B2B cold calling: what it is, is it legal and what to use instead
Filip Duszczak
CEO i założyciel InStream Group
- Reading time: 18 minutes
- October 13 2026
Updated: · Polish law (PKE) and data from 2026
Cold calling is a first phone call to a person at a company who does not know the caller and has not asked to be contacted. Since 10 November 2024, phone calls for direct marketing in Poland require the recipient’s prior consent, also in B2B (Art. 398 of the Electronic Communications Law). That is why in B2B the first contact is increasingly made through cold mailing and social selling, while an SDR team calls the people who have already replied.
See how Sales House works: we build the first contact by email and on LinkedIn, and we call the people who have replied and want to talk.
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Meet our SDR team for lead handling at InStream Group
- Cold calling and two other methods
- Who calls instead of you: the SDR team
- Cold calling vs cold mailing vs social selling
- Databases instead of a call list
- Is cold calling legal? PKE and GDPR
- Numbers: 120 calls vs a campaign
- Call, but call a warm lead
- The warm call script
- Cold calling abroad
- Team cost calculator
- Which channel fits your company?
- SDR team presentation
- Clients and their stories
- InStream Group in numbers
- Frequently asked questions
Outbound methods
Cold calling is one of three ways to win clients
Outbound sales has three main channels for the first contact: phone, email and LinkedIn. Each reaches a decision-maker who does not know you yet. They differ in pace, scale and legal risk.
Cold calling
A phone call to a person who has not asked to be contacted. It gives quick feedback but has little scale, and in Poland it requires the recipient’s prior consent.
Is cold calling legalCold mailing
A personalised message to a decision-maker from a well-matched database. The first email contains no offer: it asks whether the topic is relevant and invites a conversation.
Cold mailing guideSocial selling
Contact with a decision-maker on LinkedIn: an invitation, a message and a conversation from an expert’s profile. It works when you want to get into specific companies.
LinkedIn Sales serviceHow we combine these methods at InStream Group
Cold mailing gives scale, LinkedIn gives precision. They are not competitors, they are a set. The phone moves to the end: our SDR team calls the people who have already replied to a message. We do not do cold calling.
SDR team
Who calls instead of you: the SDR team at Sales House
A lead that nobody answers quickly loses interest. The InStream Group SDR team takes over this work: it qualifies leads, books meetings and hands them over to your salespeople. Your salespeople talk to clients who really want to talk.
SDR
Checks the need, budget, timing and decision-maker before the lead moves on.
Team leader
Keeps an eye on priorities, contact rhythm and the quality of meetings handed over to your team.
Sales trainer
Regularly listens to calls and helps SDRs speak more effectively.
Platform
Our CRM, PipeChamp training with a virtual client and integration with your CRM.
Comparison
Cold calling vs cold mailing vs social selling
Cold calling is not the only way to win B2B clients. In Poland it is also not the method to start with. You get the most from combining channels, where the phone comes last and goes to people interested in a conversation.
| Cold calling | Cold mailing | Social selling | Cold mailing + social selling + SDR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First contact in Poland | requires prior consent (Art. 398 PKE) | legal when the first email contains no commercial information | an invitation the decision-maker accepts | a call only to people who have replied |
| Scale | one person at a time | a sequence to the whole approved database | manual messages, also to a wishlist of 5–10 companies | the scale of email and the precision of LinkedIn |
| Response speed | immediate | hours or days | days or weeks | a call to the lead right after the reply |
| Team time | about 19 calls per conversation | work on the whole database at once | messages and voice notes from the profile | the salesperson talks only to interested people |
| How the decision-maker sees it | the call interrupts their work | reads it when they want | sees the expert’s profile and content | we call because they asked us to |
| Legal risk | UKE fine of up to 3% of revenue or PLN 1 million | low with the right content and signature | low | low |
| Foreign markets | native speakers, time zones, local law | content in the recipient’s language, 40+ markets | profile and content in the market’s language | one process for many markets |
| Measurability | the caller’s notes | client panel: every reply and lead | CRM for LinkedIn | report: leads, meetings, SQLs |
| Cost at InStream Group (net / month) | we do not offer it | €1,700 subscription or CPL: €700 one-off fee plus a fixed price per hot lead | LinkedIn Sales subscription | + SDR team, priced on request |
Calls per conversation: Cognism. Fines: Art. 446 of the Polish Electronic Communications Law. Net prices, details agreed on a call.
