B2B sales are competitive; first impressions really matter. Your cold call or cold email is what makes that first impression.

But deciding which works best for you, your style, your buyers receptiveness, your industry - that’s a maze sellers often need to figure out for themselves.

This article makes sense of it all for you.

Let's dive in.

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Did you know that a cold call’s average conversion is 15%, and that of a cold email is only 0.3%-2%? These numbers say enough about why knowing what type of outreach will work for you is essential to your business success.

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Whether you're a salesperson trying to perfect your cold outbound strategy or an entrepreneur looking for the best means of getting your first few customers, the cold calls vs. cold emails debate is worth considering for your outbound GTM motion.

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What is a Cold Email?

Cold emails are unsolicited but targeted messages sent to potential clients with no prior contact. Unlike spam, they aim to introduce your product or service to prospects who likely need it but haven’t shown interest yet. 

The goal is to spark conversations that can lead to sales. Think about sharing relevant collateral, something helpful - don’t just go for booking meetings.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Cold Emails

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Pros: Scalability and Measurability

Cold emails excel in scalability, allowing you to simultaneously reach hundreds or even thousands of prospects with minimal additional effort. Once you've crafted your message and built your prospect list, automation tools can deliver personalized emails at scale. This efficiency is reflected in the impressive ROI—cold email generates around $41,300 for every $4,200 spent, equivalent to a $9 return per dollar invested.

You can get detailed metrics on click’s opens and reply rates to further tweak your messaging. Getting to message market fit is a battle of its own. Be careful when using open and click rates as it can impact your email deliverability scores.

When adequately executed, targeted cold email campaigns can achieve response rates as high as 15% to 25%, making them highly effective for initial outreach. The best-performing campaigns even see a 20% reply rate or higher, demonstrating the potential when emails are well-crafted and adequately targeted.

Want to see how I reached 20% reply rate with investor outreach, book a free call and we can talk through it

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Cons: Potential for Spam Perception

Despite their potential, cold emails face major challenges. Spam filters often block even well-crafted messages, and the negative perception of unsolicited emails can hurt engagement. They also lack the human connection of real-time interaction, making it harder to build trust or handle objections—especially when selling complex solutions that need deeper explanation.

Use tools like Mailreach to regularly check your deliverability scores and fix your email infrastructure periodically. I check mine every weekend.

Some sources say response rates vary widely, with average cold email response rates typically falling between 1 and 5%. This means you must send substantial volumes to generate meaningful results, which increases the risk of damaging your sender's reputation if not managed carefully.

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What is a Cold Call?

Cold calling is making unsolicited calls to prospects who haven’t shown prior interest. It gives you direct, real-time access to decision-makers, enabling dynamic conversations that build relationships, address objections, and gauge interest instantly. In B2B, the goal is to qualify prospects, spark interest, and understand if they have a problem you can solve.

Only then can you book meetings with cold calling.

Here is a framework that helps me book 8 meetings a day with cold calling

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Types of Cold Calling

B2B cold calling generally falls into two main categories. First, outbound cold calling involves proactively contacting researched prospects who fit your ideal customer profile. This requires thorough preparation, including understanding the prospect's business challenges and tailoring your approach accordingly.

The second type is inbound cold calling (some call it warm calls), where you follow up with leads who have shown some interest—perhaps by downloading content or visiting your website—but haven't directly requested sales contact. 

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Cold Calls

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Pros: Human Connection and Immediate Feedback

The greatest strength of cold calling is the human connection it creates. Voice allows nuance, emotion, and personality to come through—building trust faster and enabling deeper conversations with decision-makers.

Cold calling provides immediate feedback, allowing sales representatives to adapt their approach in real time based on the prospect's responses. This adaptability means objections can be addressed immediately rather than requiring multiple message exchanges. Data shows that cold calling achieves a 5% higher response rate than email outreach, highlighting the power of direct conversation.

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Cons: Intrusiveness and Time Constraints

The most significant drawback of cold calling is its perceived intrusiveness. An unexpected call interrupts the prospect's day, potentially creating a negative first impression. This perception can damage your brand reputation and make future interactions more difficult. Your call opener really matters here.

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Being upfront and asking for permission goes a long way.

“Hey, I’ll be upfront - it's a cold call, but well researched - can I get 30 seconds to tell you why I called you specifically?”

Cold calling is resource-intensive and time-consuming. While hundreds of emails can be sent daily, a rep may only make 30–50 meaningful calls in the same time.. This is reflected in the ROI—cold calling generates about $9,000 for every $5,000 spent, an ROI of just $1.80 per dollar invested.

