Cold calling
Outsourced cold calling for UK B2B, coached and within the rules.
Experienced reps on the phone to UK decision makers, under your name, with the research done before each dial and a manager listening to the calls. What a calling day looks like, what a cold call is for, and the UK rules on calling businesses, set out plainly.
Cold calling is still where many B2B meetings get agreed. It is also a channel with more rules than most, and plenty of ways to do it badly. A good call is short, specific and about the prospect: why their company is on the board, whether the problem is real, and whether fifteen minutes next week is worth their time.
What a calling day looks like
The queue is built the night before.
Setta, our platform, orders the day’s calls by who is likely to pick up and puts the reason each company is on the board next to the number - the hire, the new site, the change at the top.
Mobiles, checked first.
We call the mobile of the person who decides, never the switchboard. Waterfall enrichment finds and verifies the number before it reaches the queue, so the morning is spent in conversations, not at reception.
Calls at the hours buyers answer.
A first attempt mid-morning or mid-afternoon, and a different hour for the second, because a different hour catches a different diary.
A manager on the calls.
Live listening, correction on the opener and the objection, and a weekly read of what the market is saying back.
Email and LinkedIn behind every call.
The call is one touch in a cadence. The email that follows it is opened because the name is now known.
What a cold call is for
Finding out whether there is a reason to talk and, if there is, agreeing when. A call that runs through the features ends early; the demonstration belongs to your closer, in the meeting. The rep’s job is the first conversation, the qualification and the booking - appointment setting covers what happens after the call.
The UK rules on calling businesses
These are the rules that apply to live B2B sales calls in the UK in 2026. They are a summary, not legal advice, and the Information Commissioner’s Office is reviewing its guidance after the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. Ask any provider you are considering how they handle each one, us included.
| Rule | What it means for a sales call |
|---|---|
| TPS and CTPS | Companies, some partnerships and government bodies can register on the Corporate Telephone Preference Service. Sole traders and some partnerships are treated like individuals, and can register on the Telephone Preference Service. A business on either can be called only if it has said it is happy to hear from you, so every list has to be screened. |
| The 28-day window | A new registration counts once it has been on the register for 28 days, which is why lists are re-screened rather than checked once. |
| Your own do-not-call list | Anyone who says they do not want to be called again must not be, whatever the registers say. That list has to be kept and checked before every campaign. |
| Say who is calling | The caller must say which business they are calling for, show a number that can be called back, and give an address or freephone number if asked. Withheld numbers are not allowed. |
| Recorded and automated calls | Need consent that covers automated calls specifically. Consent to marketing in general, or to live calls, is not enough. Our calls are live, made by people. |
| Diallers | Ofcom treats abandoned and silent calls as persistent misuse. If no one is free to take a connected call, Ofcom expects the person to hear a short message within two seconds saying who called and giving a number to ring back. The old “3 per cent” abandoned-call figure stopped being treated as a safe threshold when Ofcom’s revised policy took effect in March 2017. |
| Personal data | A named person at a company is personal data under UK GDPR. B2B prospecting usually relies on legitimate interests, which needs an assessment, and a person’s right to object to direct marketing has no exceptions. |
| The penalties | Since 5 February 2026 the maximum fine for breaking these rules has matched UK GDPR: £17.5m or 4 per cent of global annual turnover, whichever is higher. |
Sources: ICO, telephone marketing; ICO, business-to-business marketing; PECR regulation 21; Ofcom, persistent misuse policy statement; Clifford Chance on the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 commencement.
What the numbers say
Cognism’s 2026 report, from more than 200,000 calls made in 2025, puts the average cold calling success rate at 2.7 per cent. The Bridge Group’s 2025 research puts phone-led SDR teams at an average of 56 dials and 4.6 quality conversations a day. Both are averages across many markets, most of them outside the UK. The research before the dial and the manager on the call exist to do better than the average on your market.
Sources: Cognism, Cold Calling Report 2026; The Bridge Group, 2025 SDR Models and Metrics report.
Where the phone has done the work
- 3media - phone-led calling to estate agency owners and directors, at the hours an agent is at a desk, averaging three meetings a week.
- HG Technology - phone and email into IT leadership at established law, investment, recruitment and private equity firms.
- GP Triage - practice managers and GP partners, called between surgeries, with the primary care network and the integrated care board above them.
In their words
They have a way with words that gets people on board every time, genuinely a pleasure to work with.
Read the LGN.AI case study, or see all our clients’ stories.
Questions about cold calling
Does cold calling still work in the UK?
Yes, for a considered B2B sale. The phone is quieter than it was, because much outbound moved to email and LinkedIn alone, and that is part of why a well-researched call gets through. The long answer.
Is B2B cold calling legal in the UK?
Yes. A live sales call to a business does not need its prior consent, provided the number is not registered on the TPS or CTPS, the business has not asked you to stop, and the caller says who they are and shows a number. Sole traders and some partnerships are treated like individuals. The 2026 rules, in full.
Do you screen against the TPS and CTPS?
Yes. Every calling list is cleansed against both registers with specialist list-cleansing software before it is dialled, and anyone who asks not to be called again is not. How the screening works.
Who makes the calls?
Experienced B2B reps employed and managed by us, working your market and no one else’s while they are on it, and introducing themselves as part of your team.
Can you make calls without the email and LinkedIn?
We can lead with the phone, and in some markets - estate agency, for one - the phone does most of the work. The other channels stay in the cadence because they make the calls land.
What do we see each week?
Dials, conversations, meetings booked and held, the rate between each, and what changed and why. You can log in to the same screen we look at. Which of those numbers matter is in SDR metrics: what to measure.
The phone still books the meeting. Let us show you on your market.
Fifteen minutes on who we would call, what we would say and what the board would look like.
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