Medium: Jason Wingate On Why Cold Calling Is Evolving, Not Dying
Jason Wingate reframes cold calling’s collapse in success rates as a channel under pressure—not dead—arguing that only relevance-driven, highly prepared calls can still win.
“Success rates in cold calling have been cut in half due to oversaturation of outreach, buyers relying on digital channels, and AI-powered spam detectors.” — Jason Wingate, CEO, Emerald Ocean Ltd
Overview
In Yara Abboud’s feature “Is Cold Calling Dead or Is It Simply Declining?”, new data shows average cold calling success falling from 4.8% in 2024 to 2.3% in 2025, as most buyers ignore unknown numbers and carriers block billions of calls monthly.[web:28][web:29] Abboud contrasts these declining averages with elite reps achieving around 6.7% success, proving the channel still works when execution changes, not when volume increases.[web:26][web:29] Expert voices, including Jason Wingate, Connor Neshcov, Andrew Bahlmann, and Mike Smith, converge on a single conclusion: interruption-based, generic calling is failing, while relevance-based, context-rich outreach still creates meetings and pipeline.[web:26][web:29]
Key Insights
- Buyer Shift: Modern B2B buyers are more informed, guarded, and quick to spot generic outreach, expecting conversations that immediately reflect their specific context and challenges.[web:26][web:31]
- Channel Pressure: Oversaturation of outreach, AI-powered spam detection, and widespread refusal to answer unknown calls have halved success rates, making access itself the primary bottleneck.[web:28][web:29][web:31]
- New Playbook: Top performers focus on conversations over scripts, relevance over product, heavy preparation for the first 10 seconds, and quality over activity—treating cold calls as one intentional touch in a multi-channel sequence.[web:26][web:29][web:32]
- Context Limits: Cold calling underperforms when reps enter too late in the buying journey, misalign with internal decision processes, or sell low-ticket offers where manual calling cannot be justified economically.[web:26][web:28][web:29]
- Strategic Takeaway: Cold calling still works when teams earn the right to call—using data, timing, and clear problem-led narratives—rather than relying on brute-force dialing volume.[web:26][web:29][web:34]