What type of companies does this work for

This works best for B2B companies with a clear offer and a defined buyer.

How do you build the target list

We build lists using your ICP and then refine by industry, size, and buying triggers.

Do you write call scripts

Yes. We create talk tracks and refine them weekly based on what we learn.

How do you qualify a meeting

We qualify around need, timing, stakeholders, and fit, then pass clean notes to your team.

Do you send follow up emails

Yes. Follow up is used to confirm, re engage, and move the conversation forward.

How do you handle no shows

We run confirmation and reschedule workflows to protect meeting attendance.

How soon can meetings start

Typically within the first few weeks once setup is complete and learnings compound.

What does reporting look like

A weekly report with performance by segment, outcomes, and next optimisation actions.

Is B2B cold calling legal in Australia?

Yes, when you follow the rules. Calls must meet the Telemarketing and Research Calls Industry Standard 2017: call only 9am to 8pm on weekdays and 9am to 5pm on Saturdays, never on Sundays or national public holidays, keep caller ID on, say who you are and why you're calling, and end the call if asked. Numbers must also be washed against the Do Not Call Register.

What is a good dial-to-connect rate for B2B cold calling in Australia?

In our data, 14% of dials reach a live person and 6% become a conversation with an actual decision maker, averaged across 218,000+ calls into Australian businesses. Direct dials and mobiles connect far more often than switchboards, so connect rate is mostly a measure of data quality. We report it every week.

How many call attempts does it take to reach a decision maker?

An average of 4 in our data, and 58% of our meetings are booked on the fourth attempt or later. Teams that stop after two attempts miss most of their pipeline.

Do your callers read from a script?

No. They use talk tracks: a tested opener, key questions and objection responses written for your offer and adjusted every week from call recordings. Callers adapt to each conversation instead of reading word for word.

Can you call our existing leads or past customers?

Yes. As well as net-new prospects, we can call inbound leads, dormant opportunities and past customers, and flag anything that needs your team straight away.

Service

B2B cold calling services, benchmarked on 218,000 Australian calls

We run phone-first outbound into Australian decision makers from our Sydney office. Not a script read from a call centre, a conversation held by someone who understands the market they are calling into. Everything below is drawn from our own operating data.

ACV of $5,000 plus is ideal.

Book a call Pricing

What is B2B cold calling? B2B cold calling is the process of phoning potential business customers who have not previously engaged with your company. Done well, it creates direct conversations with decision-makers, qualifies interest quickly and books meetings that email alone cannot generate.

Recent call

VP Sales · Series B SaaS

Quality score

9.2/10

Phone first outbound

Direct connect rate

87%

of meetings booked via direct call

Dial activity · 7 days+18%

Avg 4.2 dials to connect

< 24hr follow up cycle

Recent outcomes

Meeting booked , VP Sales, SaaS (Series B)

2h ago

Qualified lead , Head of Growth, Fintech

4h ago

Follow up scheduled , CTO, Cyber Security

Yesterday

Australian in house callers only

B2B cold calling, done properly

Nousu's in-house Sydney callers phone decision makers at your target accounts, qualify their interest and book meetings straight into your calendar. Every number is washed against the Do Not Call Register, and you get full call recordings to listen back to. From $7,000 per month, month-to-month.

Does cold calling still work for B2B in Australia in 2026?

Yes, when it's targeted. The phone still reaches decision makers who ignore automated email, and a live conversation qualifies or disqualifies a prospect in minutes. Many teams have moved to automated email, so the phone is less crowded than it used to be. What doesn't work is high-volume, scripted dialling from bad data. We call fewer, better-researched prospects and measure conversations and meetings, not dials.

In our data from 218,000+ calls, 14% of dials into Australian businesses reach a live person, above the 8% to 12% typical of US benchmarks, and meetings booked by phone become sales opportunities 50% of the time, against 32% for meetings from cold email. What we learned from 200,000 cold calls. See the full Australian cold calling statistics.

How our cold calling works

1Research and list building: we build lists to your ideal customer profile, prioritise direct dials and wash every number against the Do Not Call Register.
2Talk tracks, not rigid scripts: a tested opener, key questions and objection responses written for your offer.
3Daily calling blocks in your buyers' business hours.
4Qualify and book: meetings go straight into your calendar with a handover note.
5Weekly review: call recordings, connect and conversation rates, and what we're changing next week.

When we call

Our two best windows are 10am to 11am (22% connect rate) and 2pm to 3pm (19%), in the prospect's local time. 68% of our qualified meetings come from those two windows. Wednesday is our most productive day, Monday mornings are slow because leaders are in internal meetings, and Friday afternoons are effectively dead, so we don't call then. Best time to cold call in Australia.

Compliance built in

We call during business hours on weekdays in the prospect's time zone, well inside the hours the Telemarketing and Research Calls Industry Standard 2017 allows. Caller ID is always on, callers say who they are and why they're calling, calls end the moment someone asks, and lists are washed against the Do Not Call Register at least every 30 days. Cold calling laws in Australia.

Benchmarks

What the numbers actually look like

These figures come from 218,000 dials into Australian decision makers between November 2024 and April 2026. They are operating data from our dialler and CRM, not survey responses.

