The traditional model of B2B cold outreach is dying. With response rates dropping 30% in recent years, many sales teams are finding that the tactics that worked in 2020 are now being ignored by a more sceptical, self-educated buyer.
Cold outreach now sits at around 0.2% response rate according to data from Gartner, HubSpot and LinkedIn.
That’s not a data problem. It’s not a tools problem. The ability to reach prospects through email, phone and LinkedIn has never been better. We have more tools than ever.
The problem is how buyers behave now.
Buyers Have Changed
In the old world, prospects would engage with sellers earlier in their buying journey. They wanted to know how their problems could be solved. They needed sellers to educate them.
Today, they can research it themselves. They read reviews, they watch videos. They ask their network. By the time they’re ready to talk, they’ve already made half the decision.
So they’re open to talking less. And later. Your outreach is hitting people who don’t need you yet.
The Noise Problem in Modern B2B Cold Outreach
This unprecedented ability to reach prospects has created a new problem. Everyone can do it. So everyone does.
The ease of access has overwhelmed prospects. Their inboxes and LinkedIn feeds are full of generic B2B cold outreach. To cope, buyers have built mental walls, triaging their messages and only opening what they recognize.
So they’ve changed how they behave. They triage their inbox, they open and read what they recognise. They only answer phone numbers saved in their phone. They’ve built walls to cope with the volume.
The reaction to more outreach is less response.
Using “Recognition First” to Fix B2B Cold Outreach
What we’ve been doing with sales teams is coaching them on building recognition before any outreach happens. Simple things that most teams skip.
Align your LinkedIn profile picture with your email profile picture. When they see your email, they should recognise the face from LinkedIn.
Connect on LinkedIn first. Keep it light. No pitch. Just visibility.
Engage in a low key way before any call or email. Like a post. Leave a comment. Get your name in front of them a few times.
Then, a few weeks down the line, send your outreach. You’ll notice the difference.
This approach improves response rates by a factor of 3. Because you’re no longer a stranger. You’re a name they’ve seen before. Recognition is the biggest advantage for getting replies.
We coach sales teams to build recognition before the first email is even drafted. When you align your LinkedIn presence with your B2B cold outreach, you stop being a stranger and start being a familiar face. This shift alone can improve response rates by a factor of 3.
The Quality Problem
We also have to talk about the elephant in the room. A lot of outreach is poor.
It’s marketing heavy rather than focused on the needs and challenges of the prospect, it’s sent in batches too big to be relevant. It’s badly written, it’s obviously templated.
All of this undermines outreach before it even lands. Prospects can spot when they’re a number in a sequence. They can feel it.
The AI Problem
AI is accelerating in sales. I can see the progress and the benefits. But prospects are still human. And they’re already overwhelmed with outreach.
AI will optimise and make outreach better. Sure. But it’s still a human on the other end who is drowning in messages.
I also back humans’ ability to spot patterns. Even the ultra-personalised AI messaging has this odd feeling of being safe, unopinionated, generic. It ticks all the boxes but something feels off. Prospects pick up on that, even if they can’t explain why.
The Future of B2B Cold Outreach: Human Over AI
The best results we’re seeing come from tailored, human messaging.
We’ve got a client in FMCG who was getting almost no response from their outreach before. They switched to an ultra-personalised approach. Took a little longer on each message. Made it specific to the person, not the persona.
They’re now getting 32% response rates.
That’s the future I’m backing. Human to human outreach will make a comeback as the world keeps overloading prospects with automated sequences and AI-generated messages.
The teams who slow down and do it properly will win while everyone else fights over the scraps of mass outreach.
What To Do
Stop sending cold outreach to people who’ve never heard of you.
Connect on LinkedIn first. Engage lightly for a few weeks. Build recognition.
Then reach out. Make the message specific to them. Not their job title. Not their industry. Them.
The math works out better when you take longer on fewer messages. If you want to see exactly how to structure these high-conversion touches, check out our guide on the ultimate LinkedIn outreach strategy.
Your prospects are overwhelmed. Be the message that feels different.