Key Takeaways
- During Covid, roughly 90% of B2B sales moved to remote channels like phone, video, and web, forcing telemarketing and cold calling teams to rebuild their playbooks almost overnight.
- Cold calling is still very alive post-Covid, but the bar is higher: you need cleaner data, multi-channel cadences, and empathetic, context-aware scripts instead of boilerplate pitches.
- Average cold call success rates hover around 2-3% today, down from ~4.8% in 2024, while 80% of deals still require at least five follow-up touches-persistence and process matter more than ever.
- Top-performing teams treat telemarketing as one part of an omnichannel engine, blending calls with targeted email and LinkedIn; this can consistently push dial-to-meeting rates above 6-10%.
- Covid permanently normalized remote and hybrid selling, so your outsourced telemarketing partners must be built for distributed SDR teams, robust QA, and rock-solid compliance in a digital-first world.
- Sales teams that outsource parts of their telemarketing to specialized providers like SalesHive gain faster access to proven scripts, AI-powered personalization, and battle-tested infrastructure without long ramp times.
- Bottom line: if you modernize your telemarketing strategy around data quality, human connection, and multi-channel workflows, phone-based outbound will keep generating pipeline-regardless of the next disruption.
Covid Forced Telemarketing to Evolve Fast
When Covid hit in early 2020, telemarketing and cold calling didn’t disappear—it got stress-tested in the most brutal way possible. Office lines went quiet, gatekeepers vanished, and suddenly every B2B team was trying to reach buyers who were working from home with unpredictable schedules. What used to be a “support channel” became one of the only real-time ways to create human connection.
At the height of the pandemic, McKinsey found that about 90% of B2B sales organizations were selling primarily through videoconference, phone, or web. At the same time, roughly 70–80% of B2B decision makers said they preferred remote human or digital self-service interactions over in-person meetings. That shift didn’t just change how we called—it changed what buyers considered “normal.”
The result is what we still see in 2025: remote and hybrid selling are permanent, and cold calling services have to operate inside a digital-first buyer journey. If you’re treating Covid as a temporary detour, you’ll design a telemarketing program for a world that no longer exists. The winning teams rebuilt their outbound motion around relevance, data quality, and multi-channel follow-up.
Why Cold Calling Still Earns Meetings in a Digital-First World
Cold calling is harder than it used to be, but it’s not “dead.” Gartner projected that by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions between buyers and suppliers would happen in digital channels, which is exactly why the phone matters: it’s one of the few digital channels that can create a real-time conversation. In a noisy outbound landscape, a strong call can compress weeks of back-and-forth into minutes.
The average benchmarks look ugly, and we should be honest about that. Cognism reported average dial-to-meeting success rates of 4.82% in 2024 dropping to around 2.3% in 2025, which tells you “spray and pray” calling is a losing strategy now. But those averages also hide the performance gap between generic outreach and focused, well-managed programs.
What keeps the channel worth doing is buyer behavior after repeated, value-driven attempts. One compilation of studies shows 82% of buyers have accepted meetings after a series of cold calls, which aligns with what we see when messaging and timing are tight. In other words, a cold calling agency isn’t buying success with volume—it’s earning it with process and persistence.
Phone Alone Isn’t a Strategy: Build a Real Cadence
In post-Covid outbound, a single cold call is rarely enough to create lift. Multiple studies cite that roughly 80% of sales require at least five follow-up calls to close, yet many reps stop after one attempt. The teams that keep producing pipeline treat calling as one part of a deliberate, multi-touch system.
We recommend designing a sequence that mixes calls, targeted email, and LinkedIn outreach services over 2–4 weeks, with roughly 15–20 total touches depending on deal size and persona. The phone is best used for the moments that benefit from live interaction: pattern interrupts, discovery questions, and objection handling. Email and LinkedIn do the supporting work—creating familiarity, delivering proof, and making your next call feel expected instead of random.
