The phrase “cold calling is dead” has been getting said more frequently recently. People have been saying this more frequently because, often, people just assume that cold calling comes off as overly salesy, unprofessional, and likely a waste of time.

Cold calling can definitely be those three things, it’s hard to argue against that. That is why we are a firm believer in changing the statement “cold calling is dead” to: “Cold calling is dead. Warm calling is taking over.”

Before we dive into why warm calling is taking over cold calling, let’s review what cold calling is. 

What is cold calling?

Cold calling is when a business contacts a person who it has never been in contact with before.

The idea behind cold calling is to convince a person that her or she should purchase a product or service. While most people think of cold calling as being simply phone calls, people often consider things such as door-to-door sales as another form of cold calling.

Cold calling is a form of outbound marketing, not inbound marketing.

What is warm calling?

Warm calling is when a business contacts a person who they have been in contact with before.

The idea behind warm calling is, like cold calling, to convince a person that she or he should purchase a product or service. Warm calling is the opposite of cold calling because the sales prospect anticipated your solicitation from a previous introduction or interaction.

Why warm calling is taking over

Cold calling is dying as warm calling takes over because warm calling is more efficient, meaning it has a much higher sales conversion rate.

It’s obvious that warm calling would be more effective than cold calling because there’s already some sort of relationship formed between the buyer and seller.

When there is already some type of relationship formed between the buyer and seller, you are able to personalize the way that you contact and nurture your lead. This is immensely powerful and will help you convert more leads into sales.

You will convert more leads into sales with warm calling because the sales prospect will already have some degree of trust in you. This results in the prospect being more willing to invest time in listening to what you have to say. When people are more willing to listen to what you say, the call becomes much more productive because the likeliness of rejection significantly decreases.

One of the biggest bonuses of warm calling over cold calling is that they are in general much more pleasant. Warm calls make the job of sales a lot more enjoyable since the conversion rate of them is much higher.