Cold calling
Cold calling guides
Figures in these guides carry their source, year and sample size, and editorial estimates are labelled as estimates. Start with the quick answers below, or go straight to a section.
Quick answers, with the source for each
The eight questions these guides get asked most, answered in two sentences each. The figures are the same ones the full guides use; the guide behind each answer has the method, the caveats and the case where the advice stops working.
| Question | Short answer | Source, year, sample |
|---|---|---|
| How many cold calls should an SDR make a day? | The Bridge Group's 2025 survey of 351 B2B companies puts the median SDR at 44 phone dials a day, inside 112 total activities. Phone-centric teams average 56 dials and 4.6 quality conversations. | Bertuzzi, M. (2025). Sales Development Models, Metrics & Compensation: 2025 Research Report (10th ed.). The Bridge Group (published 6 February 2025). 2025. 351 B2B companies, online survey, 2024 to 2025; figures are company-reported medians and averages, not call logs. |
| What is the best cold call opening line? | Across 90,380 cold calls Gong measured, "How have you been?" booked meetings at 10.01 percent against a 1.5 percent baseline. "Did I catch you at a bad time?" booked at 0.9 percent, below baseline. | Gong Labs, "Cold call opening lines". 2018. 90,380 cold calls. |
| Should you leave a voicemail on a cold call? | Gong's 2024 analysis found the connect rate on later dials fell from 7.18 to 5.17 percent once a voicemail was left. Email replies rose from 2.73 to 5.87 percent after one or two voicemails and fell to 2.2 percent after three or more. | Gong Labs, Armand Farrokh, "Should you leave voicemails when cold calling? Here's what the data says". 2024. 300M+ cold calls, as stated by Gong; counts behind each figure not disclosed. |
| What are the most common cold call objections? | In Gong's 2024 data, "Not interested" and product fit are 17 percent of objections each, "No budget" 16, "Not my responsibility" 13 and a hang-up 11. Those five make up 74 percent. | Gong Labs, Armand Farrokh, "We found the top objections across 300M cold calls; here's how to handle them all". 2024. 300M+ cold calls, as stated by Gong; the number of objections counted is not disclosed. |
| How many attempts does it take to reach a prospect? | Cognism's 2026 report says 1.55 calls, down from 2.9 in its 2025 data, and does not say how it counts an attempt. Belkins logged 175,000+ dials in 2025 at about three attempts per prospect and reached 24.5 percent of prospects at least once. | Cognism, "The State of Cold Calling in 2026". 2026. 200,000+ calls, as stated by Cognism; date range and attempt definition not published. Belkins, Michael Maximoff, "B2B cold calling statistics 2026: Benchmarks from 175,000+ dials" (26 June 2026). 2025. 175,000+ dials logged by a B2B appointment-setting agency through 2025. |
| Is cold calling or cold email better? | Belkins needed roughly 370 dials to book one meeting in 2025. Its 7,530,489 cold emails the same year replied at 0.45 percent and booked over 1,200 appointments. Calling usually entered those sequences after email went quiet, so the two numbers measure different stages. | Belkins, Michael Maximoff, "B2B cold calling statistics 2026: Benchmarks from 175,000+ dials" (26 June 2026). 2025. 175,000+ dials logged through 2025; outcome and seniority breakdowns from five anonymised client campaign exports. Belkins, Margaret Lee, "What are B2B cold email response rates? Belkins' 2026 study" (updated 26 June 2026). 2025. 7,530,489 cold emails in Belkins client campaigns, January to December 2025. |
| What hours can you legally cold call? | Federally, 8am to 9pm in the called person's local time, seven days a week, under 47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1) and 16 CFR 310.4(c). The state guide quotes 10 state rules, several of which shorten the window or ban Sundays. | FCC, 47 CFR 64.1200(c)(1). current text. regulation. FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule, 16 CFR 310.4(c). current text. regulation. |
| How do I stop my number showing as Spam Likely? | Start with Free Caller Registry: one free form reaches the three call protection providers First Orion, Hiya and TNS. The registry states that registering does not guarantee redress, so the spam guide covers each carrier's own dispute route as well. | Free Caller Registry (First Orion, Hiya, TNS). 2026. not applicable; operator's own terms. |
How sources are chosen and labelled is on the methodology page. Figures we got wrong are listed on corrections.