This is where a modern SDR agency or outbound sales agency can outperform ad-hoc internal efforts, especially when you need consistency across reps. Whether you hire SDRs in-house or use sales outsourcing, the cadence needs to be engineered and managed like a revenue system. When every touch references the last one, connect rates don’t magically spike—but conversation quality and meeting conversion do.
Operationalizing Post-Covid Telemarketing: Data, Coaching, and Compliance
During Covid, data quality became the gatekeeper, and it still is. If your list is full of outdated roles or desk lines, you’re paying cold callers to dial dead ends, which destroys morale and ROI. Investing in verified direct dials, role-based targeting, and refresh cycles through b2b list building services usually moves performance more than rewriting an opener ever will.
Remote execution also changed what “management” means for telesales and b2b cold calling services. Strong programs build weekly coaching into the operating rhythm—typically 60–90 minutes reviewing recordings for openers, discovery, and objection handling—then turn what works into talk tracks the whole team can follow. This is equally true for an internal team and an outsourced sales team; if coaching and QA aren’t measurable, results won’t be repeatable.
Compliance moved from a background concern to a frontline requirement during the pandemic. Several states applied tighter restrictions during declared emergencies (New York is often cited), on top of TCPA and state DNC rules. The practical takeaway is simple: your playbook and dialer logic must be updated continuously, and your telemarketing partner should be able to explain how they enforce calling windows, consent language, and suppression handling without relying on reps to “remember.”
The best cold calls don’t sound like scripts—they sound like a well-prepared professional who respects the buyer’s time and has a clear reason for reaching out.
Best Practices That Still Work When Connect Rates Are Low
If you’re feeling like no one answers anymore, you’re not imagining it. Reported benchmarks show about 87% of Americans don’t answer calls from unknown numbers, and roughly 80% of cold calls go to voicemail. That reality pushes modern cold call services toward better number hygiene, verified direct dials, and a voicemail strategy that supports the cadence instead of trying to “close” in one message.
Messaging also shifted permanently during Covid: empathy and context beat pressure. High-performing teams open with a clear, relevant reason for calling, a question that earns permission to continue, and a realistic next step. The goal isn’t to win an argument—it’s to qualify fit and interest quickly, then move to a meeting only when there’s mutual value.
Finally, treat the handoff as part of the product you’re delivering. If you’re running pay per appointment lead generation or pay per meeting lead generation, the meeting definition must be crystal clear, and the calendar invite should include a one-sentence agenda and a short recap of why the buyer agreed. That small operational detail reduces no-shows and helps your closers start discovery at a higher level.
Common Post-Covid Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)
The most expensive mistake we see is treating Covid as a one-time disruption instead of a permanent shift in buyer behavior. When you plan for a “return to normal,” you underinvest in remote coaching, cloud tooling, and multi-channel orchestration. The fix is to design your telemarketing motion as remote-first by default, with sequences and talk tracks that work whether prospects are at home, in-office, or traveling.
The next mistake is running telemarketing as a standalone channel and then blaming the phone when results lag. Unsupported cold calls feel random, which drives lower conversation quality and higher opt-outs, especially when inboxes and LinkedIn are already crowded. The fix is to build integrated cadences where calls reference prior emails and follow-up emails reference the call, so the buyer experiences continuity instead of interruption.
The final two mistakes are ignoring compliance complexity and measuring success by dials instead of outcomes. If your dashboard celebrates volume while connect rate and meeting rate decline, you’re optimizing for burnout, not pipeline. Fix it by scrubbing lists aggressively, keeping state rules current, and shifting reporting to conversations, qualified meetings, and cost per meeting—whether you’re using a b2b sales agency, an sdr agency, or an internal team.
How to Measure and Optimize Telemarketing in 2025
Optimization starts with a baseline, not opinions. Pull the last 90 days of outbound activity and calculate connect rate, conversation rate, dial-to-meeting rate, and cost per meeting by segment (industry, title, company size, region). Once you can see what’s actually happening, you can decide whether the biggest lever is list quality, call windows, messaging, or the cadence itself.
