Key Takeaways
- Multichannel wins: B2B buyers now use 10+ channels to engage suppliers, so combining calls and emails in a coordinated outreach strategy is no longer optional-it's how you get noticed and remembered.mckinsey.com
- High-performing teams run structured cadences of 8-12 touchpoints over 17-21 days, mixing calls, emails, and social instead of relying on a single channel or one-and-done outreach.growleads.io
- Cold email reply rates in 2024-2025 average only about 3-5%, while top performers hit 15-25% by tightening ICPs, personalizing, and pairing email with other channels like phone.thedigitalbloom.com
- Multichannel outreach (email + phone + social) can boost engagement by up to 287% and conversions by 300%, so your blended call + email strategy directly impacts pipeline volume.artemisleads.com
- Modern cold calling is a low-connect, high-leverage channel: average connect rates sit around 3-10% and only ~2.3% of dials become meetings, but once you're live on the phone, ~66% of conversations can turn into booked meetings.salesso.com
- The biggest leak in most outbound programs is follow-up discipline—44% of reps give up after a single follow-up, even though 80% of sales and the majority of replies come after multiple touches. A blended cadence fixes that by enforcing persistence.growleads.io
- Bottom line: Treat calls and emails as one coordinated system. Standardize blended cadences, instrument them carefully, and either build or outsource an SDR engine (like SalesHive) that can execute this playbook consistently at scale.
Stop Choosing Between Calls and Emails
If you’re still debating “calls vs. emails” in 2025, you’re optimizing the wrong thing. Your prospects aren’t living in one channel, and your outbound shouldn’t either. The goal isn’t to win an argument about medium; it’s to reliably create conversations that turn into qualified meetings.
Today’s B2B buyers bounce between email, phone, LinkedIn, websites, and internal conversations long before they reply to a rep. McKinsey’s B2B research shows buyers regularly use 10+ channels to interact with suppliers, which means any single-channel strategy is invisible for most of the journey. If your team is only sending emails or only dialing, you’re gambling that your buyer’s preferred moment just happens to match your one channel.
A blended call + email strategy fixes that by treating outreach as one coordinated system. Calls create real-time clarity and momentum; emails scale, document value, and make follow-up frictionless. When we build outbound programs at SalesHive, we don’t run “a cold email agency” playbook separate from “cold call services”—we run a multichannel cadence where each touch supports the next.
Why Multichannel Outreach Wins in Crowded Markets
Email-only outbound is harder than most teams admit. Across 2024–2025, average cold email reply rates commonly land around 3–5.1%, while top-tier campaigns reach 15–25% by tightening targeting and personalization. The gap isn’t magic copywriting—it’s list quality, relevance, and a follow-up plan that doesn’t rely on hope.
Cold calling is similar: it’s low-connect but high-leverage. Benchmarks put connect rates around 3–10%, with roughly 2.3% of dials converting into meetings overall, which is exactly why volume and segmentation matter. When you combine calls and emails in a single cadence, the email makes the call warmer, and the call makes the email feel real.
The biggest upside is what happens when channels reinforce each other. Adding phone and other touches to email can drive up to a 287% engagement lift and as much as a 300% conversion lift versus email alone. That’s not a “nice to have”—it’s the difference between a program that drips replies and one that produces predictable pipeline.
| Benchmark | What it implies for your outreach |
|---|---|
| Buyers use 10+ channels | Your message must stay consistent across phone + inbox to be remembered. |
| Cold email replies average 3–5.1%; top tier 15–25% | Strong ICP fit and personalization separate “noise” from “meetings.” |
| Cold calling connect rates 3–10%; dial-to-meeting ~2.3% | Calling works best when paired with email context and disciplined activity. |
| Multichannel can lift engagement 287% and conversions 300% | Blended cadences generally outperform channel “specialists.” |
Design a Cadence That Creates Momentum
High-performing outbound isn’t a one-and-done email or a random dialing spree. Research-backed cadence patterns typically land around 8–12 touchpoints over 17–21 days, which is long enough to break through noise but short enough to stay focused. The key is to make every touch earn its place by adding value, proof, or a clearer ask.
