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How to prospect: warm first, then cold

By Corey Leon, founder of Coda · Nov 13, 2026

Your fastest sales come from people who already know you. Cold calling comes last, not first. Here's the order we use.

First, make sure it's a sales problem

Most people think cold calling will fix their sales.

A lot of the time, it won't. The real problem is who you sell to, or what you offer.

If you call the wrong buyer, nothing lands. If the offer is weak, nobody bites.

Fix those two first. Then go find people.

Layer 1: the people who already know you

Start warm. It's the fastest path to revenue.

Use AI to go through your email, your CRM and your first-degree connections on LinkedIn.

Pull out everyone you forgot about who could buy from you or send someone your way. Past clients. Deals that went quiet. People you met once and never followed up with.

Then call them. Tomorrow.

Layer 2: the people they know

Next, ask your first-degree connections for intros.

Do you know anyone who could use this?

An intro from someone they trust gets you further than a cold call. That's your second-warmest list.

Layer 3: cold, done right

Now go cold.

Research companies that don't know you yet. Go deep, and match them against what you actually sell.

Only qualify and call the people you'd actually want to talk to. A short list of the right people beats a long list of anyone.

Find your number

Calling is volume. So find your number.

How many dials does it take to get one held meeting?

Once you know that, you know what it takes to hit your goal. Then you scale what works.

Pilot first, then scale

Treat it like an experiment. Run a pilot. Prove it works. Prove it again. Only then scale it.

We've had a company that looked like a bad fit for cold calling turn one month of calls into $100K in pipeline. And we've had warm plays that should have worked and didn't.

You don't know until you test it. That's why you pilot.