Cold calling is phoning someone who has never talked to you, never asked to hear from you, and isn't expecting the call. They didn't fill out a form, didn't call in, and haven't been referred. You have a name, a number and a reason to believe they might need what you sell. Every other kind of sales call is a little warmer, and the warmth changes what you say, how often you call, and whether you can text them at all.
This guide is for new reps and owners doing their own selling. It defines the main sales call types, shows where each one sits in a deal, and explains where a text message belongs next to a call. That last part has a firm rule behind it: cold contact happens by phone (or mail), and texts go to people who have agreed to them or have replied. We make Ready, which does both calling and texting, so we'll be specific about what that costs and where it doesn't fit.
Cold calling, defined properly
A cold call has three features:
- No prior relationship. The person doesn't know you or your company.
- No request. They didn't ask for information, a quote or a callback.
- A qualified guess. You picked them for a reason, such as industry, location, property type or company size, rather than dialing at random.
The third point separates real cold calling from spam. A good cold call list is narrow. "Owners of HVAC companies with 5 to 20 trucks in Ohio" is a list. "Everyone in this phone book" is noise.
Cold calls also carry rules. Before you dial, scrub the list against the National Do Not Call Registry and your own internal do-not-call list. Call only within permitted local hours, generally 8 AM to 9 PM in the recipient's time zone. Calling cell phones with an autodialer or a prerecorded message brings in TCPA consent requirements. None of this is legal advice. If you run a calling program at volume, have counsel look at your list sources and process.
The main types of sales calls
Most deals pass through several call types. Here is how they compare:
| Call type | Who starts it | Prospect knows you? | Main goal | Can you text them? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cold call | You | No | Earn a second conversation | No, not until they agree to texts |
| Warm call | You | Somewhat (referral, event, past contact) | Book a discovery call | Only if they've opted in |
| Inbound call | Prospect | Yes, they called you | Qualify and help | Only if they agreed to texts, for example on your form |
| Discovery call | Scheduled | Yes | Learn the problem, budget and timeline | Yes, if they agreed (reminders, links) |
| Demo or presentation | Scheduled | Yes | Show the fit | Yes, if they agreed |
| Follow-up call | You | Yes | Answer objections, keep momentum | Yes, if they agreed or replied |
| Closing call | Either | Yes | Get the signature | Yes, if they agreed |
A few notes on the ones new reps confuse:
Warm calls aren't cold calls with a better list
"Warm" means there is a real thread: a referral who mentioned your name, someone who visited your booth, a past customer. You open by naming that thread ("Dana at Brightline said you were looking at new scheduling software"). If you can't name a thread, it's a cold call.
Inbound calls are the most valuable calls you'll get
Someone who calls you has already done half the work. The cost of a missed inbound call is high, and it is the main reason to pair calling with a missed-call list and fast follow-up.
Follow-up calls are where most deals are won or lost
Few deals close on the first conversation. The follow-up call (and the second, and the third) is where reps quit too early. We cover scripts for both first calls and follow-ups in our cold calling process guide.
Where texting fits, and where it doesn't
The line is simple. You don't cold text. A text to someone who never agreed to receive one is a consent problem under the TCPA. Unconsented texts carry statutory damages commonly cited at $500 to $1,500 per message. Carriers also filter that traffic hard. Cold outreach stays on the phone.
Once someone has agreed to texts, or replied to you, a text next to a call does useful work:
- Before a scheduled call. A short heads-up a few minutes ahead ("Hi Maria, it's Sam from Brightline. Calling you at 2 PM about the quote you requested.") tells the prospect the next unknown number is you. Teams send these because people screen unknown numbers. We don't have a measured lift to quote you.
- After a cold call goes well. If the prospect says "text me the details," that's a request. Send what they asked for, note how and when they agreed, and keep that record in your CRM. Ready logs who sent a text, to how many people and when. It does not store a per-contact consent record, so your own system has to keep that. (A contact who signs up on a Ready-hosted opt-in page is the exception: Ready stores that sign-up, with the time, IP address and exact wording, and support@tryready.com can send you a copy.)