Cold mailing gives scale, social selling precision, and the SDR team a quick call to people who already want to talk.
Databases
Databases: how we build them and why they beat a call list
A cold call starts with a list of numbers. A number from a company register or website is usually the company’s number, not the decision-maker’s. On top of that, a public number is not consent to a marketing call. In cold mailing we start with a database built around your target.
- TargetWe define industries, company size, regions and roles: 18 company departments and 6 seniority levels, from assistant to board.
- Building the databaseA data miner builds the database from many sources. We do not buy off-the-shelf databases.
- VerificationWe verify addresses before sending so the message reaches the right person.
- ApprovalYou usually get the database for approval within 48 hours. You approve it by company name, role and website, never by email address (GDPR).
- The phone number comes from the leadWe get the decision-maker’s number from them: a hot lead is a person who asked for a meeting, an offer or contact and gave a phone number and email.
Why this beats a call list
Instead of getting past the switchboard, we reach a specific person. Instead of asking for consent during a cold call, we call when the decision-maker has asked us to. See how we build B2B company databases.
Law
Is cold calling legal? Polish law (PKE) and GDPR vs cold mailing
Short answer: not without consent. Since 10 November 2024, Art. 398 of the Polish Electronic Communications Law prohibits using the phone to send commercial information, including direct marketing, to a subscriber or end user unless they have given prior consent. The rule also protects companies, so B2B is not an exception.
Cold calling
- Prior consent of the recipient is needed before the call
- Consent cannot be obtained during a cold call
- A public number from a register or website is not consent
- A breach is an act of unfair competition and can lead to a UKE fine of up to 3% of revenue or PLN 1 million (whichever is higher)
Cold mailing at InStream Group
- The first email is a question, not an offer: no commercial information
- Data processed on the basis of legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR)
- The signature names the controller, the data source and the right to object (Art. 14 GDPR)
- The salesperson sends the offer only after the recipient replies
The bottom line
Cold mailing can be run legally without prior consent if the first message is not commercial information. Cold calling for marketing without consent is prohibited in Poland. That is why we keep the phone for the moment when the person asks for it.
5 questions before you call a company
What a breach can cost
- Fine from the President of UKEup to 3% of the previous year’s revenue or up to PLN 1 million, whichever is higher
- Unfair competitionthe company you called can bring claims
- GDPRup to €20 million or 4% of total annual turnover
This is general information, not legal advice. Before a phone campaign, check the legal basis for contact with a lawyer. Other countries have their own rules. Sources: Polish Electronic Communications Law (Journal of Laws 2024, item 1221), GDPR, Prawo.pl. More on legal cold mailing in our cold mailing guide.
Numbers
Numbers: 120 calls a day vs a campaign
Take a typical scenario: a salesperson makes 120 outbound calls a day and 5% end in a conversation with a decision-maker. That is about 125 conversations a month. See how this compares with a campaign where we only call people who are interested.
- 2.3%average cold calling success rate
- 5.4%of calls end in a conversation (connect rate)
- 19calls per conversation with a potential client
- 93 saverage call length in 2025
| Cold calling, 1 person | Cold mailing + social selling + SDR | |
|---|---|---|
| Contact per month | about 2,500 calls, about 125 conversations | a sequence to the whole approved database + at least 200 LinkedIn invitations |
| Result | a conversation, often with no next step | a hot lead: a person asks for a meeting, an offer or contact and gives a phone number |
| Guarantee in the contract | none | at least 5 hot leads in cold mailing and at least 5 in LinkedIn Sales |
| Monthly cost | about PLN 12,000: an average salesperson in Poland with salary and commission | €1,700 + LinkedIn Sales + SDR team priced on request |
| PKE compliance | every marketing call without consent breaches Art. 398 | yes |
In InStream Group campaigns the median cost of a hot lead is PLN 664, and 72% of campaigns close below PLN 1,000. On the number of conversations, cold calling can look good. The difference lies in who you talk to and whether you are allowed to call at all.
SDR team for hire
Call, but call a warm lead
We do not say “don’t call”. We say: call people who know you. The SDR team works on three sources that sit untouched in most companies.
Warm leads
Replies from cold mailing and LinkedIn, forms, demo requests, contacts from trade fairs. We make the first call quickly, before the lead goes cold.
