Cold Calling: A Literature Review

There’s a lot of statistical data out there about cold calling. That’s no surprise – sales is a huge profession, with one in six UK workers directly or indirectly in a sales role, all wanting to excel at their jobs.

Or…is there? Sure, there are hundreds of blogs online containing dozens of cold calling statistics. But if you follow the citations to the source, you might find you end up on a relatively small group of original research surveys.

One of those is our own — check out our State of Cold Calling in 2024 report if you haven’t already. It contains useful, original info about the most common objections, the best time and day to call and much more.

But that’s just our perspective. What about these other surveys?

This blog aims to bring together and evaluate the most credible, current data on cold calling to get to the heart of a growing sentiment that cold calling is harder than it used to be.

It will mostly draw from reports by the small number of companies doing original research into cold calling: CallHippo, Revenue.io, Gong, and PhoneBurner. And, of course, Cognism.

Is now a good time?

Let’s start this review by looking at when is the best time for cold calling, first by day, then by hour. Why is that important?

Optimisation. 

Cold calling today requires precision, and that starts with when you focus your efforts on your hottest leads.

I made a call on Monday, booked a meeting on Tuesday, we were makin’ deals by Wednesday…

CallHippo’s much cited 2021 survey ‘The Best Time to Cold Call’ found that Wednesday is by far the best day for cold calling. According to their survey, a third of calls made on a Wednesday connect, comparing favourably to the 16% and 10% connect rates on Monday and Friday, respectively.

Their findings suggest a clear bell-curve shape to cold-calling across the week.

Our own research does not agree!

We found that Monday-Thursday are broadly comparable, ranging from 49 to 58 calls booked per day. Meanwhile Friday shows a drop off (44 calls) – on that point we do agree.

Let’s throw a third player into the mix. Revenue intelligence platform Gong’s 2021 survey painted a picture some way between HubSpot’s and our own. They found that Wednesday and Thursday are the best days, with Monday and Tuesday lagging even with Friday.

Lastly, let’s look at PhoneBurner’s 2022 survey. They found that Tuesday is the most productive day, followed by Monday and Wednesday, with a mild drop-off in Thursday and Friday. Of the four survey’s we’ve looked at, PhoneBurner showed the least variation over the week.

…and we chilled on Friday

What are the takeaways from this?

Well, it seems clear that investing your energies in mid-week is a good idea. Taken together, the four all paint a picture of the mid-week being the most productive days for cold calling. But at the same time, every day of the week results in connected dials – yes, even Friday.

What about the best time of day to call?

Making Contact

CallHippo found that around 35% of dials connect first time. By the 6th call, the likelihood of connecting was around 90%. 

Our research into connect rates produced different results. We found that, of each prospect reached, around 75% of calls came from the first call. A second call results in another 15% of connects, and a third dial reaches 7% more. 

CallHippo’s data suggests that it’s worth plugging away until the sixth dial; we think three is enough.

In our opinion that’s evidence for the power of great data.

On connect rates, which is the likelihood of a human picking up, our data suggests a 17% rate is achievable. Gong’s research into the subject finds that an average sales rep connects at a rate of around 5%. They also found that a high-performing rep (top 25%) can attain a 15% connect rate.

A scan of the r/Sales subreddit suggests that 5% is a commonly reported connect rate, although some report connect rates of around 1% and some up to 50%. 

The big upside differentiators (aside from some sectors naturally being more cold-calling friendly) are a) the usage of tools that have direct dials and b) the quality of those tools. 

Spray-and-pray tactics will get you nowhere, fast. Hitting the right numbers at the right times is table-stakes for cold calling now.

Next, we turn our attention to what you can expect in terms of having a conversation and booking a meeting.

Dials to meetings booked ratios

Getting someone on the line is one thing, but converting that call into a meeting is another. Let’s look at the conversion rates that various studies report.

CallHippo’s research found that 7% of calls turn into actual appointments.

