Cold Calling for Lead Generation: Effective Methods

It’s pretty demoralizing to call 40 people and have 0 conversations. Leaving voicemails for an hour straight isn't effective or fun. Here's 4 ways to maximize your cold call connect rate:  𝟏. 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬: These numbers have a higher connect rate and allow you to skip gatekeepers and phone trees. For every one prospect who gets upset you called their cell, you’ll have twenty others that 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 answered because you called their cell. ___ 𝟐. 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬: Your first set of dials through a new list of numbers should be the last time you sit through a long phone tree or call a screeching fax machine. As you dial, mark the quality of each number R/Y/G so you remember which ones are good or bad: 🟢 Rings multiple times and VM greeting confirms it’s them.  - 🟡 Smells fishy. Ex: Busy lines or one-ring-straight-to-voicemail. If it happens again on the next dial, move it to 🛑 - 🛑 Repeated busy lines, fax lines, wrong numbers. Once you’ve marked a number as red, never waste a dial on it again. From there, mark down "obstacles" you encounter when calling so you can more easily navigate them on the next dial blitz: Phone tree paths, gatekeepers (so you can be prepared for them), dead-end corporate lines, etc. ___ 𝟑. 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐰 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬: 5 dials in 4 weeks: When you’ve literally called someone every week for a month straight, give 'em a rest for a month and try other prospects for now. Stop after 2 voicemails: 2 VMs is enough to reap the benefits of increasing your email replies. Don’t waste time leaving a 3rd. Avoid impassable gatekeepers: If they keep shutting you down, avoid them by calling your prospect’s cell, contacting them on other channels, or dialing at off-hours. ___ 𝟒. 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐦-𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐝: Rotate your phone numbers: Wireless carriers monitor unusual spikes in call volumes, so many SEPs and VOIP providers let you buy and rotate additional lines to call from so that you don’t tarnish your number. Test your number regularly: Many purchased numbers are recycled, so call your personal line from any new number first to confirm that it’s not already marked as spam. Call during business hours: FTC considers business hours between 8 AM - 9 PM. Don’t repeatedly call bad numbers: Carriers will flag you if you repeatedly call bad numbers (yet another reason to mark your tracks). ___ Contrary to popular belief, prospects DO still pick up the phone. In writing "Cold Calling Sucks (And That's Why It Works), we analyzed over 300M cold calls with Gong: Average rep's connect rate = 5.4% Top Quartile rep's connect rate = 13.3%

Can we kill some cold calling myths real quick? Because the amount of BS floating around about cold calling is wild “Cold calling is dead” “Nobody picks up” “Its just spam” “You have to open with ‘how are you today?’” Come on Lets break this down and I’ll tell you whats actually working for us right now 👇 👉 “Nobody answers the phone” Wrong We made over 7,000 dials for a client this month and got 650+ pickups. That’s a 9% connect rate when the industry average is 2-3% Why? • We’re calling mobile first. Not landlines • Using parallel dialers to maximize volume • Hitting buyers at the right hours (8:30–9:30am and 3:30–5:30pm crush) • And recycling our list after 6-7 attempts Dont blame the phone Blame the playbook 👉 “Start with a warm/friendly opener” Sure if you want to sound like a telemarketer What works better? Confident. Clear. Straight to the point Something like “Hey John its Tom with [company]. The reason for my call is…” No fluff. No fake rapport Just immediate relevance and respect for their time That opener earns more time than “Hey how’s your day going?” 👉 “Always ask how they’re doing first” Nah That just creates awkward energy Lead with intent Show them why you’re calling and why it’s relevant to them Relevance > rapport 👉 “The goal is to book a meeting” Nope The goal is to earn the right to explore Heres what I teach my reps • Ask a pointed, open ended question that surfaces pain or curiosity • Have a convo • If there’s no fit or timing’s off cool move on The best reps disqualify fast and dont force fake meetings 👉 “Cold calling is spam” You know whats actually spam? 10,000 emails with zero targeting and a Calendly link in line two Cold calling when done well is human A real voice, a real convo, a real shot to connect So whats working for us right now? ✅ Confidence, not scripts ✅ Curiosity led openers ✅ Mobile data + parallel dialers ✅ Keeping it under 45 seconds when there’s no traction ✅ Focused ICP + repeatable messaging ✅ Listening 2x more than we talk Cold calling isnt the problem Bad cold calling is Fix your list Fix your mindset Fix your call structure And lets stop spreading these lazy myths that hold reps back Want help tightening your team’s cold call game? Drop a 🔥 or DM me I got you 🤙

My cold call pick-up rate is 22.2%. Here's what Jeff Bajorek and I are learning from daily cold calling: ✅ Optimize call times to maximize pick-up rates My best pick-up rate is 7:57am local time for the prospect. I catch them right before the workday starts. It's close enough to 8am that no prospect has mentioned anything. 8-9am local time for the prospect remains the highest pick-up rate window. ✅ Use multiple data sources We pull as many as 3-4 phone numbers across two data providers to get the right phone number. Then, we make sure to mark bad phone numbers so we don't call them again. Rarely is the first number the correct one. ✅ We call mobile numbers This one's obvious for many of you. But there's still reluctance, yes, in 2024—to call cell phones. You just have to do it. And deal with the OCCASIONAL angry prospect. ✅ Double & triple touches No "naked activities." We never call without emailing. We never send an email without calling. Salesloft data shows that this type of "combo prospecting" (a la Tony Hughes) increases contact rates by 3.1x. It works. My ideal workflow: → Call first. Things happen way faster on the phones. Feels like less work for me this way. → LinkedIn second. Send a blank connect request. → Email last. Send the email last. I do this all at once. Then give it two days to rest and hit with a double touch of phone + email. ✅ Prioritizing calling prospects who open emails For all the talk out there about innacurate open rating tracking—pick-up rates are much better when I prioritize prospects who open emails. We have an automated call task created after 3 email opens. ~~~ That's it. We follow fundamental sequencing best practices. How are you maximizing cold calling pick-up rates?