Cold Calling in 2026

For many of us who have been in B2B sales for over a decade, outbound prospecting today looks very different, and I think I understand why.

We are all being bombarded by people who want something from us and have more spam calls and emails, so for the most part we are only talking to people we know.

Here is the other challenge: dropping by and getting in front of them may not work because since COVID, employers have either stuck with remote work or are in a hybrid model.

That said, I do think that even today, if you can show your face in person, that goes farther than any email or phone call you could make.

Before we start talking strategy, here are some numbers:

— 4.8 average touches for response, a 60% increase from 2021.

— 7.4 average touches for a meeting, a 48% increase since 2019.

Those numbers paint a dreary picture. But here is my claim: cold calling is not dead — we just need to be more intentional in our outreach.

Simply making more phone calls or blasting more emails will not get you more meetings. It will only set you up for bad results and more difficult conversations with your manager.

Instead, we need to put ourselves in our customer's shoes and know what they are going through — their challenges, their day-to-day worries — before we begin calling them. In other words, we need to become familiar with them so they can be familiar with us.

Once we have an understanding of who they are, what they do, and how your product can help them achieve their goals, then we can put it into a cadence with consistent messaging.

Here is the formula for research:

— What is the company's CBI (Critical Business Initiative)?

— How does my product help achieve that?

— What position is my contact in? (VP, Director, and so on.)

— What is important to them in their department and in relation to the overall business?

— What is the latest company news?

This should give you a broad overview of company-wide initiatives and what your prospect is dealing with on the day-to-day. It will arm you to have an intelligent conversation with the client if given the chance, and it does two important things for the sales process:

— It pre-establishes familiarity.

— It sets you up as the expert in your field.

Buyers today are more informed than ever. If they were looking for a solution to their problem, they would have already asked an AI model for help. In fact, most decision-makers are nearly 70% through their buying journey before engaging a sales rep. That alone raises the bar for outreach.

Despite that, decision-makers still prefer in-person, human-centric interaction when there is a reason for it. It is your job as the expert to get them there.

A sample message might read:

Hi Peter, as you know, we already provide a service in your corporate office via our San Diego branch.

I'm with X National Accounts. I'm reaching out because in my position one of the most consistent pressures we're seeing right now is that companies are looking for cost control and predictability. For a global company with your footprint, there are typically multiple vendors and no real visibility to provide a cost-efficient and predictable program.

I don't know if this is something you are navigating today, but I thought it might be worth a conversation. Are you free next Thursday or Friday at 10 AM for a quick chat?

So now you have a coherent message. Next, let's work on cadence.