Our data shows that 57% of connects result in a conversation, and of those conversations, 5% resulted in meetings booked. Or, from the total number of calls made, 2.7% resulted in a meeting booked.

LinkedIn somewhat agrees, citing a 2% rate, although it is not clear if this is original research and doesn’t say how current the data is. It calls this rate “dismal” – there we have to disagree. Their own angle might showing through a bit too strongly there. No one is pretending cold calling isn’t hard work, but it does work.

If you’re making 60 dials per day, which Revenue.io cites as a decent rule of thumb, you can expect to hit 2 meetings booked per day as a minimum. 

Let’s look at one more way to sharpen your prospecting: persona based prioritisation.

Choose your character

Here’s some fantastic and maybe unexpected news: the person most likely to pick up a cold call isn’t someone in the middle hierarchy, but the CEO. Our study shows that the CEO and Executives pick up a cold call around 12% of the time, ahead of CIOs (11%), Head of Operations (10%) and Marketing (9%).

A study by RAIN Group also found that cold calling is executives’ preferred way of being contacted (although this data is a little old by now).

This is likely thanks to CEOs exhibiting higher degrees of openness and agency compared to those lower down the chain. The person in charge is always going to be on the lookout for ways to sharpen up their company’s business practices.

The moral of this story is: get high-quality data with direct dials for CEOs, put your big boots on and call the person in charge. 

So you’ve got your lead on the phone…what next?

Optimising call success

Now let’s look at the literature around maximising the success of your pitch.

Frustratingly, there are only a few companies that have done original research on this topic in the last few years (2021 cutoff).

Common objections

One such company is Gong. Gong analysed 300 million calls made using their platform and identified the top 5 objections as:

1. Not interested (17%)
2. Product fit (17%)
3. No budget (16%)
4. Not my responsibility (13%)
5. *Hangs up* (11%)

We also gathered data on this. Our results were (standardised phrasing where possible):

1. I’m busy (28%)
2. Not interested (22%)
3. Not my responsibility (14%)
4. Send me an email (12%)

Unsure how to handle objections like these? We’ve got you covered. Success in sales depends on deftly answering common rebuttals.

Call and monologue length

No, we’re not talking about Shakespeare. The type of monologue we mean here is just a period of uninterrupted talking. This is going to be where a salesperson will be making their pitch, explaining features or answering technical questions.

It’s really important to get these right, and snappy and to the point is best:

Revenue.io’s survey found the best sellers keep monologues to 12 seconds and under; if the average creeps above that, close rates drop steeply. As the opportunity progresses, conversations will contain longer monologues as the nature of conversations shifts towards demonstrations, feature explanations, and answering complex or technical questions

We found that the average cold call conversation clocks in at 83 seconds. PhoneBurner found in 2021 that the average call lasted for 122 seconds. That’s not a lot of time to make your mark.

Closing thoughts

So, what are the big takeaways from this review?

Firstly, there are fewer companies doing primary research into cold calling effectiveness than you might think, so make sure you get your information from a trusted source.

Secondly, success in cold calling requires precision and optimisation across several areas:

Optimise your cold calling around Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday and make your priority dials between 11am-12pm and 3-6pm.

Don’t give up after your first dial attempt. Try at least twice more, 

Track your call metrics, from total dials, connects, conversations and success/meetings booked rate. This level of granularity will allow you to identify weakness in your process. If your connect rate is weak, data is the issue. If your conversations to success ratio is poor, then it’s likely call execution is the problem. But if you just track dials and success you won’t know where you’re going awry.

Optimise your calling technique by learning the common objects and how to respond to them. Be precise in the monologuing parts of your sales call to deliver your key messages with maximum impact.

In 2025, the spray and pray approach just won’t work or get results. Sales people need to be more targeted and value-adding in their approach with prospects. 2025 will be all about calling the right people, at the right time, with good data.