Benchmarks are useful when they’re used correctly: not as a reason to accept poor performance, but as a reference point to diagnose gaps. The table below summarizes the “why it feels harder” reality and what good teams target when they treat outbound as an engineered system. If your numbers aren’t moving, it’s usually because you’re changing scripts without fixing data and process.
| Metric | What many teams see | What to target with a modern cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Dial-to-meeting success rate | 2.3% average in 2025 | Higher-throughput segments with tighter ICP and sequencing |
| Cold call success rate trend | 4.82% (2024) → 2.3% (2025) | Close the gap with better data, timing, and multi-channel support |
| Voicemail reality | 80% of cold calls go to voicemail | Use voicemail as a cadence touch, not a conversion event |
| Persistence requirement | 80% of sales require five follow-ups | Pre-commit to follow-up rules and enforce them in the sequence |
From there, run controlled experiments instead of random changes. Test two call windows, two openers, and one new data source at a time, and give each test enough volume to be meaningful. This is also where outsourcing can help: the right cold calling companies bring a measurement discipline that’s hard to build quickly if you’re also trying to hire SDRs and manage a full internal sales stack.
When to Outsource (and What to Do Next)
Outsourcing makes sense when you need coverage fast, want to test a new market, or don’t have the infrastructure to recruit, train, and manage at scale. A strong sales development agency should feel like an extension of your team, not a separate call center, and that requires tight alignment on ICP, qualification criteria, and messaging. If you’re considering sales outsourcing, insist on weekly reviews of recordings and outcomes so you’re co-owning the learning loop.
At SalesHive, we were built for the remote-first environment that Covid accelerated: distributed SDR teams, cloud tooling, and an omnichannel motion that combines calling with email and social. Our model is designed to be practical for modern teams—meeting definitions, reporting, and QA that map to pipeline outcomes, not vanity activity. If you’re comparing options like a cold email agency, an sdr agency, or an outbound sales agency, look for the provider that can prove repeatable process, not just promises.
A smart next step is a tightly scoped pilot, not a massive rollout. Choose a narrow ICP, define what counts as a qualified meeting, and run a 90-day test so you can compare cost per meeting and downstream pipeline against your internal baseline. The phone will keep changing as buyer habits and regulations evolve, but the core playbook won’t: clean data, empathetic conversations, and a multi-channel cadence that earns attention over time.
Sources
📊 Key Statistics
Expert Insights
Treat Covid as a Dress Rehearsal for Permanent Remote Selling
Covid forced nearly every B2B sales team into phone- and video-led selling at once. Keep those muscles. Assume buyers will stay hybrid and design telemarketing programs that work whether your prospects are in offices, at home, or somewhere in between. That means cloud dialers, remote SDR coaching, and sequences that flex around time zones and varied work patterns.
Phone Alone Isn't a Strategy—Cadence Is
With 80% of sales requiring multiple follow-ups, a single cold call is basically a coin toss. Build cadences that combine calls, emails, and LinkedIn touches over 2-4 weeks. Use the phone for high-impact moments-pattern interrupts, discovery, and objection handling-while email and social lay the groundwork and follow through.
Data Quality Became the Real Gatekeeper During Covid
Gatekeepers went home, but so did your prospects-and bad data got exposed fast. Invest in verified direct dials, role-based targeting, and refresh cycles so your telemarketing partner isn't burning dials on dead numbers. Clean, segmented lists will do more for your conversion rate than another clever opener ever will.
Empathy and Context Beat High-Pressure Scripts
During Covid, hard-sell scripts backfired quickly. That hasn't changed. Train SDRs to open with context about the prospect's world, ask sharp questions, and offer a realistic next step instead of bulldozing to a meeting. Human, grounded conversations consistently convert better than perfectly memorized monologues.