Stage	Nousu, onshore	Typical offshore team
Connect rate, any live human	0%	0 to 17%
Decision maker conversation rate	0%	0.0%
Meetings per 100 dials	0.0	0.0
Meetings flagged by client AEs as wrong fit	0%	0%
Cost per qualified meeting	$0	$0

Note the first row. Offshore teams get picked up at the same rate we do, sometimes higher. The gap opens on the second row, and it is the whole story. Australian buyers identify an offshore caller in a median of 11 seconds. Across 800 reviewed offshore call recordings, 76% ended inside 90 seconds and 84% never reached a qualification question. The dials connect. The conversations do not happen.

Offshore is not cheaper. Once you price it per meeting that actually qualifies, it is roughly twice the cost, and the meetings are worse.

Our operating numbers

Measure	Nousu
Dials per SDR per day	0
Connect rate	0%
Decision maker conversation rate	0%
Conversation to meeting	0%
Meetings per 100 dials	0.0
Meetings per SDR per month	0

Two things that move the number more than effort does

Time of day. Connect rate runs at 22% between 10 and 11am and 19% between 2 and 3pm, against 5% after 5pm. Around 68% of our meetings come from those two windows.
Persistence. 58% of meetings are booked on attempt four or later. An SDR who stops at attempt two gives up roughly 72% of the available pipeline.

Yield varies sharply by vertical

Vertical	Connect rate	Meetings per 100 dials
Sustainability and ESG	0%	0.0
Professional services	0%	0.0
AI and machine learning	0%	0.0
Energy and utilities	0%	0.0
SaaS	0%	0.0
Industrial	0%	0.0
Logistics	0%	0.0
Fintech	0%	0.0

We will tell you honestly where cold calling is the wrong channel. Healthcare, government and public sector, and consumer-facing retail consistently underperform for us, and we say so rather than take the retainer.

Read the full report, Inside 200,000 Cold Calls
Australian cold calling statistics

Results

What this delivers

More qualified conversations with decision makers

Consistent booked meetings your team can rely on

Higher show rates through confirmation and follow up

Cleaner handoffs with clear notes and next steps

A repeatable outbound motion, not bursts of activity

Our approach

What we run end to end

Every engagement follows a structured operating model across targeting, execution, qualification, and reporting.

Inclusions

1Targeting and setup

ICP and targeting setup
List building or list cleanup

2Execution

Call scripts and objection handling
Daily call execution and follow up

3Qualification and handoff

Meeting booking, confirmation, reschedules
Weekly optimisation loop

Channels and assets

Cold calling
Email follow up
LinkedIn touches where useful
Qualification notes for every meeting
Weekly report by segment and channel

Compliance

Cold calling law in Australia, briefly

B2B cold calling in Australia is lawful and the exemptions are generous, but the rules are specific. The Do Not Call Register applies to numbers on the register, with an exemption for calls to businesses about business matters. The Spam Act governs the email side of any multi-channel sequence, and consent, identification and unsubscribe obligations apply there. Call recording law varies by state, and we operate to the strictest applicable standard rather than the most convenient one.

We handle this as part of the engagement. You do not need to become an expert in it, but you should know your provider is not improvising.

Cold calling laws in Australia, the compliance guide

Process

How it works

Calibrate the list and the openingWe build the target list, agree the qualification bar, and write an opening that survives the first ten seconds. Nothing gets dialled until you have signed off the script.

Dial into the windows that convertCalling is concentrated into the 10 to 11am and 2 to 3pm windows, where connect rates run at 22% and 19% against a 14% daily average. Volume alone does not produce meetings. Volume placed correctly does.

Work the cadence to attempt four and beyondMost reps quit at attempt two and forfeit roughly 72% of their pipeline. Our standard cadence runs eight touches over 24 days, because 58% of our meetings are booked on attempt four or later.

Deliverables

What you get

Call recordings and QA

Every call is recorded and reviewed internally. You get access, not a summary.

Objection log

A live record of what buyers are actually pushing back on, updated weekly. Most clients find this changes their sales deck, not just the script.

Connect rate reporting by segment and hour

Where the pickups are coming from, which segments are answering, and which windows are producing. Reported weekly.

Fit check

Is this for you?

Best for

You want meetings with decision makers
You have a clear offer and sales process
You want a repeatable outbound motion your team can rely on

Not for

You want to change ICP or offer every week
You do not have capacity to handle meetings and follow up quickly
Your ACV is too low for outbound economics to work

Why it works

Why B2B cold calling still works

Direct conversation creates faster qualification than passive channels. A phone call surfaces real objections, timing, fit, and buying intent immediately, rather than after multiple email touches that may never get a response. For higher ACV offers where sales cycles are longer and more stakeholders are involved, this matters. Teams cannot afford to waste weeks nurturing low intent leads when a single qualified conversation can determine whether a real commercial opportunity exists.

Follow up after a call also converts at a higher rate. The prospect already has context, recognition, and a reason to engage. Instead of cold follow up landing in a vacuum, the outreach ties back to an actual interaction. This compounds over longer sales cycles and multi stakeholder deals, where stronger initial signals lead to clearer qualification notes and better handoffs into the next step. For companies selling complex or high value B2B services, cold calling remains one of the most efficient ways to create qualified pipeline consistently.

Today's calls

287

Connected calls

Calls 10 min+

Booked meetings

Qualified follow ups

Live calling