• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, 11 hours ago

B2B salespeople have many modern tools at their disposal. But there is one old-time technology that continues to work: the phone. 

Cold-calling produces 33.6% of all booked appointments, according to a study from Sopros. And phone success rates have jumped from 2.3% to 2.7%, which the study calls a significant uplift at scale. Cold prospect calls achieve an 18.6% connection rate.

Still, it may be a stretch to imagine that B2B buyers want cold calls when they are busy doing other things. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to send an email? 

Not necessarily—cold emails are often shoved right into the spam folder. But email is the most widely used lead-generation channel, cited by 78% of the respondents.  

That doesn’t means it’s the most effective--the best response rate is produced by social media, 41% of sales teams report. 

Email produces an average reply of only 3.43%, although the highest-performing campaigns drive 5.5% or more, and the top 10% can pull more than 10.7%.  

Getting someone to reply to a cold email has never been easy, with the average reply rate at just 3.43%. The highest-performing campaigns regularly achieve 5.5% or more, and only the top 10% exceed 10.7%.

Follow-up messages drive more replies than those that are first-touch. The initial reply average is 41.1%, compared with 58.6% for emails two to six. 

But be advised that 77% of buyers are more likely an open an email if the subject line communicates an offer. And 71% will click if the subject line is personalized. 

The next finding goes against common wisdom—that 69% are more prone to open an email if the subject line contains a question.  

Cold-calling does have its strengths: 41% of buyers say they prefer in-person communications when dealing with a new supplier.  

All that said, we have a couple of caveats. For one thing, the survey of  442 senior B2B decision-makers in the U.S. and U.K .was conducted in October 2025: It’s not clear if the year-old results are holding up. And technology has changed even since then—are B2B brands using agentic agents for their outbound (and inbound) calls?

Here’s a bigger problem: Only “40% of B2B companies are currently exceeding new business targets—and that's not because half the sales profession suddenly forgot how to sell,” says Steve Harlow, head of sales for Sopros. “It's because the market got structurally harder: 58% of buyers say there's more competition, 44% say decision cycles are longer, and 43% say they get ghosted mid-process.” 

The answer is to have an integrated outreach program that covers all channels, as 58% of B2B outfits do.