B2B cold calling strategies for fintech companies

Cormac Repman
5 hours ago
4 min read

Why Cold Calling Still Works (Even in Fintech)

Most fintech founders think cold calling is dead. They're wrong. While email open rates hover around 8-12% in the financial services space, cold calling connects you directly with decision-makers. The problem isn't the channel—it's the approach. Fintech buyers are skeptical, time-constrained, and drowning in automation. A real conversation still beats another email in their inbox.

We've run cold calling campaigns across 50+ fintech companies over the past two years, from Series A startups to mid-market fintechs. The teams that win aren't using scripts from 2015. They're solving specific problems, getting multiple decision-makers on the phone, and treating cold calling like a research tool, not a sales tactic.

The Fintech Buyer's Resistance (And How to Break Through It)

Fintech buyers reject cold calls for three reasons: regulatory context they assume you don't understand, vendor fatigue (they've heard twelve pitches this month), and the fear you'll waste their compliance team's time.

Your first call isn't a close. It's a credibility check.

Before you dial, know your prospect's current tech stack, recent funding round (if any), and hiring patterns. If they just hired a VP of Risk, they're likely building compliance infrastructure. That's your angle. If they're pre-Series A, they're bootstrapping—emphasize speed and ROI, not implementation cost.

Open with specificity. Not "Hi John, we help fintech companies with sales." Instead: "Hi John, I saw you recently added custody rails to your API. That usually means you're expanding to high-net-worth clients—we've helped similar platforms schedule demos with their buyer personas. Do you have 15 minutes?"

The specificity does two things: it signals you've done homework, and it frames the conversation around *their* priority, not your product.

The Multi-Threaded Approach (Essential in Fintech)

In fintech, one conversation isn't enough. A deal involves compliance, product, finance, and sometimes the CTO.

On your first call, ask: "Besides yourself, who else is evaluating solutions in this category?" Most prospects will name 1-2 people. Your second call is to them—and you reference the first conversation. "Sarah mentioned you'd be involved in evaluating new vendor workflows. I wanted to get your specific take on [pain point]."

This isn't manipulation. It's respect for how buying committees actually work.

Track these threads in a spreadsheet. When one person goes cold, you still have momentum with the others. We've seen fintech deals close with a 40% higher rate when we're talking to three people instead of one.

Timing Matters (More Than Most People Think)

Fintech teams cluster their buying cycles around:

End of quarter (regulatory reporting, budget reviews)

Post-funding (first 90 days after a Series A, Series B, or acquisition)

After public news (they're in growth mode, hiring, expanding)

Call after 2 PM on Tuesday through Thursday. Fintech executives are in standup meetings and investor calls early in the week. By Wednesday afternoon, they've cleared their calendar clutter.

If you get voicemail, leave a 20-second callback message with: your name, your company, the specific reason you called, and your phone number. Don't ask them to call back. Instead, tell them: "I'll reach out once more next Wednesday. If that doesn't work, no worries—we can connect another time."

The second call connects at 3x the rate of the first.

The Objection That Isn't (And How to Handle It)

"We're in the middle of evaluating [competitor]" is not a no. It's the most common fintech objection, and it's actually permission to stay in the conversation.

Respond with: "That makes sense. Most teams we work with evaluate 2-3 vendors. What's important to you in the evaluation? I might have a perspective that helps." Then shut up. Let them talk.

52% of fintech deals go to the vendor that stayed engaged through the evaluation process, not the one that won the first conversation. Your job on the first call isn't to win the deal. It's to earn a second call.

Building a Repeatable Cold Calling Operation

If you're hiring a team or outsourcing, standardize your process:

Scripts are guides, not gospel. Reps should know the value prop, the objections, and the next steps. But fintech buyers hate memorized pitches.

Measure connect rates first. You can't convert if you're not connecting. A 25% connect rate (getting someone on the phone) is solid for fintech. 35%+ means your targeting is sharp.

Conversion rate target. 8-12% of first calls should yield a second meeting. If you're below 5%, your messaging is off.

Track talk time. Calls under 2 minutes are prospecting misses. Calls over 6 minutes mean the prospect is genuinely interested. Average is 3-4 minutes.

Log everything—company name, title, objection, next step, follow-up date. You'll see patterns emerge. Maybe CPAs in insurance tech respond better than procurement teams. Maybe Series B companies are more receptive than Series C. Use these insights to refine your targeting and messaging.

The Tools That Actually Help

You don't need fancy tech. You need:

A clean lead list (verified phone numbers, current titles, company intel)

A calendar your rep can control (so you can book meetings without back-and-forth)

Call recording (so you can coach and improve)

A CRM where call notes actually live (not a graveyard of forgotten insights)

We use DuckDB to track campaigns, Calendly for booking, and simple spreadsheets for performance tracking. Complexity kills consistency. The best cold calling operation is the one your team actually uses.

Stop Guessing. Start Calling.

Cold calling in fintech isn't about volume or luck. It's about precision: right company, right person, right time, right message. Most fintech teams have the list but not the system. Others have the messaging but not the discipline to see it through.

That's where Nurturance comes in. We build cold calling teams that connect decision-makers at fintech and insurtech companies. We don't charge by the call or the hour. You only pay when we schedule a qualified meeting with a prospect actually ready to evaluate your solution. Our reps are trained on your specific product, your ICP, and your objection handling.

If you're running a fintech platform and your in-house team can't break through, or you need to scale outbound without hiring full-time, [let's talk](https://cal.com/cormac-nurturance/glencoco-intro). Book 15 minutes, and we'll show you what a real cold calling operation looks like.