“Cold calling is dead.” 

It is the kind of sweeping statement you hear at conferences and across LinkedIn. But for private equity and consulting teams under deal pressure, the truth is far more practical: cold calling (or, more precisely, strategic outreach) remains one of the fastest and most reliable ways to surface insights that no database or report can deliver. 

At Bell & Holmes, we see cold calling not as an outdated sales tactic, but as a core engine of primary research. When deals are time-critical and blind spots are costly, it’s the difference between guessing and knowing. 

The Myth of the “Dead” Cold Call 

Cold calling fell out of favor in mainstream sales due to its association with spammy tactics. Endless dialling of irrelevant leads destroyed its reputation. However, in private markets, outreach takes on a completely different look. 

Here, the goal is not to sell; it is to communicate with the operators who are aware of what’s happening in real-time. That might mean: 

• A plant manager in Ohio who can explain why downtime has spiked. 
• A procurement director in Berlin is negotiating this week’s commodity pricing. 
• A competitor’s employee who knows why growth slowed last quarter. 

Those insights don’t appear in syndicated reports. They don’t show up in databases. They only come from direct conversations, and the fastest way to start them is a well-placed call. 

Why Outreach Still Wins in Private Markets 

The numbers tell the story. 

• The average success rate for B2B cold calling is 2–5%. That may sound small, but in deal contexts, that 2–5% can unlock critical voices.
• 82% of buyers still say they accept meetings from cold outreach.
• 78% of business leaders have scheduled a meeting or attended an event thanks to a cold call. 

Far from dead, outreach is alive and well when executed with precision targeting and research discipline. 

For private equity and consulting, this means direct access to the individuals who shape the market today, not just last quarter. 

What Makes Bell & Holmes Different 

Cold calling on its own doesn’t guarantee insights. What matters is how you orchestrate outreach at scale and speed. 

Bell & Holmes combines: 

• Industry mapping: to identify the stakeholders that genuinely matter. 
• Global multilingual consultants: reaching experts in their native language, across 140+ countries. 
• Dozens of interviews per project: enough scale to validate patterns, not just anecdotal opinions. 
• Delivery in 48 hours: aligned with time-critical deal windows. 

But the process is only as strong as the people behind it. That’s why Bell & Holmes invests in: 

• Continuous consultant training: Our teams receive daily coaching on outreach, compliance, and research best practices. 
• Elite talent pipeline: Many of our researchers come from leading universities, bringing analytical rigor to every project. 
• Strict confidentiality: every consultant operates under NDAs and compliance frameworks, ensuring security and trust at every stage. 

These layers enable clients to move quickly without compromising quality or confidentiality. 

Outreach vs. Alternatives 

Why not skip outreach and rely on reports or expert networks? The gaps are obvious: 

• Reports: By the time data is published, the market has moved on. Reports lag reality. 
• Expert networks: Useful, but often costly and slow. You’re limited to who’s “on file,” usually ex-employees, not who’s most relevant. 
• Surveys: Scalable, but shallow. They provide numbers without context. 

Bell & Holmes occupies the space in between: 

• More depth than a survey. 
• More reach and efficiency than a traditional expert network. 
• Faster than either, with first interviews landing in 48 hours. 

This model is why we’ve earned a 98% client retention rate and supported 1,000+ projects across private equity and consulting. 

Outreach as a Competitive Edge 

In high-stakes environments, speed and clarity equal an advantage. Cold calling works in due diligence because it: 

1. Validates or disproves assumptions quickly. 
2. Surfaces blind spots no secondary source can show. 
3. Scales rapidly—dozens of interviews create both qualitative depth and quantitative confidence. 
4. Delivers certainty when clients need it most. 

For our clients, these conversations often surface the insight that changes a deal thesis. It might be a hidden competitor, a pricing shift, or an operational bottleneck. In other words: the difference between winning and walking away. 

So, cold calling isn’t dead. It has simply evolved. 

For private markets, strategic outreach is still the fastest route to the insights that matter. And when time is short, there’s no substitute. 

At Bell & Holmes, we don’t view outreach as an outdated tool. We see it as the foundation of fast, global, and reliable primary research executed by trained consultants, secured by NDAs, and trusted by leading firms worldwide. 

Need certainty in your next due diligence project? Start with the voices that matter. Bell & Holmes delivers first insights in as little as 48 hours.