Realistic numbers
A well-run B2B cold email program in 2026 sees 2% to 6% reply rate, of which a third to a half is positive. Roughly 60% of positive replies turn into a held meeting. Meeting-to-close depends entirely on your sales process; 15% to 25% is common for SMB deals.
The number that matters
Cost per meeting. If it is under a fifth of your average deal value times close rate, the program pays for itself. If you cannot get reply rate above 1.5% after fixing deliverability, the problem is the list or the offer, not the email.
Questions
What is a good cold email reply rate?
2% to 6% for B2B in 2026, measured on delivered emails. Below 1% usually means a deliverability or list problem.
What is a reasonable cost per meeting from cold email?
$200 to $500 for SMB targets, $400 to $1,000 for enterprise, including tools, data and the person running it.