We recommend building your cadence around “combo moments” where a call and email work together. A voicemail without an immediate follow-up email wastes the moment; an email without the option to talk can leave objections unresolved. Treat calls and emails as two versions of the same story: the call is the fast path to alignment, and the email is the written record that helps the prospect forward internally.
Your entry point should also be intentional, not habitual. Test call-first versus email-first by segment for 60–90 days, then standardize what produces meetings, not what produces activity. If you’re running a B2B sales agency or an internal SDR team, this is the difference between “busy” and “effective.”
Make Execution Repeatable (and Measurable)
A blended strategy only works if reps execute it the same way every week. The simplest non-negotiable is voicemail + email pairing: every voicemail should trigger an email within 5–10 minutes that references the voicemail and repeats the single, clear reason you called. This is easy to enforce by building the pairing as one combined step in your engagement platform so it’s impossible to “forget” the follow-up.
Next, instrument your CRM so you can see what’s actually happening. Your RevOps team should be able to report on sends, replies, connects, meetings, and outcomes by step number, channel, and persona. Without step-level tracking, teams argue about opinions instead of improving based on evidence.
Finally, keep your list tight. A lot of outbound underperformance is just bad targeting dressed up as “messaging problems.” Tighten your ICP, remove accounts that don’t fit, and align your call script and email copy to the same core value proposition so prospects hear one coherent narrative no matter how they engage.
Prospects don’t need more touches; they need a clearer reason to respond, repeated consistently across the channels they actually use.
Messaging That Sounds Human on Both Phone and Email
The most common mistake we see is channel mismatch: a thoughtful email sequence paired with a generic call script, or a strong call opener paired with vague “checking in” emails. Your messaging should share the same spine: the trigger (why now), the problem (what’s costing them), the proof (who you’ve helped), and the ask (a small next step). The difference is format—calls should be conversational and diagnostic, while emails should be crisp and forwardable.
On calls, aim for permission-based clarity. Your opener should confirm relevance quickly, then ask one question that reveals fit instead of launching into a pitch. If you reach voicemail, leave a short message that mirrors your email’s subject line idea so the prospect connects the dots when they see the follow-up in their inbox.
In emails, earn the reply with specificity. If your baseline reply rates look like the market average (3–5.1%), the fastest lever is usually tighter segmentation and better personalization—not longer copy. When the email and the call tell the same story, your team stops feeling like an “outsourced sales team” blasting templates and starts sounding like professionals who did their homework.
Fix the Leaks: Follow-Up Discipline and Diminishing Returns
Most outbound programs don’t fail because the first message is bad; they fail because the follow-up system is weak. Follow-up emails can lift response rates by up to 21%, and many campaigns see more than half of replies come after multiple touches. If your reps stop early, you’re paying for list building and tooling only to quit before the payoff window.
At the same time, more touches isn’t always better. In 2025, BDRs report averaging about 21 attempts per contact, but simply stretching sequences longer doesn’t reliably improve quota attainment. The practical takeaway is to keep your standard cadence tight and time-boxed, then reserve extended pursuit for strategic accounts where you’re evolving the message and multi-threading stakeholders.
If you want a clean rule: be persistent, but don’t be repetitive. Every touch should introduce a new angle—an insight, a proof point, or a sharper question—so you’re building credibility, not annoyance. This is where many cold calling companies and cold calling teams struggle: they increase activity without increasing relevance.
Optimization: What to Test and How to Improve Fast
Once your cadence is running, optimization should be structured and continuous. Start with entry strategy (call-first vs. email-first), then test one variable at a time: segment, subject line style, voicemail length, call opener, or the CTA. Keep the success metric centered on booked meetings and qualified opportunities, not vanity metrics like opens or total dials.