Fundamentals (2)
How a cold call works end to end, and when email does the job better.
How to cold call: the complete guide for 2026
A working cold call is seven parts: the list, the research, the opener, the permission ask, the problem question, the objection, and the close. This guide walks each one with scripts, real numbers and the mistakes that kill calls.
8 min readCold calling vs cold email: one agency's 2025 data, both channels
Belkins' 2025 data: one meeting per 370 cold call dials, one per 6,275 cold emails. How to compare the cost, and which to send first.
Scripts (4)
Openers, scripts, voicemails and gatekeepers, each checked against measured call data where any exists.
Cold calling scripts that work, with the call data behind each line
Eleven cold calling scripts for B2B, real estate, insurance and recruiting. Gong's data on 90,380 cold calls: calls that booked a meeting ran 5:50 against 3:14, and the rep talked 55% of the time.
11 min readThe best cold call opening lines, ranked by what happens next
Gong's call data puts a permission-based opener at 11.18% success and "Did I catch you at a bad time?" at 2.15%. Eighteen openers that survive the first ten seconds, five to drop, and the numbers behind each.
10 min readCold call voicemail scripts, and what Gong's data says about leaving one
Gong's data: one or two voicemails lift email replies from 2.73% to 5.87% and cut later connect rates by 28%. Ten scripts built for that trade, and when to stop leaving them.
8 min readHow to get past the gatekeeper without lying to them
Direct numbers connect on about 7.9 percent of dials against 5.3 percent for switchboards in the one traceable comparison. Gatekeeper scripts, the four tactics that get you blocked, and what to say when an iPhone screens the call.
Objections (1)
The objections that actually come up, ranked by how often.
Data & benchmarks (4)
Activity, connect and attempt benchmarks, each with its source, year and sample size.
Which sales dialers connect to which CRM, and what the connection costs
14 of the 21 dialers reviewed here connect to Salesforce, 14 to HubSpot and 6 to Pipedrive. The connector is the cheap half: the cheapest Salesforce seat a synced dialer can talk to is $125 a user a month against $49 for the dialer.
14 min readCold calling statistics for 2026, with every source named
Connect rates (9.9% per dial, 24.5% per prospect in Belkins' 175,000 dials), attempts to reach (2.9 to 1.55 in Cognism's data), meeting rates, timing and SDR pay. Every figure sourced and dated.
8 min readThe best time to cold call, and why the studies disagree
Four large studies name four different best hours. We put them side by side with sample sizes, explain the contradiction, and give the rule that beats all of them.
8 min readHow many cold calls per day: the measured median, and what tooling changes
The Bridge Group's 2025 survey of 351 B2B companies puts the median SDR at 44 dials a day, 56 on phone-centric teams. What 80 or 100 a day buys you, by the numbers.
Pricing research (12)
What dialers cost once seats, minimums, contracts and telephony are all counted, read from each vendor's own pricing page.
Power dialer pricing compared across 21 tools
Every published power dialer price in one table: the cheapest tier that actually includes a dialer, seat minimums, contract terms and how minutes are billed. 21 tools, each price read from the vendor page and archived.
9 min readPhoneBurner pricing in 2026, and the minute count that justifies it
PhoneBurner's three tiers, what each one includes, what is locked to the top tier, and the talk-minute threshold above which unlimited calling costs less than paying a carrier directly.
9 min readKixie pricing in 2026, and what the add-ons do to it
Kixie removed dollar figures from its pricing page during 2026. Here are the dated third-party estimates, the add-ons that commonly double the bill, and the contract terms buried under them.