Outsourced Telemarketing Only Works If It Feels In-House
If your telemarketing provider sounds like a separate company, buyers notice-and trust erodes. Share messaging frameworks, ICP definitions, objection handling, and success stories so outsourced SDRs talk like your own team. Expect weekly reviews of calls, pipeline, and learning so you're co-owning the strategy, not just renting dials.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Treating Covid as a temporary blip instead of a permanent shift in buyer behavior
If you're still planning around a full return to in-person, you're ignoring the reality that most B2B buyers now expect remote-first, digital-heavy sales motions.
Instead: Design telemarketing programs assuming remote and hybrid are the default: invest in remote coaching tools, integrate calls into digital cadences, and optimize for shorter, more frequent virtual touchpoints.
Running telemarketing as a standalone channel
Cold calls that aren't supported by email and LinkedIn feel random and intrusive, leading to low connect-to-meeting conversion and higher opt-outs.
Instead: Orchestrate multi-channel sequences where calls reference earlier emails or social touches, and follow-up emails reference the call-so every touch builds on the last instead of starting from zero.
Ignoring compliance and state-specific telemarketing rules that tightened during Covid
States like New York implemented restrictions on unsolicited telemarketing during declared emergencies; ignoring these can lead to fines and brand damage.
Instead: Work with legal and your telemarketing provider to maintain up-to-date DNC, time-of-day, and state-of-emergency rules in your dialer, and document calling policies in your playbook.
Judging telemarketing success by dials instead of conversations and meetings
High dial counts with poor connect rates and zero meetings just create burnout and a false sense of activity.
Instead: Shift your dashboard to track connect rate, conversation rate, meeting rate, and cost per meeting. Use these to optimize list quality, talk tracks, and call windows-not just push volume.
Outsourcing telemarketing without tight alignment on ICP and messaging
If your partner is calling the wrong titles or using generic scripts, you'll blame the channel when the real issue is misalignment.
Instead: Co-create ICP profiles, qualification criteria, and core messaging. Listen to recorded calls together weekly and adjust targeting and scripts based on what the market is actually saying.
Action Items
Audit your current telemarketing metrics beyond dial volume
Pull 90 days of data and calculate connect rate, conversation rate, dial-to-meeting rate, and cost per meeting. Use this as your baseline to justify changes to data providers, cadences, or partners.
Rebuild your outbound cadences with phone as a featured, not only, channel
Create 15-20 touch sequences that blend calls, emails, and LinkedIn over 2-4 weeks. Make sure each call either follows or precedes an email so prospects recognize your name and company.
Tighten your ICP and refresh your calling lists post-Covid
Work with marketing and customer success to identify your best-fit accounts and personas today, then cleanse and enrich your lists to prioritize those segments for telemarketing campaigns.
Implement weekly call coaching for remote or outsourced SDRs
Block 60-90 minutes a week to review recorded calls, focusing on openers, discovery questions, and objection handling. Turn winning moments into scripts and talk tracks your whole team can use.
Align legal, ops, and your telemarketing provider on compliance
Document calling windows, consent requirements, state emergency rules, and DNC handling. Make sure your dialer and any outsourced partner enforce these automatically and log proof.
Pilot an outsourced cold calling program alongside your internal SDRs
Start with a narrow ICP, clear meeting definitions, and a 90-day trial with a provider like SalesHive. Compare performance, capacity, and cost per meeting to decide how to blend in-house and outsourced coverage.
Partner with SalesHive
On the telemarketing side, SalesHive runs both US-based and Philippines-based SDR teams that are fully remote-ready, trained on modern cold calling frameworks, and equipped with cloud dialers, conversation tracking, and robust QA. Their callers don’t just read scripts; they follow structured talk tracks tuned by industry, persona, and deal size, then feed learnings back into messaging weekly. On the email front, SalesHive’s eMod AI platform turns proven templates into personalized messages at scale, using public data to triple reply rates without burning your domain.
Because there are no annual contracts and onboarding is risk-free, you can pilot a cold calling or multi-channel outbound program without betting the farm. SalesHive handles list building, compliance-safe dialing, cold email, and appointment setting, then drops meetings directly onto your reps’ calendars. Your internal team stays focused on discovery, demos, and closing, while SalesHive keeps the phones ringing-even when the market, work patterns, or regulations shift again.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Did Covid make telemarketing and cold calling less effective, or just different?