Past clients
Companies that bought once and stopped. They know your brand, so the conversation starts from the relationship, not an introduction.
Lost opportunities
Offers without a decision, “please come back next quarter”, projects pushed back. This person has already talked to your salesperson.
Better to work lost opportunities than to cold call
The person knows your company and you know their need. We call past clients and lost opportunities when they have agreed to phone contact or asked for it themselves. If there is no consent, we start with an email.
Qualification
Need, budget, timing and decision-maker before the lead reaches a salesperson.
Multichannel sequence
Phone, SMS, LinkedIn and email in an agreed rhythm.
AI priorities
The system points to the leads with the highest potential and we start with them.
Meeting in your CRM
The booked meeting goes into your CRM and the salesperson’s calendar as an SQL.
The SDR team works on a monthly subscription priced on request. The price depends on the number of leads you hand over.
See lead handlingCall script
How our SDR talks: the warm call script
A good call script is an outline, not a rigid scenario read word for word. A call to a warm lead has one advantage: the person knows what the call is about.
- Opening with context“Good morning, I’m calling because you replied to our message about [topic].” The first seconds decide whether the conversation develops, and a familiar context buys you more of them.
- QualificationFour questions: need, budget, timing and decision-maker.
- Objections“I don’t have time”, “we’re not interested”, “we don’t have that problem”. Before you answer, understand where they come from. A rephrased question that hands the direction of the conversation back to the client often works better than a counterargument.
- Next stepEvery call ends with a specific step and a date: a meeting in the salesperson’s calendar or the time of the next contact. We send a summary by email.
- MeasurementTime to first contact, connect rate, lead to SQL and SQL to opportunity. We draw the first conclusions about a script after at least 50–100 calls.
More on objections and follow-up in our sales glossary.
Foreign markets
Cold calling abroad? Cold mailing works better
A cold call abroad means four barriers at once: the person’s language, time zone, local law and the cost of a team in each market. A translated script will not solve that.
Language
A call needs a native speaker. We write the email in the recipient’s language and the team handles the reply.
Time zone
We send the message during the recipient’s working hours, with no night shifts for the team.
Local law
Every country has its own rules for contacting companies. Before a campaign we check the law of the market.
Cost
One team runs campaigns in many markets instead of separate callers in each country.
InStream Group has run projects in more than 40 markets. Outside Poland, we send the most messages to the DACH countries (15.9% of all messages in 2025–2026).
Campaigns in foreign marketsCalculator
Calculate what your own cold calling team costs
Enter the number of people and their cost. We set it against the cost per lead and the SDR package that matches your lead volume.
Result
The calculator compares costs. In Poland a cold marketing call without consent breaches Art. 398 PKE whatever it costs.
Choosing a channel
Which channel fits your company?
Pick the sentence that best describes your situation. We will show you where to start.
SDR team
Leads waiting for contact lose interest. The SDR team will call them quickly, qualify them and book meetings with your salespeople.
See lead handlingCold mailing
We will build a database around your target and start a sequence to decision-makers. Subscription, pilot or CPL model, with hot leads guaranteed in the contract.
See cold mailingLinkedIn Sales, wishlist strategy
You name your dream companies and we reach their decision-makers on LinkedIn: invitations, messages and voice notes from an expert’s profile.
Book a callSales Booster
When there are leads but sales fall short, we first fix the process, communication and CRM. Then we add new contacts.
Book a callLead handling presentation
See how we handle and convert leads
Ten slides: why it’s better to hire an SDR, a team working in your funnel, the CRM module, reporting, communication recording, contact channels, the cooperation schedule and pricing.
Arrows, swipe or click a thumbnail
Voice-over script for this slide
A lead that nobody responds to quickly loses interest. The Sales House SDR team takes over this work for you. Your salespeople get ready meetings with clients who really want to talk.
Your own SDR team means long recruitment, turnover and costs that grow with every hire. By hiring a team at Sales House, you start right away and pay for the results of the work. You adjust the scale to the number of leads actually coming into your company.
Our specialists don’t start from scratch. Before they talk to your lead, they know your process, your offer and clients’ most common objections. That way every conversation sounds as if it were run by someone from your company.
