Cold calling in 2026: what is allowed in B2B and how the first twenty seconds are built

The short answer

Cold calling by telephone is allowed in B2B, and in practice not allowed with consumers. Towards a consumer, § 7(2) no. 1 UWG requires prior express consent; towards another market participant, only at least presumed consent. That distinction is the entire legal framework, and at the same time it is the best sales training there is: whoever can explain why this business has an objective interest in this call has, legally, presumed consent and, in the conversation, an opening. Whoever cannot has neither.

The legal framework in three sentences

Consumers: a call only with prior express consent. Anyone who calls without it commits an administrative offence; § 20 UWG provides for a fine of up to €300,000 for this, prosecuted by the Bundesnetzagentur. Anyone who obtains consents must document and retain them; breaches of that can be punished with up to €50,000.

Businesses: a call is permissible where consent may be presumed. The Bundesgerichtshof has set a standard for this that is worth knowing: indications of an objective interest on the part of the person called must arise from concrete circumstances. A general factual connection to the offering of the business being called is expressly not enough — otherwise telephone advertising to commercial operators would be permitted almost without limit (BGH, judgment of 11 March 2010 – I ZR 27/08).

Data protection comes on top. Publicly findable contact data may be processed for direct marketing on the basis of legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). Where personal data have not been collected from the data subject himself, the information obligation under Article 14 GDPR applies, and the objection under Article 21 GDPR must take effect from the first no. In practice that means: a suppression list that everyone on the team maintains, and one sentence about the origin of the data that every salesperson knows by heart.

What “concrete circumstances" means day to day

I have been sorting call lists by exactly this question for years: what do I know about this business that justifies the call? The answer is never “he is a restaurateur".

Not a sound indication	A sound indication
“You are a retailer, we do payment."	The business itself advertises publicly with “cash only" and has reviews complaining about it.
An address from a purchased data set.	An existing business relationship, an enquiry via the website, a trade-fair contact, a customer's referral.
“Every business needs this at some point."	The reason is dated: an expiring contract, a branch opening, a tender, a statutory deadline.

The second effect of this sorting is economic. A list without indications produces calls with a one to two per cent appointment rate. A list with a dated reason is many times above that — which is why research time before the call is not lost selling time. The Salesforce figure that salespeople spend 70 per cent of their time not selling is often read as a call to abolish preparation. What is meant is administration, not research.

The first twenty seconds

The opening has four parts and none of them one too many:

1. Name and company. “Pedram Dadgar, SENZA."
2. The reason, concretely. “I am calling because your menu online says ‘cash only'."
3. The permission question. “Do you have two minutes, or shall I call later?"
4. A single question he can answer. “Is that a deliberate decision, or did it just turn out that way?"

What has no place in these twenty seconds: the price, the product, the company history, the word “briefly", the word “actually", and any question that can be answered with no (“Am I interrupting?").

And the part almost nobody does: ending the conversation after the first no. A no to the appointment is not worth handling as an objection. A no to the topic is.

Objections in the opening

Three sentences are heard in practically every first call. The answer to them is never a counter-argument but a question that tests the objection:

• “We already have a provider." → “Good, then you know your settlement. Do you know off the top of your head what you paid last month?"
• “Not interested." → “Understood. May I ask what it is about — the timing or the topic?" If the topic: hang up and note it. If the timing: agree a date.
• “Send me something by email." → “I will. So I do not send the wrong thing: what would be the one figure that is interesting for you?"

The third sentence is the most important, because “just send something" is a polite rejection in nine out of ten cases. Whoever sends something without asking back has built himself a record, but not a conversation.

What I no longer do

No purchased consumer lists, for the single reason that it does not work legally and does not pay off economically. No calls without a noted reason. No second call without new information — a follow-up that only says “I wanted to check in" is the call that turns a friendly contact into an annoyed one. And no target on calls alone: whoever sets 80 dial attempts a day as the goal gets 80 dial attempts and no preparation.

Action list

1. Sort the target group legally: businesses and consumers in separate lists. Consumers only with documented consent.
2. Every entry gets a “reason" field. No reason, no call. That is at the same time the documentation of presumed consent.
3. Set up a suppression list, team-wide, effective immediately from the first objection.
4. Formulate one sentence about the origin of the data that everyone can say when asked, and organise the information under Article 14 GDPR.
5. Fix the opening in writing, four parts, at most three sentences, and practise it out loud as a team — not read it.
6. Measure what steers: conversations with decision-makers per hour and appointments per conversation, not dial attempts.
7. Evaluate the rejection reasons after two weeks. If “wrong contact person" or “not a topic" accumulate, the list is wrong, not the salesperson.