Productivity 
Cold calling faces more scrutiny today as spam and scams rise. While recipients are wary, it remains effective for businesses, with a 4.8% meeting creation rate. Though the odds may seem daunting, success is possible with the right data, intelligence, and tools.
This article explores the challenges of cold calling and how businesses can use cold-calling solutions for effective outbound sales.
Challenges Facing the Cold-Calling Industry
Below are the leading pain points of people who deal with cold calling daily.
General dissatisfaction with cold-calling and outreach tactics
Many prospects are frequently fatigued by impersonal sales calls. Phones, which they carry for their convenience, distract their work. This troubles numerous people, making them defensive toward what you’re offering on the call.
When this happens frequently, it leads to increased call avoidance and negative impressions of the brand. The defensive nature evolves to harm the entire brand rather than a particular cold call.
It’s advisable to use the cold-calling channel intelligently by following a few best practices, such as:
- Move toward warm outreaches: Personalized follow-ups help use previous engagements on LinkedIn or emails to lead the conversation forward. This helps potential customers understand that you’re not reaching out at random. They have more context to logically justify the break in their workflow.
- Use research-driven conversations: Offer immediate value by referencing a prospect’s business need or industry trend. This clarifies the purpose of your call. Prospects are more open to listening when the conversations are in their favor.
- Prioritize high-quality leads: Modern AI solutions are well-equipped to score leads pragmatically based on their interaction and behavior. It’s best to focus on those that are more likely to convert.
Caller ID reputation management
When you frequently call unknown numbers, you risk your number being marked as spam.
Each phone carrier keeps a list of numbers they determine as spam based on:
- The history of the number
- Feedback sourced from people
- Compliant or reputation data
This is typically because your outbound call volume is high or someone flagged your number in their carrier’s database. This might have happened even before you bought a new number. Conversely, your outbound caller ID number needs to be properly set in. If it’s incomplete or invalid, your number will be automatically marked as spam.
To address this, you can use caller ID reputation management tools to monitor numbers and rotate between multiple caller IDs. This prevents your number from getting blocked.
SHAKEN/STIR compliance
SHAKEN/STIR combines two acronyms:
- SHAKEN stands for Signature-Based Handling of Asserted Information Using ToKENs
- STIR stands for Secure Telephone Identity Revisited
Telephone service providers use SHAKEN/STIR to authenticate an originating caller’s identity. This prevents malicious phone calls and fraudulent robocalls. It also safeguards call recipients against caller ID spoofing, maintaining trust in the phone service.
Here’s an overview of how the SHAKEN/STIR system works:
As this STIR/SHAKEN diagram illustrates, phone calls are authenticated by a third party to verify the identity of incoming callers.
These systems are well-equipped to block robocalls. However, at times, they inadvertently block legitimate calls too. This prevents your sales team members from reaching a lead or a prospect.
To combat this challenge, you need cold-calling software or a VoIP phone system that ensures your calls are STIR/SHAKEN-compliant. This will prevent call blocking while authenticating caller IDs.
10DLC Regulations for Texting
North American businesses use a 10-digit long code (10DLC) phone number for application-to-person (A2P) messaging. This allows businesses to send high volumes of promotional messages with orders or updates to customers.
These codes look like local phone numbers, making bulk messages or text message marketing more trustworthy. However, with the new rules for 10DLC text messaging, proper registration is required to avoid filtering or penalties.
Opting for cold-calling software that helps with 10DLC registration is advisable to ensure hassle-free and compliant texting outreaches.
The initial SMS to a new contact must include your brand name, a note about potential message and data rates, message frequency, and instructions to reply with STOP to unsubscribe or HELP for assistance.
How Cold-Calling Software Benefits SDRs
There are several benefits that Sales Development Representative (SDRs) get when they use cold-calling software in their business, including:
Maximized efficiency in outreaches
Cold-calling software equips sales development representatives with the necessary tools to increase their productivity. Auto-dialers or power dialers let them make more calls in less time.
Sales reps don’t have to dial calls manually. The software does the dialing for them, making them more productive.
SDRs have access to click-to-dial functionality, which allows for faster call initiation. The VoIP phone connects a call between two people by clicking a button. When your customer relationship management (CRM) system is integrated with the phone system, you can call the customer directly by clicking a button on the CRM, freeing you from manually pressing digits.
The CRM integration also lets salespeople quickly access lead data, giving them the right context to engage prospects effectively.
More effective record-keeping
The software allows SDRs to capture in-call notes and delivers post-call wrap-up options, empowering them to make effective follow-ups later. Every call made is automatically logged, reducing the manual work that an SDR is expected to do, among other things.
The software shows a complete picture of incoming and outgoing calls by tracking the total number of calls, calls in queue, international calls, and calls answered or missed. This streamlines call center activities to provide an overview.
Here’s how Nextiva’s call center solution performs tracking and delivers key insights:
Better support for objection handling
Some cold-calling software includes scripts and prompts for easier objection handling. You can modify these based on how objections evolve. Modern solutions offer AI-driven suggestions and real-time coaching during sales conversations.
The prompts allow you to move conversations forward while maintaining some consistency in delivering CX. When new hires start taking prospect calls, the prompts and scripts will enable them to navigate objections without departing from the scripts.
Multi-channel outreach enabled
Cold-calling software generally comes as a broader contact center solution module. This solution lets salespeople engage buyers across emails, text messaging, or voicemails to complement cold calls.
