Cold call or cold email

Direct sales is an effective channel for startups and established businesses. For reaching out to potential clients or customers, two popular methods are cold calling and cold emailing. Both have their pros and cons. Understanding the differences between them can help you decide which approach is best for your business.

Is it better to cold call or email?

Let’s have a look at both cold calling and cold emailing and see what they excel at and what you should consider when choosing the right strategy.

☎️ Cold calling

Cold calling is personal and you get immediate feedback and engagement. However, timing can be difficult and dealing with rejection can be daunting.

✨ Pros:

• Immediate feedback: You can gauge the prospect's interest and response in real-time. Some cues are only available in real-time conversation.
• Personal: Calling someone and interacting directly builds rapport and establish a connection you don’t get with email.
• Immediate engagement: Some people prefer speaking over the phone rather than reading emails. The real-time nature of a call also makes the back and forth process quicker.

👎 Cons:

• Interruption: Cold calls can be intrusive and disruptive to the prospect's day. You also have to take time zones into account if doing overseas sales. Waking someone up in the middle of the night isn’t nice.
• Limited reach: You can only speak to one person at a time, which can be time-consuming and doesn’t scale well.
• Rejection: Facing rejection in cold calls is not for the faint of heart and can be discouraging.

💌 Cold emailing

Cold emailing is an effective strategy that also scales well. However, you don’t really get the same personal touch and real-time interaction as with a phone call.

✨ Pros:

• Scalability: You can reach a larger audience with less effort.
• Automation: Automate email sending and follow-ups with a CRM and email automation system like Wobaka to make it even more scalable.
• Non-intrusive: Emails can be read at the recipient's convenience without interrupting their day. You don’t have to account for time zones in the same way as for cold calling.
• Trackable: You can monitor open rates, click rates, and replies to measure effectiveness.

👎 Cons:

• Lower response rates: Emails can get lost in overflowing inboxes or go unread.
• Less personal: It’s difficult to be as personal through written communication.
• Spam filters: Your emails can be flagged as spam and get lost in your recipients inbox.

To summarize, whether cold calling or cold emailing is better depends on various factors such as your target audience, industry, and personal preferences. You should also take into account if your prospects are in different time zones.

Some businesses find success with a combination of both approaches, while others may favor one over the other. For example, a popular approach is to cold email to get a call. Ultimately, it's essential to experiment and refine your strategies to find what works best for your business.

Cold Call or Cold Email First

Deciding whether to start with cold calls or cold emails can depend on your resources, goals, and target audience.

💭 Consider the following:

• Audience Preference: Research your target audience to understand their preferences. Some may respond better to emails and will be very annoyed by a call. Others may appreciate the personal touch of a phone call.
• Resource Availability: What’s your team’s bandwidth and expertise? If you have a skilled sales team comfortable with making calls, starting with cold calls might be better. If you have limited resources or experience. Perhaps it’s better to start with cold emailing.
• Timing: Timing can play a significant role. If you're launching a new product or service, an email campaign might be a more effective way to generate initial interest. You can then follow up with phone calls.

There's no one-size-fits-all answer to whether you should start with cold calls or emails. It often comes down to trial and error. So, go out there and test different approaches. Analyze the results to determine the most effective strategy for your business.

Conclusion

In the discussion between cold calling and cold emailing, there's really no clear winner. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, and the best approach depends on your specific circumstances. Do you prioritize direct and personal interaction, or is scalability and data-driven decisions your cup of tea? The key is to adapt your strategy based on feedback and continuously refine your approach to maximize results.

👋 Regardless of what you choose. Wobaka has your back. It’s easy to track both cold email and cold calls to make sure you stay on top of things.