"Cold calling is dead." The reality of cold calls in 2026

Key takeaways

• The setup did the work: a Sales Navigator list, enrichment through a data partner, defined firmographics, and a strong hook for the segment. Unsolicited, yes. Unmotivated, no.

• Practical signals from the block: mobiles outperform landlines and diallers, people seem more willing to answer an unknown mobile, and a missed call followed by a text is a natural next step.

• Senior finance leaders may be easier to reach than marketing or sales leaders because fewer people try to sell to them.

• Skip the voicemail, mostly. Try again or text, the same way a blank LinkedIn connection request out-performs one with a message.

• The phone alone isn’t the fastest way to build pipeline. The cadence it anchors is: call to filter, then a strong email, then the missed-call text, then LinkedIn. What’s dying is the email-only sequence.

• Test your message on your own internal persona. If your chief financial officer’s inbox is full of your exact email, nothing will stand out.

If cold calling is dead, why did it work yesterday? We did it. The buyers we called, it worked.

Regan Barker, co-founder, Ricavi

The best time of day to call is whenever you pick up the phone.

Luigi Prestinenzi, co-founder, Ricavi

What did the test actually show?

Luigi Prestinenzi opens with the LinkedIn consensus that pipeline from cold is expensive and dead. Regan Barker calls it rubbish and describes the day before. They built a list on Sales Navigator, enriched it, and called senior finance executives at large enterprises, not small businesses. Mobile to mobile, number showing, no dialler. Contact rate around 80 percent. Several appointments. Two people who missed the call rang back without any voicemail prompting them, and the one non-answerer who got an email replied within two minutes. The whole block took about an hour.

Why did it work when the consensus says it shouldn’t?

Because nobody called without a reason. Luigi’s definition of cold calling is calling unsolicited, and that’s what they did. What they didn’t do was call a batch of strangers with a generic message. The list was segmented, the persona was defined, and each call carried a hook the person would recognise as relevant. David Fastuca draws out the second effect: research builds the seller’s confidence, and confidence is why people pick up the phone at all.

Regan adds a few field notes she’d like to test properly. People seem readier to answer an unknown mobile than a landline. A missed call can be followed by a text within minutes. And a chief financial officer gets sold to far less than a chief marketing officer does, which makes the phone the obvious channel for reaching one.

Is the phone the fastest way to build pipeline?

No, and Regan surprises Luigi by saying so. It’s the first step of a cadence, and the cadence is what builds pipeline. A call filters interest immediately. A strong email follows. The missed-call text and a LinkedIn connection tell the buyer you want the conversation badly enough to try more than once. What’s dying is the email-only sequence, the four-step “did you get my last one” that both hosts were receiving from the same seller during the recording. Luigi’s closing point is about attitude. Everyone says the channel is dead, so everyone leaves it. He wants to sell in the noise, because working harder than the competition is easiest when the competition has given up.

Questions this episode answers

What contact rate can cold calling achieve?

The founders’ live test on segmented, trigger-relevant senior finance mobiles reached roughly 8 in 10. That’s well above the rates behind the “dead channel” narrative, and the difference was preparation.

Should you leave a voicemail on a cold call?

Usually no. Try again or send a text. In the test, two prospects called back unprompted with no voicemail left.

Is cold calling the fastest way to build pipeline?

Not alone. It’s the first step of a multi-channel cadence. The call filters, the email adds substance, and the text and LinkedIn touches signal genuine intent.