A recent Shopify article on cold calling looked at whether cold calling still works and some of the techniques businesses can use to improve it.
It got me thinking about how much cold calling has actually changed during my own career.
Cold calling has been used to find new business for about as long as businesses have had telephones.
Apart from face-to-face selling, I would argue that it is probably one of the oldest forms of direct business outreach.
And fundamentally, it has not changed.
You identify somebody you want to speak to.
You pick up the phone.
You start a conversation.
What has changed is everything around it.
When I first started doing outreach around 2000, I would pick businesses from what we called the Yellow Pages, the huge yellow business directory that today continues online through Yell.
Back then, prospecting was largely a volume game.
It was almost impossible to know very much about a business before you called it.
You had a company name.
You had a category.
You had a telephone number.
Then you dialled.
So volume made sense.
But this is 2026.
The amount of information available to us has completely changed the game.
That means the question should no longer be simply: how many calls can we make?
It should be: which businesses are actually worth calling, and once we get them on the phone, do we know what to say and how to say it?
I have seen both sides of cold calling.
I did volume prospecting when volume was genuinely necessary.
Then I learned that the environment had changed and that the old approach no longer had to be the default.
That distinction matters.
I am not saying everybody doing cold calling today is doing it wrong.
They are not.
There are very good salespeople and businesses using the telephone intelligently.
But I do think a large part of the market is still far too comfortable with volume.
This is something I see from the buyer's side as well.
I receive emails every day from people trying to sell me things.
If they are completely irrelevant, I normally do not answer.
Often, I mark them as spam.
The same principle applies to calls.
So if you are reading this and thinking about contacting me, there is a fairly simple rule:
That may sound obvious.
But it gets to the heart of the problem.
There are always two sides to a coin.
Making hundreds of calls can actually be easier psychologically than slowly building a smaller group of businesses you genuinely want to speak to.
Why?
Because people want results now.
Sales managers want activity now.
Businesses want opportunities now.
Salespeople want appointments now.
But business development does not always work like that.
You cannot force somebody to need what you sell simply because you have a monthly target.
2000 • LIMITED INFORMATION
A business directory might give you a company name, category, address and telephone number. There was often very little else to work with.
2000 • VOLUME WAS NECESSARY
When you could not realistically judge who was likely to be suitable beforehand, making more calls increased the chance of eventually finding the right conversation.
2026 • INFORMATION IS EVERYWHERE
Businesses now leave enormous amounts of public information around their websites, social profiles, technology, people, recruitment, products, services and commercial direction.
2026 • QUALITY CAN BE PRIORITISED
The ability to understand a business before contact means the salesperson no longer has to treat everybody as an equally valuable call.
THE METHOD DID NOT DIE
The telephone is still the telephone. What changed is how much more intelligently we can decide where to use it.
For me, the real skill in modern cold calling is not just finding somebody to call.
It is knowing that there is enough relevance to justify the conversation.
And then comes the part people sometimes overlook.
You still have to know what to say.
And you still have to know how to say it.
You can have the strongest prospect in your market sitting on the other end of the phone.
If your opening is poor, your tone is wrong or you do not know how to create a conversation, you can still lose them in seconds.
I do not have a problem with cold-calling scripts.
They can provide structure.
They can help somebody practise.
They can make sure important points are not forgotten.
But if a human is simply going to read a fixed script word for word, I would argue that AI can probably deliver that script more consistently.
The value of the human caller is that they can have a conversation.
They can listen.
They can react.
They can notice changes in tone.
They can take something the prospect says and go somewhere completely different with the conversation.
For me, the most important part of the cold call is therefore the opening.
Not because you need to rush.
You do not.
The objective is not to fire your pitch at somebody before they have time to hang up.
The objective is to capture their attention sufficiently for them to want to hear the next sentence.
And you do that with both what you say and how you say it.
Imagine I was selling software and I had noticed something relevant inside the prospect's existing technology stack.
I might open the conversation along these lines:
USE THEIR NAME FIRST
"John, I've been looking at your business..."
MENTION SOMETHING THEY RECOGNISE
"...and I noticed you use X platform."
CREATE COMMON GROUND
"We use that as well. I particularly like the way it handles X..."
THEN MOVE NATURALLY INTO THE REASON
"Anyway, the reason I wanted to speak to you was..."
For me, using the person's name in the opening matters.
Their own name is familiar to them.
You are immediately talking to them as an individual rather than sounding as if you have simply reached the next number on a spreadsheet.
Then you give them something else they recognise.
Something about their company.
Something they use.
Something they have done.
Ideally, something that actually means something to them.
That is where the opening begins creating connection.
And there is no need to rush from there.
If the opening has worked, you have gained something far more useful than a fast pitch.