Covid didn't kill telemarketing; it changed the context. During the pandemic, 70-80% of B2B decision makers shifted preference toward remote and digital interactions, and nearly 90% of sales went remote via phone, video, and web. That meant buyers were flooded with more outreach across more channels. Telemarketing teams that adapted with better data, empathetic messaging, and multi-channel support kept booking meetings. Those that tried to brute-force old scripts into a new environment saw declining connect and conversion rates.
How did buyer expectations for phone outreach change during Covid?
Buyers became more comfortable doing significant parts of their buying journey remotely, but less tolerant of low-value interruptions. Research from McKinsey and Gartner shows buyers now expect a digital-first, seller-assisted experience-meaning reps must add clarity and confidence, not generic pitches. For telemarketing, that translates into highly relevant calls, clear agendas, and a fast path to value. Tone and empathy also matter more; Covid-era calls that ignored the prospect's reality were shut down quickly, and that sensitivity still applies.
Are cold calls still worth it when email and digital channels have exploded?
Yes-if you treat calls as part of a system instead of a standalone tactic. While average cold call success rates sit around 2-3%, studies show that 82% of buyers have accepted meetings after a series of cold calls, and many still prefer phone for complex, high-value decisions. Meanwhile, email reply rates have fallen into the low single digits for many teams. Used together, email warms the conversation and the phone creates real-time engagement and qualification, giving you more at-bats with decision makers than digital alone.
What compliance issues around telemarketing surfaced during Covid?
Several U.S. states tightened rules on unsolicited sales calls during declared emergencies. For example, New York's Nuisance Call Act restricts certain unsolicited telemarketing during a state of emergency, on top of existing TCPA and state-level DNC rules. Many companies had to quickly update dialer logic, scrub lists more aggressively, and tighten script language to avoid being classified as prohibited sales calls. That playbook-treating compliance as a living part of your telemarketing strategy-remains critical as regulations continue to evolve.
How should we adjust telemarketing cadences for a hybrid, post-Covid workforce?
Assume your prospects are splitting time between home and office, juggling more meetings, and living in their inboxes. Build cadences that test multiple time windows (early morning, lunch, late afternoon), and always pair calls with emails and calendar invites. Don't rely on a single voicemail; expect that it takes 6+ touches to get a live conversation. Use your CRM and dialer data to see when connects actually happen and continuously refine your call times and sequences instead of treating them as static.
When does it make sense to outsource telemarketing versus keeping it in-house?
Outsourcing makes the most sense when you need to scale outbound fast, test new markets, or don't have the internal infrastructure to hire, train, and manage SDRs at scale. Specialized partners bring battle-tested scripts, AI-enabled tools, and a deep bench of callers who already know how to work in a remote, post-Covid environment. In-house SDRs are usually best for complex, high-ACV deals where tight product and culture alignment are critical. Many teams blend both-using outsourced telemarketing for volume and coverage while internal reps focus on late-stage discovery and closing.
What should we look for in a telemarketing and cold calling service after Covid?
Look for a provider with a strong track record running remote SDR teams, multi-channel capabilities (phone + email + LinkedIn), and proven outcomes like meetings booked and pipeline generated. Ask how they handled Covid-era disruptions: Did they move to cloud dialers? How do they manage list quality and compliance across states and countries? You also want transparent reporting, call recordings for QA, and flexible contracts so you can scale up or down without being locked into a long-term commitment.
How do we keep remote or outsourced SDRs motivated when connect rates are low?
Acknowledge that modern connect rates can be in the low single digits and design your management approach accordingly. Set realistic activity and outcome goals, and focus coaching on conversations and meetings, not just dials. Use call recordings to celebrate real wins-a great opener, a clever objection handle-even if it didn't end in a meeting. Give SDRs visibility into closed-won deals from their meetings so they see the impact of their work, and consider spiffs for milestones like qualified conversations, not just meetings booked.