Timing matters, but only inside your data. Block calling during windows when your team historically connects, then use email to “set up” those call blocks so dials aren’t cold in context. When you pair a call with an email that references the same trigger, you’ll often see higher connect-to-meeting performance because the prospect recognizes the narrative instead of reacting to a random interruption.
If you’re considering sales outsourcing, hold your partner to the same experimentation standard you’d expect internally. A strong outbound sales agency should be able to show step-level results, segment-specific learnings, and a clear testing roadmap. That’s how you turn a blended motion into a compounding system instead of a monthly scramble.
When to Build In-House vs. Use an SDR Partner
Blended outreach is simple on paper and hard in practice. It requires tight list building, consistent rep execution, and operational discipline across tools, data, and coaching. If your SDR org is small, stretched thin, or still defining its playbook, partnering with an SDR agency can accelerate results while your AEs stay focused on running deals.
This is the gap we fill at SalesHive. Since 2016, we’ve helped 1,500+ B2B companies book 100,000+ meetings by running coordinated multichannel campaigns that combine cold calling services, personalized email, and high-quality list building into one system. Our team operates like an extension of your revenue org, not a disconnected vendor, and we plug activity and outcomes into your CRM so performance is transparent.
If you do decide to outsource sales development, start with a pilot in one ICP or territory and demand measurable learning within the first few weeks. The objective is not just “more activity,” but a repeatable cadence that produces meetings at predictable rates. Whether you hire SDRs internally or engage a cold calling agency, the winning approach is the same: coordinated touches, consistent messaging, and relentless measurement.
Sources
- McKinsey (B2B Sales Omnichannel)
- GrowLeads (Outreach Cadence Research)
- Digital Bloom (Cold Email Reply Rate Benchmarks)
- Artemis Leads (Cold Email Benchmarks 2025)
- Salesso (SDR Cold Calling Statistics)
- 6sense (2025 Science of B2B BDR Benchmark)
- Gitnux (Cold Email Statistics)
- SalesHive (Process)
- SalesHive (eMod Personalization Engine)
📊 Key Statistics
Action Items
Design a standard blended call + email cadence for your main ICP
Map 8-12 touches over 17-21 days that mix emails, calls, voicemails, and social touches. Document it clearly (step-by-step, with templates) and roll it out as the default sequence for SDRs targeting your primary segment.
Implement voicemail + email pairing as a non-negotiable rule
Train SDRs that every voicemail must be followed by a tailored email within 5-10 minutes referencing that voicemail. Add this as a single 'combo step' in your engagement platform so reps can't accidentally skip it.
Test call-first vs. email-first entry points by segment
For one ICP, start with an email then a follow-up call; for another, test a call first and email second. Track meetings and reply rates per entry strategy over 60-90 days, then standardize the winner for each segment.
Tighten your list and align messaging across channels
Audit your current target lists and remove accounts that don't match your ICP. Then ensure the core value prop in your cold emails, call scripts, and LinkedIn messages is consistent so prospects hear a coherent story no matter how they engage.
Instrument your CRM to capture every touch in the cadence
Work with RevOps to ensure call logs, email sends, replies, and meeting outcomes are all synced into the CRM with cadence step identifiers. This gives you the data to see which step and which channel mix lead to booked meetings.
Consider augmenting your team with an outsourced SDR pod
If your internal team is bandwidth-constrained or lacks multichannel execution experience, plug in an outsourced SDR partner like SalesHive to run blended call + email campaigns while you focus your AEs on closing.
Partner with SalesHive
On the email side, SalesHive uses its AI-powered eMod engine to research each prospect and automatically personalize templates at scale, which significantly boosts reply and meeting rates without forcing SDRs to write every message from scratch. On the phone side, professionally trained SDRs-both US-based and Philippines-based where appropriate-work proven scripts and objection-handling frameworks to turn conversations into qualified appointments rather than random demos. All of this plugs into your CRM and runs on month-to-month, no-annual-contract pricing with risk-free onboarding, so you can validate a blended call + email strategy in a segment or territory before rolling it out across the entire go-to-market team.
