Most externalized B2B prospection campaigns fail
Not because "cold calling doesn't work", but because companies don't understand how much time it takes
3/10/20265 min read
Most Prospecting Campaigns Fail Before They Reach 3 Months
B2B prospecting rarely works well for most companies. But that's not because prospecting itself doesn't work.
It's either because they're doing it wrong, or because they stop a campaign that's actually working… just before the results start coming in.
Prospecting is always about planting seeds today so you can reap the rewards later.
And if you've ever built a customer portfolio from scratch as a salesperson, you know that "later" can mean anywhere from 1 to 12 months, depending on sales cycles, the products you're selling, and other factors.
Booking your first meetings takes time, especially when you're just getting started (personally, I often book them from day one).
Then you need to schedule second meetings (R2s) with prospects who showed interest during the first meeting (R1).
From that point onwards, the process can vary enormously depending on the product.
Some products have short sales cycles (less than 3 months). Others regularly involve sales cycles of more than 4 to 6 months, typically when dealing with high-value contracts and enterprise accounts.
Personally, I worked as a full-cycle Salesperson at an adtech startup, where I was responsible for building my own customer portfolio. I closed several dozen companies, including two major corporations: Fnac Darty and BHV.
I was also an Account Manager, and sometimes I simply didn't have time to prospect because I had to manage campaigns for existing customers.
Every time I restarted a prospecting cycle, it took at least two months of prospecting to fill my pipeline. Then, customers would start closing almost simultaneously, usually 2 to 4 months after the campaign began.
In the meantime, they still had to implement a tracking pixel on their website, sign a contract, prepare a product feed, and so on. These steps often took at least another month after they had given us the green light.
So here's the question: what do you think happens when you start filling your pipeline and then suddenly stop halfway through, or even right at the beginning?
The few leads you've managed to generate become your only focus. And prospects generally don't like feeling that they're your only option. It makes them uncomfortable and pushes them away.
Meanwhile, the other leads haven't been prospected sufficiently to enter your pipeline.
Ultimately, all that effort often ends up being wasted.
That's why stopping a prospecting campaign too early is such a stupid decision.
It's the equivalent of:
Going to the gym but doing just one set per muscle group.
Ordering a massive Big Mac XL meal only to eat a few fries.
Sending an athlete to the Olympic Games when they're still a pre-teen.
The point is simple: wait until a campaign has matured before judging its performance.
At the very least, if a campaign generates absolutely no meetings during its first three weeks, or no promising second meetings (R2s) after six weeks, then yes, it's reasonable to start asking questions.
But most founders and Heads of Sales, unless they've been properly educated about the prospecting process, terminate campaigns before reaching that point, simply because they haven't closed their first meetings on the spot.
This reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the prospecting cycle.
Without understanding it, success is almost impossible.
Why Companies Stop Outbound Campaigns Too Early
Many founders and Heads of Sales at B2B companies simply don't understand sales prospecting. It's time to say it openly.
Maybe they know how to sell during a sales call. Maybe they're highly knowledgeable about their industry from a technical perspective.
But they know very little about prospecting itself, and they underestimate how complex it actually is.
It's not simply "hard" or "demeaning". It's technically demanding, and it requires a strong belief in the prospecting process.
It's almost scientific: the law of large numbers.
Keep trying enough times, across a sufficiently large number of attempts, and eventually things start working.
This applies to cold calling (roughly 1 out of every 5 to 25 calls converts into a meeting).
It also applies to sales calls, at the next stage of the funnel (roughly 1 out of every 5 to 25 sales meetings converts into a customer).
These are averages, of course. Sometimes your closing rate will be higher, sometimes lower.
Personally, I had an exceptionally high closing rate when I was prospecting at my startup as a full-cycle salesperson (over 75%).
This was due to the type of product I was selling, the value it delivered, and above all, my own conviction in that value, combined with a certain degree of commercial persistence.
However, I generally observe closing rates of around 10–20% for my clients, often with products that are probably harder to sell than the one I used to offer.
If a decision-maker doesn't understand this sales cycle or the average conversion rates involved, they may instinctively expect every meeting to result in a new customer.
And if that doesn't happen, they assume something is wrong.
So, after just five meetings that don't convert, most companies decide to pull the plug because they don't understand the process.
Yet the goose that lays the golden eggs was just a little further down the road.
See here why B2B cold calling still works.
The Main Problem for Freelance Prospectors: Recurring Business
It's well known that turnover is high in B2B prospecting.
It's not just because salespeople eventually get exhausted from prospecting (although that can certainly be one reason. Having the right sales temperament isn't something you can necessarily teach).
A large part of the problem is that their managers don't understand prospecting, have unrealistic expectations, don't know how to train their teams because they lack the necessary experience, and/or are toxic (which is often the case).
With outsourced B2B prospecting campaigns, failure to convert meetings into customers often comes down to a lack of understanding of the law of large numbers, conversion averages, insufficient belief in the value of the product, or simply a lack of commercial persistence.
Yes, going through 10 to 15 meetings to acquire a single customer, particularly with high-value deals, can be exhausting.
And yes, it's not necessarily any easier than cold calling itself. Contrary to what you might think, it can sometimes be even more emotionally demanding.
But that's what sales is all about: difficulty, persistence, and above all, rational thinking over emotional reactions.
The law of large numbers should be every salesperson's compass.
It doesn't matter if this particular person isn't interested.
It doesn't matter if I lost that deal.
It doesn't matter if things are difficult today and I'm getting absolutely no results.
The only things that matter are the prospecting cycle, the law of large numbers, and infinity.
You need to give infinity enough time to deliver its results. And you need to respect infinity by ensuring that the process is executed properly, in the best possible way.
That's why the infinity symbol is the logo of my Outbound Machine offer.
Seen from this perspective, failure is simply a statistical variable.
Learn to lose without attaching too much importance to it. That's how you eventually win.
The Signs That Your Pipeline Is Starting to Fill Up
Here are a few indicators that your prospecting efforts are beginning to pay off:
You're starting to accumulate second meetings (R2s) with prospects following their initial meetings.
Your multichannel prospecting campaigns are beginning to work, not just your cold calling.
You're starting to understand how to close deals for your particular product.
All of this shows that you're developing your prospecting and closing skills, and that new customers may soon start coming in regularly.
When you reach this stage, don't stop. Keep prospecting for at least another 1 to 2 months in your market.
Provided your average customer lifetime value is sufficiently high (at least €6,000), the investment will be worthwhile.