cold emails work if you create them properly. Although thousands of cold emails are sent every day, most of them never get opened or read. Unlike cold calling, cold emails need to be personalized.
✓ A Salesforce survey found more than 50% of buyers will find another provider if they do not receive a personalized email.
✓ The chances of getting a follow-up email are 22%. (MailShake)
✓ 70% of sales representatives stop sending emails unless they receive a follow-up on the first attempt. (YesWare)
✓ A Direct Marketing Association survey found more than 59% of customers find emails to be irrelevant.
✓ More than 80% of emails are never opened. (Campaign Monitor)
✓ 31% of sales representatives believe personalized emails are more effective than cold emails or calls. (RAIN Group)
Biggest Challenges of Cold Calling
It is difficult to excel at cold calling. Every day you are met with people who do not answer the phone, hang up before the pitch starts, or reject the offer. Since people are answering the phone less than ever before, sales representatives spend hours leaving voicemails and searching for new leads.
✓ Hubspot found that only 18% of leads are generated from outbound calls like cold calling.
✓ Sales representatives leave an average of 70 voicemail messages every day, which is around 15% of their time. (Ring Lead)
✓ 55% of people will not answer, 17% will give incorrect contact information, and only 28% answer the call. (Baylor University Keller Research Center)
✓ 30-40% of buyers never show or cancel scheduled appointments. (Wingman, 2020)
✓ It takes 209 calls to get one appointment. (Zety, 2020)
✓ Nearly 20% of contact information is outdated. (ZoomInfo)
✓ A sales team of 50 spends 1,250 hours a month leaving voicemails. (Ring Lead)
Alternatives to Cold Calling
The above cold calling statistics show that while rewarding, cold calling takes a lot of work. Here are some tactics that can be used to supplement your cold calling strategy or as an alternative strategy.
- Use social media to your advantage. Sharing relevant content to buyers, helps them answer questions and naturally draws them into your business.
- Keep an active blog. Tune into the opportunities and worries of your prospects, then address them in your blog posts.
- Create a series of helpful inbound sales emails. These emails should go beyond your regular sales pitches and requests. They should help buyers learn and consider the products before the call begins. Think about the customer and ensure the information is relevant to them.
- Set up email notifications when buyers are researching articles on your website. Displaying demos, price listings, and product walkthroughs increase your chances of closing a deal.
- Keep in touch even after the sales process. Whether they followed through with a purchase or not, make sure to continue sending the helpful information. This helps you stay in the mind of prospects while going above an initial cold call follow-up.
- Ask customers to refer you to others. Most people would rather buy from someone they know than a stranger. Be very specific when you ask so the customer can think of a specific person.
- Engage in every way possible. Comments on reviews, replies on social media accounts, Q&A answers, video messages, and more. Buyers prefer companies who are paying attention to their opinions and concerns. Businesses who take every opportunity to showcase this attention to their prospects will build close connections and more leads.
Hiya Connect
Many of the challenges with the cold calling statistics revolve around incorrect strategies and wrongly placed customer targets. Hiya Connect goes beyond these issues with Branded Calls. Displaying your company name, logo, and call reason help your contacts understand the context of the call before they even answer. This leads to higher answer rates and increased quality of conversation.
Still looking for more ways to improve your strategy? Download our Sales Metrics eBook to learn which call metrics are most important to be tracking.