You have gained attention.
Tone then becomes critical.
Personally, I would say: never be pushy.
In 2026, buyers have experienced too much sales outreach for aggressive pressure to feel clever.
That does not mean you cannot be persuasive.
Persuasion and pressure are not the same thing.
Good communicators understand how the right words, emphasis and pacing affect whether people continue listening.
Alex Hormozi is one person I have heard who understands this extremely well.
He knows where to place particular words.
He knows when to emphasise something.
He knows how to structure a point so that you want to hear the next one.
That is very different from simply talking louder or applying more pressure.
Speak to the individual immediately. For me, the person's name helps make the conversation feel familiar rather than mass-produced.
Mention something specific about the business that demonstrates there is a genuine reason you selected them for the call.
Where possible, use something that already matters to the prospect rather than manufacturing generic small talk.
The words matter, but so do pace, tone and emphasis. Sound like somebody having a business conversation, not somebody racing through a sales script.
You do not need to trick somebody into staying on the phone.
You need to give them a reason to want to stay there.
Some parts of selling change.
Some do not.
One thing I do not think will ever disappear from successful sales conversations is the open-ended question.
Open questions create dialogue.
They give the prospect room to explain something in their own language.
They move you away from a sequence of yes-or-no answers and towards an actual conversation.
But there is an important point here.
Do not simply prepare ten open questions and work through them like a checklist.
The next question should often come from what the prospect has just told you.
That requires listening.
And listening, for me, is one of the biggest skills any salesperson can have.
"HOW ARE YOU CURRENTLY HANDLING THAT?"
Allows the prospect to explain the existing process rather than simply saying whether they like it.
"WHAT IS WORKING WELL AT THE MOMENT?"
Do not assume everything is broken. Understanding what already works can be just as important.
"WHAT TENDS TO CAUSE THE BIGGEST PROBLEM?"
Moves towards the pain without telling the prospect what their pain is supposed to be.
"HOW LONG HAS THAT BEEN HAPPENING?"
Helps establish whether the issue is temporary or something the business has lived with for some time.
"WHAT HAVE YOU ALREADY TRIED?"
Gives you context and can prevent you from recommending something they have already attempted.
"WHAT WOULD YOU IDEALLY LIKE TO IMPROVE?"
Moves the conversation towards the prospect's preferred outcome.
"WHAT WOULD CHANGE IF YOU SOLVED THAT?"
Helps reveal why the issue actually matters commercially or personally.
"WHAT WOULD A GOOD OUTCOME LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?"
Allows the prospect to define success in their own words.
"WHO ELSE IS INVOLVED IN THAT?"
Can naturally open the wider decision-making picture without turning the conversation into an interrogation.
"WHAT HAPPENS IF NOTHING CHANGES?"
Helps uncover the real consequence of leaving the current situation alone.
Then comes the part that many people struggle with.
Once you have got the prospect talking: stop talking.
Listen.
Too many salespeople talk themselves out of opportunities.
They ask a good question.
The prospect begins answering.
Then the salesperson interrupts because they recognise something they can sell.
Or they are already preparing their next line instead of hearing what is being said.
My own method is fairly simple.
I lead with open questions.
Then I let the prospect close the answer.
While they are talking, I listen and make notes.
But I do not try to write down everything they are saying.
I write down keywords.
That distinction is important.
If I am trying to transcribe the entire conversation, I am not really listening anymore.
Instead, I listen for words that appear important.
Time.
Cost.
Frustration.
Growth.
Delays.
Capacity.
Consistency.
Whatever words they use.
Then I come back with another open question built around one of those keywords.
Why?
Because they chose that word.
It means something to them.
There may be an emotional or commercial connection attached to it.
And when I use their own language back naturally, it also demonstrates that I was actually listening.
Begin with an open-ended question that allows the prospect to explain the situation in their own words.
Do not spend the answer preparing your next pitch. Give the prospect room to complete what they are telling you.
Write the important words rather than trying to record every sentence. Look for language carrying commercial or emotional meaning.
Bring relevant keywords back into the conversation so the dialogue stays connected to what the prospect actually said.
Use the keyword to form another open question and uncover what sits underneath the original answer.
The conversation gradually reveals what matters, why it matters and whether there is a meaningful reason to continue.
This is where cold calling becomes less about pitching and more about understanding.
The better you understand the prospect, the less you need to throw generic sales language at them.
Once somebody is engaged in the conversation, another mistake can appear.
The salesperson suddenly changes.
They have spent ten minutes listening, asking questions and building a genuine conversation.
Then they sense an opportunity and switch into closing mode.
The pace changes.
The pressure increases.
And the natural conversation that got them this far disappears.