9 min readClose CRM pricing in 2026, and where the dialer actually starts
Close advertises from $9. Its power dialer starts at $99 and minutes are billed on top. Every tier, what each includes, and what a calling-heavy seat really costs.
8 min readJustCall pricing in 2026, and the two-user minimum nobody mentions
JustCall's four tiers, which one contains the power dialer, what the two-user minimum does to a solo seller's bill, and where multi-line dialing actually sits.
8 min readAircall pricing in 2026, and why the dialer costs $150 a month
Aircall lists $30 a licence and will not sell fewer than 3. The power dialer sits on the $50 tier, so the smallest cheque with a dialer is $150 a month. Every tier and every add-on.
8 min readApollo.io pricing in 2026, and what the dialer actually costs to use
Apollo's tiers, the credit model that bills calling at two credits a minute, the recorded-minute caps, and the point where a dedicated dialer costs less than the credits.
8 min readWhich sales dialer vendors publish their prices, and which do not
14 of 21 sales dialers publish prices with units; three hide them behind a form and three removed them in 2026. Each classification is quoted from the vendor's page with an archived snapshot, plus the add-ons a published price leaves out.
8 min readSeat minimums and contract terms across every sales dialer
Which dialers force you to buy seats you will not fill, which require an annual commitment, and what the smallest possible cheque is at each of the 21 tools reviewed here.
10 min readPower dialer cost in 2026, and the telephony half nobody prices
A power dialer costs $0 to $420 a seat a month, and telephony is a second bill of $0 to $80 a rep that most vendors hide. The real monthly total at three team sizes, and where unlimited calling stops being worth it.
9 min readOrum pricing in 2026, and what the nine-seat minimum actually costs
Orum publishes no prices. Its own page states a nine-seat minimum, which puts the entry cost near $27,000 a year at the $250 a seat third-party guides estimate. Here is the arithmetic and what the same money buys.
10 min readNooks pricing in 2026, and why the two published estimates are five times apart
Nooks publishes no prices. The two sources ranking highest for this query give figures that do not overlap. Vendr's 57 purchases put the cheapest observed contract at $7,668 a year, about $128 a seat at the five-seat minimum. Here is the arithmetic.
Dialer mechanics (2)
How power, parallel and predictive dialing differ, and what carrying your own phone carrier changes.
Which sales dialers let you bring your own carrier
Only two of the 21 sales dialers let you connect your own Twilio account and pay wholesale for minutes. Here is the list, the arithmetic, and the point where bundled minutes become cheaper.
13 min readPower dialer vs parallel, progressive and predictive dialers
Five things get sold under the word dialer and the vendors do not agree on what two of them mean. What each one does mechanically, what each costs all in, and the one the category cannot define.
Compliance (4)
Calling hours, consent rules and spam labelling, quoted from the statute or the operator's own words.
Mortgage trigger leads after the 2026 ban, and what replaces the volume
The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act took effect 4 March 2026, a day earlier than the pages explaining it say. The statute sets one two-part test, and both halves have to hold. Here is the enacted text, the date arithmetic, and what a two-person shop pays to dial its own database instead.
10 min readSpam Likely: why your phone number is flagged and how to fix it
AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile each label calls through a separate analytics engine. One free form, Free Caller Registry, reaches all three. What each label means, what triggers it, and the fix that lasts.
13 min readTCPA cold calling rules in 2026: calling hours, DNC and damages
TCPA calling hours are 8am to 9pm in the called person's local time, for consumer and mobile numbers. Damages run up to $500 a call, trebled for willful violations, and 75.5 to 83.1 percent of 2025 TCPA filings were class actions.
10 min readTCPA calling hours by state, with every rule quoted from its source
The federal window is 8am to 9pm at the called party's location. 10 states are stricter, Rhode Island by 39 hours a week. Every window here is quoted from the statute or rule it comes from, with the date it was read.