- SMS (text messages)
- Web chat
This automatically brings all communication together, allowing the salesperson or the whole team to make better follow-ups by considering all conversations they’ve had with a potential customer.
How a Sales Manager Benefits From Cold-Calling Software
Below are some notable benefits of cold-calling software that complement sales managers’ needs and requirements.
Real-time monitoring and reporting
Sales managers get a live dashboard on cold-calling software to monitor their SDRs’ call analytics. The dashboard gives real-time insights, helping managers offer coaching to improve SDR performance and, in turn, increase the sales team’s performance.
The dashboard delivers insights into conversion rate, talk time, and call volume. These metrics help SDRs and managers reflect on what could have been done better.
Customizable agent and supervisor interfaces
Cold-calling software offers flexibility to modify agents’ and supervisors’ views of the platform. Sales call center solutions allow their teams to customize the interface based on what is most meaningful to their groups.
Managers usually see team-level performance, with options to modify workflows for better agent productivity.
On the other hand, agents see their performance on the dashboard, with insights into what they’re expected to do or what they could do better.
Some companies also have live wallboards for agents and supervisors to see how their team performs.
Here’s an example of a live wallboard:
Compliance and security tools
Managers should be able to ensure that their systems are SHAKEN/STIR-compliant. Moreover, it is essential to encrypt call recordings and secure data as they contain several types of personally identifiable customer information.
Cold-calling software offers these features and functionality to help users avoid hefty fines and any reputational damage, allowing your customers to maintain trust in the business.
Flexible list management
Managers should seek flexibility in segmenting and prioritizing leads based on customer behavior or sales campaigns. This allows the team to remain targeted at deals that will most increase revenue.
Look for cold-calling software that offers contact list management features, and ensure it has lead recycling tools that automatically follow up with unresponsive prospects. This will free up agents’ time and allow them to pursue deals more strategically.
Support for hybrid and remote teams
If you’re a distributed team, it’s advisable to use cold-calling software on cloud-based platforms. This will allow the whole team to collaborate effectively while working remotely.
Cold-calling systems often integrate with collaboration tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams, allowing professionals to focus on business activity rather than hopping between apps.
Top 3 Cold-Calling Software Providers in 2025
Based on the requirements of SDRs and sales managers, we’ve curated a list of the best cold-calling software in 2025. Let’s take a deep dive to find the one that aligns best with your business.
1. Nextiva
Nextiva’s call center solution improves business communication with tools to efficiently handle inbound and outbound calls. It empowers sales and support teams to offer faster service to customers regardless of whether you work in a hybrid or remote work setting.
The software offers an interactive voice response system, a dashboard, integration with CRM systems, and call insights for personalization. These features help agents drive memorable customer experiences more effectively. At a reasonable cost, you also get options to monitor call queues, manage incoming and outgoing calls, and perform call routing, call monitoring, call tracking, and much more.
Top features of Nextiva
Here are a few useful features of cold calling:
- Flexible list management: This lets managers quickly segment leads and prospects while prioritizing follow-ups for their teams.
- Better compliance: Nextiva supports SHAKEN/STIR and 10DLC-readiness, keeping call data safe and secure.
- Increased security: Call encryption and role-based access controls provide high security. The software promises 99.9999% uptime for the SLA.
- Additional support: The platform delivers personalized support for managers and agents.
Pricing
Nextiva offers its Core plan at $30 per user per month for small teams, helping them create delightful customer experiences. Here’s an overview of Nextiva’s different plans and pricing details:
2. SalesLoft
SalesLoft allows businesses to connect with customers and close deals using effective call management and voice analytics tracking. Sales teams handle calls directly from their computers, making the calling process smoother and more organized.
This software empowers the sales team to make and receive calls or record conversations from one place. It also includes call scripts and templates to keep agents on track.
Top features of SalesLoft
Below are some notable features of SalesLoft:
- Multi-channel capabilities let users interact with their customers across different channels.
- Automated follow-ups at a set cadence can actively engage the audience across different touchpoints.
- Real-time coaching capabilities equipped with conversational intelligence allow managers to support their teams better.
Pricing
SalesLoft pricing is available on request in line with users’ custom requirements.
3. Outreach.io
Outreach.io is a sales execution platform offering several useful cold-calling features. It allows managers to discover skill gaps in real time, empowering their team to make the right decisions and perform actions that lead to revenue.
Top features of Outreach.io
Below are some notable features of Outreach.io:
- Predictive analytics identifies high-priority leads based on prospects’ interactions, behavior, and actions.
- Workflow automation allows the team to perform automated follow-ups after cold calls.
- AI insights allow SDRs and managers to uncover opportunities to optimize messaging and improve their win rates.
Why SDRs and Sales Managers Prefer Nextiva
With Nextiva, SDRs and sales managers get the features and functionality that complement their use cases. They also get an intelligent list management feature to segment leads and prioritize follow-ups. The platform securely manages all customer data while ensuring the cold-calling tool complies with SHAKEN/STIR and 10DLC.
You can easily customize dashboards to align your workflows with business needs. Overall, when it comes to remote and hybrid use cases, Nextiva is a platform that promises 99.9999% uptime, giving the whole team the confidence they need to service prospects and customers remotely.
Most importantly, Nextiva delivers 24/7 support through dedicated account managers, making it more reliable than it already is.
Try Nextiva to see how it transforms your prospects’ experience with your brand. 👇
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