Scaling cold calling requires adding more staff, which substantially increases costs. Unlike email campaigns, which can be expanded with minimal additional expense, cold calling needs a larger human workforce to scale, making it challenging for smaller businesses or teams with limited resources to implement effectively.

Discipline goes a long way. Setting cold call times - power hours or blitz days where the whole team groups together on cold calls yields the biggest impact.

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So which method is right for you? Or maybe a combination of both…

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When developing your B2B outreach strategy, understanding how cold emails vs cold calls perform across different metrics is crucial. Let's break down the key comparison points to help you determine which approach might work best for your business needs.

Lead Generation: Which Method Works For You?

Each has distinct advantages in the battle of cold calling vs. cold emailing for lead generation. Cold emails typically generate more leads due to their scalable nature—you can reach thousands of prospects in the time it would take to call several dozen. Targeted cold email campaigns can achieve response rates as high as 15% to 25%, making them highly effective for initial outreach.

Cold calls, while reaching fewer prospects, often produce higher-quality leads. Since calls allow for immediate qualification and deeper conversation, the prospects who show interest tend to be more serious. This quality difference is significant B2B solutions where qualifying opportunities is critical to run effective sales motions.

Interestingly, reaching multiple contacts within the same organization can significantly boost effectiveness—reaching out to 2-4 people from one company gives the highest cold email reply rate of up to 7.8%. This multi-threading works for both methods but is more efficiently executed through email.

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ROI Comparison

Remember these numbers are averages from research - in the real world, your effectiveness will determine your real ROI.

Top seller might book a qualified meeting every 10 calls. Middle of the pack? Every 50 calls.

Ensuring you have a solid list with pre-researched buyers makes a huge difference to your conversion rate and in turn ROI

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The return on investment difference between cold calls and cold emails is substantial. Email outreach delivers an impressive ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, making it one of the most cost-effective marketing channels. More specifically, for cold outreach, email can generate around $41,300 for every $4,200 spent, equivalent to about $9 return per dollar invested.

In contrast, cold calling generates approximately $9,000 for every $5,000 spent, an ROI of just $1.80 per dollar invested. This lower return reflects the higher personnel costs and time investment required. However, cold call vs. cold email ROI calculations don't always account for the potentially higher conversion rates at later stages of the sales process that calls might facilitate.

The ROI gap widens further when scaling operations. The ROI of cold email can be increased more easily when scaling outreach, while cold calling requires proportionally more resources to expand, limiting its efficiency at larger volumes.

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Cost and Resource Requirements

The most dramatic comparison point is between cold emails and cold call resources. Sending emails costs almost nothing compared to phone calls, especially for overseas contacts. A single sales representative can manage outreach to hundreds of prospects daily through email while dialling, connecting and speaking to someone on a cold call takes time, thus limiting you to 30-50 meaningful calls a week (if you’re good)

Cold calling requires more human workforce to scale effectively, making it challenging for smaller businesses or teams with limited resources.  In contrast, cold emailing allows reaching many prospects simultaneously with minimal additional effort.

The tracking and measurement infrastructure also differs significantly. Email campaigns provide detailed analytics on opens, clicks, and responses with minimal additional investment. Cold calling metrics are more limited and often require additional systems to track effectively, adding to the overall resource requirements.

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Accessibility and Ease of Setup

Cold emails are easier to set up than cold calls. While crafting effective emails requires copywriting skills and knowledge of deliverability factors, they’re still faster to scale.

• Cold calling, on the other hand, requires:
• Accurate phone numbers, which can be harder to find than emails
• Sales reps who can run cold calls, handle objections, have the right attitude and tone

Technically, cold emails need authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to avoid spam filters, while cold calling has fewer tech requirements but stricter legal restrictions in some areas.

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Personalization and Relationship Building

Cold calling is obviously best for personalization - it’s human to human conversation all the way. You adjust your messaging naturally, you ask questions, find challenges, present a vision and you’re building rapport the whole time.

Cold emails, by contrast, make personalization at scale possible through segmentation and tailored messaging. While they don't have the immediacy of calls, they deliver value first by sending along resources that establish credibility before a conversation.

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Which Strategy Should You Go For?

Deciding whether to use cold calls or cold emails isn't always easy. The optimal choice is based on several factors, including your business, target market, and resource availability. Here are a few to help:

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Analyzing Target Audience Preferences

The best outreach method depends on who you're targeting. Industry norms, seniority, and demographics all play a role.

