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Cold calling is laborious and time-consuming. It has carried a bad reputation for years due to its low conversion rates and the burnout it causes among sales teams. It's no surprise that 63% of salespeople consider cold calling to be the worst part of their job.
Cold calling isn’t dead; poor cold calling is.
On average, cold calls have a success rate of 1–2%. That means out of 100 dials, you might achieve 1 or 2 meaningful outcomes, such as booking a meeting, generating a qualified lead, or taking the next step.
But here’s where it gets interesting:
Top-performing reps aren’t working harder. They’re working smarter.
By automating significant targeting tasks, scripting, objection handling, and follow-up processes, 47% of top-performing salespeople have increased productivity. That’s 5 meetings instead of 1; from the same 100 dials.
Let’s break it down:
- Generic pitch? Ignored.
- Unclear value? Dismissed.
- Poor timing? Shut down.
But...
- A strong opener that hooks attention
- A crystal-clear value proposition in the first 10 seconds
- And a follow-up strategy that shows persistence, not pestering
That’s how you multiply your results.
If your current results aren’t where you want them to be, it’s not time to abandon the channel—it’s time to improve the craft.
What’s the solution then?
Fortunately, conversational AI has stepped in to rescue!
“AI-powered cold-calling solutions can efficiently personalize interactions, handle objections, and follow predefined sales scripts by analyzing speech patterns, sentiment, and conversation data,” says Ak Upadhyay.
Top-notch tools are integrating Conversational AI to address these challenges and enhance cold-calling outcomes. With the help of such tools, sales teams can receive real-time support, gain valuable insights, and benefit from helpful automation during their calls. In this article, we will explore how AI is transforming the cold calling process and how you can utilize it to enhance lead generation and secure more business.
The Role of Call Recordings in Sales Enhancement
Did you know that your sales performance is significantly reliant on the effectiveness of your sales call strategy?
Statistics indicate that approximately 92% of customer interactions occur over the phone. Companies that skip cold calling grow 42% less than those that do not.
When you realize how valuable these one-on-one encounters are, recording sales calls becomes an obvious choice. Call recordings offer a wealth of information, whether you're optimizing your planned prompts or analyzing what the prospect naturally provides. After all, it's practically hard to detect someone's tone via email. That is why phone conversations are so meaningful to sales teams worldwide. AI tools are optimizing ouur messaging and presentation, nowadays theres even AI story writing tools to refine your positioning.
Shane Barker, CEO of Content Solutions, puts it as:
Sales calls enable you to gather more information from your lead, as this method of communication offers more personalized interactions than VSLs, emails, and cold pitches.
Here are some ways you can utilize sales call recordings in your business to improve your cold call success rate.
Seamless Integration with Dialers
A CRM dialer software automatically dials and connects contacts from a list of leads. It ensures that sales teams’ time is not wasted on dialing phone numbers, waiting for the recipient to answer, and scrolling through the contact list.
Demodesk makes it easy to import dialer recordings into Demodesk via your CRM. Pulling them directly from the dialer itself, helps us correctly associate the call with Contacts, Accounts, Opportunities, etc., providing more context in your CRM & AI sales coaching feedback.
Example:
When it comes to customer phone interactions, Hubspot's number one phone solution, Aircall, can now connect with Demodesk as well allowing for the automatic import of calls, along with Aircall tags. Enabling your team real-time coaching and call analytics.
This is how you can configure Demodesk to integrate Aircall.
- Go to Integrations in Demodesk.
- Click on the Aircall connect button.
- Select the phone numbers you want to import call recordings from
- Click Save.
- Congratulations, you are done!
After completing these quick steps, your integration is now active!
Please test it out by making your first call! You can review the audit logs to verify that everything worked as expected.
CRM context: When syncing your Aircall recordings to HubSpot or Salesforce, you can also enable the CRM connection in the dialer settings section. This will load additional CRM context to view in Demodesk and allow you to back-sync information.
Demodesk’s compatibility with other Dialers
We have tested our integration with the following dialers:
- Cloudtalk
- Groove
- HubSpot Dialer
- OnOff
- Outreach
- Ringover
- Twilio Flex
- Justcall
Leveraging AI for Sales Coaching
Every sales leader knows training and coaching are keys to sales success. A crucial aspect of sales coaching is training teams on how to understand and utilize feedback effectively. AI tools like Demodesk offer a contextual comment feature, making it easier for managers and teams to understand client preferences.
Contextual comments enable you to provide feedback directly within the context of a conversation, offering quick and effective sales coaching. - Marcel Seibold
Why is it important?
Contextual comments hit all three right notes for success.
- Enhanced Clarity
- Accountability
- Motivational Boost
How to manage Contextual Comments in Demodesk?
- Go to the recordings tab and open the recording of your choice. In the activities tab, type your comment and optionally check the timestamp to mark the current moment. Click the post to add your comment with a clickable timestamp.
- Anyone with access to the recording can comment. Admins can delete all comments; users can delete their own.
- The meeting host gets an email for each new comment. Others who commented or added feedback are also notified. Users can unsubscribe, but posting again will automatically re-subscribe them.
Moreover, the meeting recap feature in Demodesk ensures every participant leaves with a clear record of what was discussed. Right after the meeting, it sends an email to all attendees with the outline and recording link. For hosts, Demodesk includes a detailed summary in the recap, giving a quick snapshot of key outcomes to help track progress and ensure follow-through. Stay organized and in control with Demodesk’s streamlined meeting recap.
Ensuring Compliance and Data Security
Customer service and sales teams must stay informed about the legal obligations related to call recording, especially in light of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which reshaped how organizations handle personal data across member states.
Under GDPR, personal data must be processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently. (Article 5.1-a GDPR)
If recordings already exist within the dialing software platform, we can import them into our system. However, it’s important to note that the responsibility for GDPR compliance when it comes to recording lies with the customer, not with us. That means the customer must ensure that any recorded conversations were captured lawfully and with proper consent before import.
Demodesk, for example, records all meetings automatically but also secures and documents participants' consent before doing so. GDPR-compliant setups can be configured depending on the meeting type, especially useful for webinars or other events where explicit individual consent may not be feasible.
How to Set Up GDPR-Compliant Recording in Demodesk?
- Go to the Meeting Types tab
- Select the meeting type you want to adjust (e.g., Sales Demo)
- Scroll to Location
- Click Show Advanced Options
- Enable GDPR compliant recording
How does it work?
- Obtaining consent: If recording is enabled, participants are asked for permission before joining or are prompted again when the host begins recording.
- Make it your own: Admins can add a privacy policy link in settings.
- If someone doesn’t consent, the recording stops. Letting participants join the meeting is Demodesk's priority. Consent can be re-triggered anytime.
- Ask if they declined by mistake: "I noticed you declined consent. Was that intentional, or would you like another chance to opt in?"
What about recording retention?
With your default license type, Demodesk automatically saves your recordings for 150 days in an easily accessible storage location before erasing them. If you wish to retain any recording for up to a year, please contact your account manager and request the recording retention add-on.
Conclusion
Consequently, cold calling no longer has to be a draining task. With the emergence of Conversational AI, solutions like Demodesk make it far better than ever.
Demodesk enables sales teams to connect with clarity, confidence, and compliance by providing real-time coaching and contextual feedback, as well as GDPR-compliant recordings and easy-to-use CRM interfaces.
Demodesk helps your team operate at its best by providing call recording and analysis, optimizing follow-ups, and educating teams using real-life examples. Furthermore, meeting recaps and speaker timelines make your sales process more visible and trackable.
Stop traditional cold calling. Start smart calling with Demodesk. Dial into better conversations, better conversions, and better results!
