14 Staggering Cold Calling Statistics to Consider in 2023

Making cold calls to prospects is difficult. Ask salespeople. They dread making cold calls, and even business owners hate cold calls.

So why bother going through the treacherous process? Because, when done right, cold calling is hugely lucrative.

No words could be more accurate, as you'll see from the list of cold-calling statistics. Businesses keen on applying cold calling strategies are more likely to grow and scale. Continue reading to discover impressive statistics about cold calling in 2023.

But First: some sobering cold calling statistics

• The success of a cold call is 93% your voice tone.
• Almost 6.3% of cold calls generate sales.
• About 80% of sales occur after cold calling the fifth contact.
• The best time for cold calling potential buyers is between 4 pm and 6 pm.
• Wednesday is the perfect day for cold-calling potential customers.

Here are the general cold-calling statistics to consider in 2023

1. Cold calling is more effective than cold emails

Cold calling produces more conversations and positive responses. At the same time, cold emails can reach a wider audience. But the sad news is that most email recipients don't bother opening their messages, making cold emails 5x to 10x less effective.

Cold calling is a more direct and effective sales marketing tool. It generates quicker responses from potential customers, boosts your chances of setting up appointments with potential leads, and even closing a sale.

2. About 2.5% of cold calls result in successful meetings

Are you making more sales from cold calling? If so, your chances of quickly reaching a potential customer and setting up an appointment are significantly high.

Cold calling is like a numbers game: the more sales-related cold calls you make, the higher your chances of closing a sale. In short, your campaign will be more successful if you make 2.5% more calls.

But there’s a caveat to adding cold calling tactics to your outreach efforts: if you fail to use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, you’ll put in the leg work with little success to show for it. The solution is to cold call your existing clients.

3. 90 minutes of cold calling books you one appointment

On average, it takes about 1.5 hours of cold calling to book an appointment with a potential lead every week. The said hours include time taken to dial, call, and speak — while excluding time spent on taking breaks and other activities.

Consider this factor before establishing a daily minimum call requirement for your sales team. Ensure it’s a viable and ambitious strategy that can generate great results.

4. About 94% of consumers dub unknown phone calls as fake

Making unknown phone calls to consumers can harm a business's productivity. This research is a wake-up call to sales teams making unknown calls to potential buyers.

To remedy the situation, don’t hide your caller ID. Even better, use an enhanced dialer that will show your business name and other important information on your prospects' display.

5. Salespeople have only 5 to 10 minutes to convince cold-calling prospects

Generally, people hate to be sold at — and cold calling is a form of selling. To tip the scales in your favor, state why you called (to your cold calling prospect) early into the call. Doing so increases your cold-calling success by 2.1 times.

Remember, you only have 5 to 10 minutes to persuade your cold-calling prospect. So make sure that your voice tone is convincing, as it accounts for 93% of your success.

6. Genuinely asking cold-calling prospects about their pain points and goals helps close a deal

It may seem like a no-brainer, but asking, “How have you been?” when making a cold call, can boost your success rates by up to 10.01%.

The phrase also interrupts communication, helping you engage more with your prospect. Research shows using this opening phrase regularly when cold calling potential customers can boost your success rates close to 6.6x.

7. Most consumers don't answer cold calls

A recent study found that only 15% of consumers listen to voicemails from SDRs.

In short, how you reach out to prospects is essential because it determines how well you'll communicate with them.

If your sales reps use the same outreach channel as before, they’ll experience a difficult time connecting with their targets and making a connection in the first place. For this reason, your organization should use an alternative outreach channel.

Some good examples to consider may include the following:

• Facebook ads (where consumers are spending more time than before)
• Instagram ads (where consumers are spending less time than before)

8. 63% of customers find cold calls annoying, so have an extra outreach channel

Cold calling is less popular with more than half of customers. That’s why you should have an additional outreach channel if your goal is to close more deals.

Sales reps are more likely to be successful if they use email or social media as their primary marketing channels rather than cold calling. More than half (52%) of all salespeople admit that they could be more successful at selling through cold calls because it's so hard for them to build rapport with potential customers over the phone!

Here are a few channels you can use if you're feeling stuck with your current approach.

• Email
• Follow-up through SMS
• Social selling
• In-person meetings
• LinkedIn sales outreach

9. Automating B2B cold calling is challenging. So hire sales reps to sell and handle prospects' objections over the phone

While it’s easy to automate the cold-calling process, you'll need to hire a sales team to sell and handle customers' objections over the phone.

Whatever you use to contact prospects (whether it's email automation or an app designed specifically for cold calling), you’ll need someone knowledgeable to contact people who can also handle objections during those calls.

10. 96% of customers want to hear from a sales rep when they're ready to buy

The perfect time to build a relationship and earn the right for your company, product, or service is now. This study found that nearly 100% of customers are ready at that moment.

If you have been in business for more than five years, you know how hard it can be at first and even after ten years!

11. Cold calling should be part of your strategy rather than your primary method for reaching out to new clients/customers

Cold calling isn’t going away anytime soon. However, you need to plan to maximize your results when making calls. Here are some tips:

Build a pipeline before cold calling starts happening! You can send emails or meet prospects who fit into your target market (if there are enough leads).

This tip will help ensure that when people call in asking about any type of services you offer, they get connected with someone who knows what they need from an organization like yours (and vice versa)!

12. Successful cold calls happen between 4 pm and 5 pm

Before cold calling, consider the appropriate hours. Avoid calling prospects between 7 am and 11 am. You're more likely to get a lead when you cold call them on Wednesdays.

However, if you need to make a successful cold call, the perfect time for one is between 4 pm and 6 pm, and best of all, Wednesdays and Thursdays. You should also avoid cold-calling prospects on Mondays between 6 am and noon.

Research shows that when you contact prospects at the appropriate time, You're more likely to achieve higher conversion rates — about 75% of salespeople agree.

13. Saving a prospect’s time gives you a better chance of converting them

Research records that a 30-minute meeting has a 12% chance of converting a prospect compared to an hour's meeting.

When cold calling a prospect, keep your product demonstrations brief and straight to the point. You want to maintain their interest along the way.

So, stick to your initial plan (of saving a prospect’s time) and avoid adding unnecessary filler words.

14. The “Did I catch you at the wrong time?” question lowers your odds of scheduling a meeting by 40%

It's a popular and frequently prescribed opening phrase in many sales books, but it does more harm than good. If you open your cold calls with this statement, you lower your success rate to approximately 1%.

Another question that falls in the same category is this one: “Is this a good time?”. Research shows almost 30.9% of salespeople begin their cold calls this way.

Chances are, if the prospect answers a resounding “no” to your question, they might request to schedule another time, only to never hear from them again. These phrases do the opposite of what's intended. Avoid using them if you can.

Grow Your Business With Cold Calling

Forget how other people view cold calling. It's a powerful sales method that can grow and scale your business. And best of all, it still has a place in the sales industry — the above cold-calling list of statistics is a testimony to this fact.

Try and understand your prospects to attract more success with this sales technique. Additionally, determine the best time to get in touch with them.

Dig deeper and learn how to communicate effectively with your prospects. That way, you'll discover the effectiveness of cold calling.