I think the better approach is to stay inside what the prospect has already told you.
You have been listening.
You have your keywords.
You understand more about the situation than you did when the call began.
So use that.
Before presenting anything, summarise.
Something as simple as:
That gives the prospect an opportunity to correct you.
It also demonstrates that you heard the conversation rather than simply waiting for your chance to pitch.
If they agree, you now have a natural bridge.
You can connect what you offer directly to what they have told you.
Not ten features.
Not the entire company history.
Not every reason somebody somewhere might buy from you.
The part that connects to their situation.
SUMMARISE WHAT YOU HEARD
Bring the important points together using the prospect's own language where appropriate.
CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING
Give them the opportunity to confirm, correct or add to the picture before you move forward.
CONNECT THE RELEVANT PART OF YOUR OFFER
Explain how what you do relates specifically to the issue they have described rather than unloading every feature you sell.
ASK FOR A SENSIBLE NEXT STEP
That may be another meeting, a demonstration, a proposal, a follow-up conversation or simply sending information they have specifically asked for.
DO NOT FORCE THE OUTCOME
If the opportunity is real, you do not need to turn the final minute into a wrestling match.
And this is another place where I think people misunderstand closing.
The objective of every cold call does not have to be an immediate sale.
Sometimes the successful outcome is a meeting.
Sometimes it is permission to send something relevant.
Sometimes it is introducing another decision-maker.
Sometimes it is agreeing to speak again at a more appropriate time.
And sometimes the correct result is discovering that there is no opportunity.
That is still useful.
If the answer is no, handle the no properly.
Do not suddenly become defensive.
Do not argue.
Do not try to keep somebody trapped on the call after they have made their position clear.
The prospect may not be right today.
That does not mean they will never be right.
The way you end the conversation can determine whether that future door remains open.
And after the call, record what actually mattered.
The keywords.
The issues.
The names.
The agreed next action.
The timing.
That information is far more useful than a CRM note that simply says: "Spoke to prospect. Follow up next week."
Reflect the key problem, outcome or priority back to the prospect and make sure you have understood it correctly.
Link the appropriate part of your offer directly to what the prospect has told you rather than delivering a generic pitch.
Move towards the most sensible next action for where the relationship currently sits.
Make sure both sides understand what is happening next, who is doing it and when it should happen.
Capture the keywords, issues and context that made the conversation meaningful so the next contact does not start from zero.
If the answer is not now, leave the conversation professionally rather than damaging a possible future opportunity through pressure.
Cold calling should not be about winning a battle with somebody on the telephone.
It should be about discovering whether there is enough between two businesses to justify the next conversation.
Cold calling is not dead.
I do not think it is anywhere near dead.
The telephone still gives you something extremely valuable: a direct human conversation.
But the way we should arrive at that conversation has changed.
In 2000, I used the Yellow Pages and volume.
That was the world we worked in.
There was often no realistic way to know whether the next company in the directory would be interested until somebody answered the phone.
In 2026, we have far more information.
That means quality can beat quantity.
But selecting a better prospect is only the start.
You still need to know what to say.
You need an opening that earns attention.
Use their name.
Give them something familiar.
Show them that you know something relevant about their business.
Then stop trying to dominate the conversation.
Ask open-ended questions.
Listen.
Write down keywords rather than trying to transcribe every sentence.
Use those words to ask better questions.
Let the prospect show you what actually matters.
Then, when it is time to move forward, do not suddenly become pushy.
Summarise what you heard.
Connect the relevant part of your solution.
Agree a sensible next step.
And if there is no opportunity, respect that as well.
BETTER PROSPECT
Start with a business where there is a genuine reason for the conversation.
BETTER OPENING
Use their name, create familiarity and demonstrate relevance quickly.
BETTER QUESTIONS
Open dialogue rather than forcing the prospect through a prepared interrogation.
BETTER LISTENING
Capture the words that matter and allow the prospect to finish what they are telling you.
BETTER NEXT STEP
Progress the relationship naturally rather than trying to force an immediate sale.
That is where I believe modern cold calling becomes considerably more effective.
Not because somebody has invented another new sales strategy.
In fact, over the years I have seen people move past methods that work and invent all kinds of new approaches.
Some call every one of them a strategy.
I call quite a lot of it bullshit.
Sometimes business development does not need another clever name.
It needs the basics done properly.
Speak to the right people.
Say something worth listening to.
Ask good questions.
Listen to the answers.
Then move the relationship forward when there is a genuine reason to do so.
Prospexto™ helps sales professionals research businesses, identify alignment, understand commercial opportunities and assess suitable outreach routes before prospects move into execution. When cold calling is the right route, you can begin the conversation with more context and a clearer reason for making the call.
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