Industry: Financial services and healthcare often prefer calls, while tech and digital marketing lean toward email.

Seniority: C-suite executives may have gatekeepers, making email a better first touch, though they often prefer calls for serious discussions.

Age: Younger professionals prefer email, while older generations may be more receptive to calls.

Cultural Factors: Some regions prioritize relationship-building through calls, while others favor email efficiency.

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Assessing Product Complexity

Cold calls are often more effective than email for complex B2B solutions with multiple features or technical details. Calls allow reps to clarify challenges, present the vision, handle objections, and adapt messaging in real time, which is crucial for guiding prospects through intricate offerings.

Cold calls help to:

• Explain complex value propositions in a simple way
• Address objections right away
• Demonstrate expertise through conversation

However, email plays a supporting role by providing visual aids, specifications, and follow-up materials. A brief conversation on the phone, followed by a detailed follow up email can work wonders for complex B2B products.

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Considering Time and Resource Constraints

For teams with limited bandwidth, email is often the more efficient choice. A single rep can send hundreds of emails daily but only make 50-70 cold calls a day.

Email also requires fewer resources. Cold calling demands more staff hours, phone systems, and training. Once set up, email campaigns run autonomously with minimal effort.

Time zones add another challenge. Calls may miss international prospects, while emails reach them anytime, making email the better first touchpoint before scheduling calls.

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Integrating with Overall Sales Strategy

The most effective B2B outreach rarely relies exclusively on cold emails or cold calls. Instead, successful sales strategies integrate both approaches at different stages of the buyer's journey.

A sophisticated multi-channel approach might include:

1. Initial contact via personalized cold email to establish relevance
2. Follow-up email providing additional value (case study, industry report)
3. Cold call referencing previous communications
4. Connect on LinkedIn and engage through DM’s
5. Continued nurturing through the most appropriate channels based on prospect engagement

This integrated approach can increase ROI by 40-50% when B2B cold calling campaigns are combined with email, demonstrating the synergy between these methods.

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‍How To Combine Both Strategies For Impact

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The best way to maximize both strategies is to use them together strategically. Rather than treating them as competing approaches, forward-thinking sales teams are creating integrated sequences that leverage the strengths of each method. This is the omni-channel prospecting approach.

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Sequential Strategy: Email First, Then Call

Research shows prospects who receive a relevant email first are 30% more likely to answer your call, proving that email and calls work better together, not separately.

For maximum effectiveness, your initial email should:

• Be concise and value-focused
• Include a specific reason for future phone contact
• Provide just enough information to spark interest
• Create a sense of recognition without overwhelming

The follow-up call should then naturally reference the previous email: "Hi Sam, I sent you an email Tuesday about how we helped Company X increase its manufacturing efficiency by 28%. I'm calling to see if those challenges resonated with your current situation."

Omnichannel Sequences and Engagement Tracking

A well-planned omni-channel sequence blends cold emails and calls over several weeks, typically 8-12 touches. A structured sequence might look like this:

1. Initial cold email (personalized introduction)
2. Follow-up email (adds value, sent after 3 days)
3. First call (references previous emails, made after 5 days)
4. Value-add email (includes a relevant resource, sent after 7 days)
5. Second call (provides new insights, made after 10 days)
6. Final "break-up" email (sent after 14 days if no response)

The key to success is tracking engagement across all interactions. Sales platforms help monitor email opens, link clicks, and call outcomes to determine the best next step.

For example, if a prospect opens emails multiple times but doesn’t reply, they may be interested but hesitant, so a call would help them answer their questions. A direct call acknowledging their busy schedule might be more effective if they haven't opened any emails.

Personalization Based on Prospect Behavior

The true power of combining cold emails and calls emerges when you use behavioral data from one channel to personalize interactions in the other.  Email engagement data offers remarkable insights for call personalization:

• Links clicked reveal specific interests worth discussing
• Time spent on particular content indicates priority topics
• Reply sentiment suggests objections to address
• Email forwarding to colleagues reveals additional stakeholders

For example, suppose analytics show a prospect spent significant time reviewing pricing information but didn't request a demo. In that case, your follow-up call can directly address potential budget concerns while emphasizing ROI. This level of personalization transforms cold outreach into a consultative experience.

Similarly, insights gained during calls should inform subsequent email content. If a prospect mentions specific challenges during a conversation, your next email can deliver case studies addressing those exact pain points, demonstrating that you're truly listening rather than just following a script.

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