Email Prospecting vs Cold Calling: Which Outbound Sales Channel Is Right For You?
Donte Hamilton
For any business looking to grow, understanding how to reach out to outbound leads is essential. Two of the most popular outbound sales strategies are leveraging email prospecting and cold calling. Both aim to kickstart conversations with prospects, but they do so in fundamentally different ways.
Considering the strengths and weaknesses of email prospecting vs cold calling is key to building an effective sales strategy. Let’s break down the pros and cons of each to help you decide which outbound sales method is right for you.
| Factor | Email Prospecting | Cold Calling |
|---|---|---|
| Scalability | Reach thousands of contacts at once through marketing automation. | A rep can only make a few hundred touches per day. |
| Data tracking | Native reporting tools track opens, clicks, and conversions. | Relies on a rep’s note-taking and manual updates. |
| Message personalization | Dynamic content blocks allow for tailored subject lines and email copy. | Harder to highly personalize talk tracks during the first call. |
| Responsiveness | Recipients rarely respond to cold emails. | Once the prospect picks up the phone, they can respond to the rep’s pitch immediately. |
| Lead qualification | Requires multiple emails to nurture and qualify. | Real-time conversations allow immediate qualification. |
| Object handling | Must wait for replies before addressing concerns. | Can clarify and resolve objections during the call. |
| Building Rapport | Relationship develops gradually through multiple touchpoints. | Personal connection is established during the first call. |
| Best For | Best for companies that need to scale outreach quickly, test messaging, and nurture leads over time. | Best for businesses looking to build relationships faster, qualify leads in real-time, and handle objections directly. |
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Email Prospecting: The Power and Limitations of Automation
Email prospecting is the process of reaching out to prospects through targeted email campaigns. The goal is to spark interest, share valuable resources, and open the door for future sales conversations.
Pros of Email Prospecting
Overall, email prospecting is best for organizations looking for an efficient way to reach as many prospects as possible and nurture them at the same time. That’s because email prospecting allows for better scalability, data tracking, messaging personalization, and lowers cost per contact.
- Scalability: You can reach thousands of email users at a time and nurture them simultaneously by leveraging smart logic campaigns. However, business development reps (BDRs) can connect with 500 contacts at a time.
- Data tracking: All marketing automation tools come with native reporting capabilities that enable you to track and measure the success of your campaigns.
- Messaging personalization: You can utilize the information you have about your email recipients to create dynamic content.
- Cost per contact: Sending automated campaigns through email marketing platforms is significantly cheaper than hiring additional reps to make individual calls.
Cons of Email Prospecting
- Complex setup: Most organizations leverage marketing automation specialists to help them set up their marketing automation platforms, warm up their IPs, and create branded templates before they can start sending emails to prospects.
- Responsiveness: Prospects rarely respond to cold email outreach.
- Lead qualification: You will need to create a sequence of emails and newsletters to slowly warm up prospects.
- Objection handling: Unless the prospect responds to your email outreach, you probably won’t be able to address any questions through an automated email campaign.
EBQ Tip: As we mentioned above, setting up your marketing automation platform and sending emails can be a time-consuming endeavor. Not only do you have to ensure your emails are branded, but you also have to pay close attention to not set off any email spam triggers.
Let our marketing team take email prospecting off your plate. Our certified marketers work with all major marketing automation platforms, write compelling email copy, and design responsive branded templates to maximize your conversion rates.
Cold Calling: The Power and Limitations of Human Connection
Cold calling is the act of picking up the phone and reaching out directly to prospects. While some may consider cold calling an outdated sales technique, it remains a powerful way to generate real conversations.
Pros of Cold Calling
- Rapport building: Your prospects are introduced to a designated person of contact (your BDR) immediately, which helps foster a stronger personal relationship.
- Responsiveness: Your BDRs can immediately gauge your prospect’s enthusiasm for your product when your prospects respond to your BDR’s request to connect.
- Lead qualification: When your prospect picks up the phone, their qualification process accelerates. BDRs can ask discovery questions on the spot, assess fit, and immediately determine whether to continue nurturing or disqualify.
- Objection handling: If your prospect shows any signs of hesitation, your BDRs can respond effectively to address objections, reinforce value, and guide the conversation back toward next steps.
Cons of Cold Calling
- Data tracking: Unless you train your BDRs on how to take adequate prospect notes on your CRM, you won’t have a streamlined way to track data to make meaningful conclusions.
- Messaging personalization: A cold call is typically the first point of contact between you and your prospect. As a result, your BDR won’t be able to create targeted talk tracks to the extent they would like.
- Scalability: Even the most efficient BDR can only make 200 touches on a given day. Alternatively, leveraging email prospecting enables you to reach thousands of records simultaneously.
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Cold email vs cold call: which is the winner?
If you want to maximize your outbound sales activities, you should leverage both cold emails and cold calls. Cold calling and email prospecting are often complementary, covering each other’s blind spots.
Cold Emailing is Best For
Scaling outreach, A/B testing messaging, and nurturing prospects over time.
Cold Calling is Best For
Building rapport quickly, handling objections in real time, and qualifying leads faster.
Cold Emailing is Best For
Scaling outreach, A/B testing messaging, and nurturing prospects over time.
Cold Calling is Best For
Building rapport quickly, handling objections in real time, and qualifying leads faster.
When it comes to leveraging both emails and cold calls, EBQ’s B2B lead generation services give your business the sales edge it needs. Our proven processes, experienced reps, and tailored strategies ensure you’re connecting with the right decision-makers at the right time. Partner with EBQ to scale your outreach, increase appointments, and accelerate revenue growth.
About the Author:
Donte is a seasoned sales development expert with 20+ years of experience and has built and trained teams for startups and mid-sized businesses. Joining EBQ in 2015, he advanced from Operations to Revenue Cycle Consultant, leveraging his expertise to help businesses scale revenue. Known for positioning offerings to captivate Ideal Customer Profiles, Donte’s ability to address pain points and decision drivers during sales discussions cements his reputation as an industry leader.