You get not just people but a whole system for working with leads. Behind the team there is a leader, a sales trainer and know-how proven in many projects. Everything runs on our platform, so you don’t have to build or buy anything separately.
You have every lead under control in one place. At any moment you can check what’s happening with it and what the next step is. The information also goes into your CRM, so your sales team works with complete data.
You judge the SDR team’s work by the numbers. Every month you see how many leads turned into meetings and how we rate the quality of conversations. We add conclusions and recommendations for the next month to the report.
No conversation with your client gets lost. The full contact history stays in the system and is available to your team. A sales trainer regularly listens to calls and helps the SDRs speak even more effectively.
We reach the lead where they’re easiest to catch. We combine phone, messages and LinkedIn into a well-thought-out sequence, so the lead doesn’t have time to cool down. We deal with the highest-potential contacts first.
We start fast. Preparing the process and training runs in parallel with handling the first leads. Then every month we improve the scripts and meet with you. Every quarter we sit down together on strategy and plan the next steps.
The SDR team works on a monthly subscription that we quote individually. The price depends on the number of leads you hand over for handling. You pay for the real scale of work, without the costs of full-time hires and recruitment.
Have leads, past clients or lost opportunities? Hand them over to an SDR team
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Our clients’ success and satisfaction matter most to us. Join more than 1,700 companies worldwide for which we have generated leads.
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Client stories
See how we help companies like yours
Testimonials, case studies and campaign results from our clients in Poland and around the world.
See client storiesScale
InStream Group in numbers
InStream Group is the first Sales House supporting your sales and lead generation. We have supported over 1,700 companies in more than 3,000 projects across more than 40 markets.
- 8,000,000messages a month
- 1,700+clients
- 3,000+projects
- 40+markets
- 70+specialists
- 10+years of experience
Frequently asked questions about cold calling
What is cold calling?
Cold calling is a first phone call to a person at a company who does not know the caller and has not asked to be contacted. Its aim is usually to book a meeting or check whether the company has a need.
Is cold calling legal in Poland?
Cold calling for marketing without the recipient’s prior consent is prohibited in Poland. Since 10 November 2024 this is governed by Art. 398 of the Electronic Communications Law. For a breach, the President of UKE can impose a fine of up to 3% of revenue or up to PLN 1 million, and data processing must also comply with the GDPR.
Does B2B cold calling require consent?
Yes. Art. 398 PKE protects all subscribers and end users, including companies. A public number from a company register or website is not consent, and consent cannot be obtained during a cold call.
How is cold calling different from warm calling?
Cold calling is a call to a person who has had no contact with the company. Warm calling is a call to a person who has already replied to an email, filled in a form or asked to be contacted. Warm calling is more effective and has a clear legal basis.
Is cold calling effective?
According to Cognism data, the average cold calling success rate is 2.3%, and it takes about 19 calls to get one conversation with a potential client. In Poland, the consent requirement also sharply limits the list of people you are allowed to call.
What to use instead of cold calling?
In B2B the first contact is best built with cold mailing and social selling on LinkedIn. It is worth calling the people who have replied: that is how an SDR team works, qualifying leads and booking meetings for salespeople.
How much does an SDR team at InStream Group cost?
The SDR team works on a monthly subscription priced on request. The price depends on the number of leads you hand over, with no costs of hiring or full-time staff.
Does InStream Group do cold calling?
No. We build the first contact with cold mailing and on LinkedIn, and our SDR team calls warm leads: campaign replies, form enquiries, past clients and lost opportunities.
How do I write a B2B call script?
A good script is an outline: an opening that refers to the earlier contact, four qualifying questions (need, budget, timing, decision-maker), answers to typical objections and a clear next step with a date. Draw the first conclusions after 50–100 calls.
See what winning clients looks like from the inside: the database, the sequence, hot leads and the SDR team that books meetings.
See the demo nowTell us who you want to win or which leads you want to hand over
Tell us who you want to reach or how many leads a month you have to handle: warm leads, past clients, lost opportunities. We will get back to you with a proposal that fits your sales.
- First contact compliant with PKE and GDPR
- At least 5 hot leads guaranteed in the subscription
- SDR team sized to your lead volume
About the author
Filip DuszczakCEO and founder of InStream Group, 17 years in B2B sales. He started as a salesperson in a call centre and today leads a team of 70+ specialists that has supported over 1,700 companies in sales across more than 40 markets.
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