- After a missed call to a consented lead. If an inbound lead filled out a form with SMS consent and you miss them on the first call, a one-line text plus a voicemail gives them two ways to respond. Our post on what to text after no response has templates and timing. For the voicemail half, see sales voicemail scripts.
- Logistics between calls. Calendar links, a recap after a demo, a reminder before the closing call. These are things people would rather read than hear.
Keep sales texts short and plain. A single SMS segment is 160 GSM-7 characters. Add an emoji and the limit drops to 70, which can turn a one-segment text into three billed segments.
What a calling-plus-texting day costs: a worked example
Here are the numbers on Ready. The assumptions are stated, and your answer rates will differ.
Assumptions: a rep makes 200 cold dials in a day. 20 people answer and talk for an average of 3 started minutes. 40 calls go to voicemail, and the rep leaves a message of under a minute. The other 140 ring out or hit a busy line. Of the 20 conversations, 10 people ask for details by text, and each one replies once.
Calls (Ready Dialer, $0.025/min, each started minute billed as a full minute, only answered time billed):
- Conversations: 20 × 3 min × $0.025 = $1.50
- Voicemails (a voicemail pickup counts as answered): 40 × 1 min × $0.025 = $1.00
- Ring-outs and busy lines: $0
- Calls total: $6.00, or about 30 cents per live conversation
Texts (Standard rate, $0.0075/segment plus a $0.0045 carrier fee, sent or received):
- 10 one-segment follow-ups plus 10 one-segment replies = 20 segments
- 20 × ($0.0075 + $0.0045), well under a dollar
Ready's all-in prices per segment include the carrier fee but not screening: Scrub lists and Number validation, the two switches in Settings under Compliance, each add $0.003 per segment when switched on, shown as screening on your bill, and both are off by default. Unless you turn the opt-out footer off, the first text to each contact, and one again from time to time, also gets "Reply STOP to opt out" and your business name if the message does not already have them, so a text close to the segment limit can bill one more segment.
The texts went only to the 10 people who asked for them, never to the 200 dialed. That is how the math should look if you're doing this right.
Before texting at all, your business needs 10DLC registration. On Ready that costs $25 at submit, which is the first month. After that it's $25/mo for registration plus $2 per number, and most approvals take 2 to 7 days. An account can send up to 500 texts a month before registering. If you're unsure whether it applies to you, our 10DLC explainer at https://tryready.com/blog/what-is-10dlc walks through it.
Where Ready fits, and where it doesn't
Ready's Dialer is click-to-call. You dial from the pad in the dashboard or inside GoHighLevel. Calls can be recorded with consent and transcribed. Inbound calls ring the open pad, and missed calls show up as a Missed call card in the contact's Inbox thread. Texts and replies sit in the same inbox as the call history, so a rep sees the whole thread. If you want to scrub a list against known TCPA litigators and DNC complainers before outreach, the standalone scrub is $0.005 per contact. It reduces risk. It doesn't make you lawsuit-proof.
The limit to know up front: Ready doesn't do auto dialing. There is no power, parallel or predictive dialing, voicemail drop or call transfer. If your team makes hundreds of cold dials per rep per day and wants software to dial the next number automatically, a dedicated auto dialer is the better tool. Our comparison of power vs parallel vs predictive dialers explains the tradeoffs. Ready suits teams whose calling is mostly inbound leads, follow-ups and scheduled calls, where the call and the consented text need to live together.
On price per text, raw carrier APIs and some all-in-one platforms charge less per segment than our Standard rate. What you get with Ready is registration handled in-app, opt-out and quiet-hours handling, and calling, texting and the inbox in one place.
The practical takeaway
- A cold call is a first contact with no relationship and no request. Every other sales call type is warmer and gets more permissions.
- Keep cold outreach on the phone. Scrub against DNC lists and respect calling hours.
- Text only people who agreed or replied. Before a call, after a missed call, and between calls, a short text does what a voicemail can't.
- Track what your conversations cost, not just your dials. With per-minute billing on answered time only, ring-outs are free and the cost per conversation stays visible.
If you want to try the calling-plus-texting setup, you can create an account. To send, you add a card and get a number, which is $2 a month with the first month charged when you get it. The first 20 one-to-one texts are free, so use them before you pay for registration. Pricing for texts is on the pricing page.