TopReach Research · 2026 edition
When sales calls get answered
The Connect Rate Report brings together the best published research on connect rates, call timing, local caller ID, spam labels and talk time, with every figure linked to its source and read with its caveats.
By TopReach Research · Updated
Key findings
The numbers worth knowing
80%
U.S. adults who don't generally answer cellphone calls from unknown numbers (2020)
7x
Likelihood of qualifying a lead when contact is tried within an hour vs. an hour later (nearly 7x)
84%
Americans who say they reject or ignore calls from numbers they don't recognize (2026)
5.4%
Average cold-call connect rate per dial in Gong's data (13.3% for the top quartile)
21x
Drop in the odds of qualifying a web lead when the first call comes at 30 minutes instead of 5 (2007)
5 min 50 sec
Average length of a successful cold call (5 min 50 sec)
- 1.A Pew Research Center survey of 10,211 U.S. adults in July 2020 found that 80% say they don't generally answer their cellphone when an unknown number calls; 19% say they generally pick up. Source
- 2.Research published in Harvard Business Review found that firms that tried to contact online leads within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead as those that tried even an hour later, and more than 60 times as likely as firms that waited 24 hours or longer. Source
- 3.Hiya's State of the Call 2026 survey found that 84% of Americans say their default action when a number they don't recognize calls is to reject or ignore it. Source
- 4.Gong Labs' analysis of more than 300 million cold calls found an average connect rate of 5.4% (calls answered by a prospect divided by dials), against 13.3% for top-quartile reps. Source
- 5.The Lead Response Management study, led by Dr. James Oldroyd with InsideSales.com, found the odds of contacting a web lead dropped 100 times, and the odds of qualifying it 21 times, when the first call came at 30 minutes rather than 5. Source
- 6.Gong's analysis of recorded cold calls found successful calls averaged 5 minutes 50 seconds, against 3 minutes 14 seconds for unsuccessful ones. Source
- 7.Orum's analysis of its cold-calling data found power dialing converted about 6.4% of connects into meetings vs. 3.8% for parallel dialing, while parallel dialing produced more meetings per hour at every seniority level (0.88 vs. 0.62 an hour when calling individual contributors). Source
- 8.The Lead Response Management study found 4–6 p.m. was the best time to reach web leads, 114% better than 11 a.m. to noon, and 8–9 a.m. and 4–5 p.m. were the best hours to qualify them. Source
- 9.Software Advice's survey of 2,310 U.S. internet users found people nearly four times more likely to answer an unknown call from a local area code: 27.5% said they were likely to answer it, against 13% for an out-of-state area code and 7% for a toll-free number. Source
- 10.Hiya's Global Call Threat Report for Q4 2023 found that 29% of the calls Americans received from unknown numbers were spam, and U.S. consumers received an average of 15 spam calls a month. Source
Research
How often sales calls connect
Connect and answer rates depend on how each study defines them, who's being called and when the study ran. Read each figure with its definition.
Show the numbers
| Generally answer | 19% |
|---|---|
| Don't answer, check voicemail | 67% |
| Ignore the call and the voicemail | 14% |
Source: Pew Research Center, Most Americans don't answer cellphone calls from unknown numbers
A Pew Research Center survey of 10,211 U.S. adults in July 2020 found that 80% say they don't generally answer their cellphone when an unknown number calls; 19% say they generally pick up.
Pew Research Center, Most Americans don't answer cellphone calls from unknown numbers · 2020-12-14 · 10,211 U.S. adults on Pew's American Trends Panel, surveyed July 13–19, 2020
Read with care: Self-reported behavior, not measured answer rates. Asked about personal cellphones during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of research on contact tracing. Fieldwork is more than six years old.
Hiya's State of the Call 2026 survey found that 84% of Americans say their default action when a number they don't recognize calls is to reject or ignore it.
Hiya, State of the Call 2026: Detailed Data and Insights · 2026-03-02 · 2,003 U.S. adults (12,009 across the U.S., UK, Canada, France, Germany and Spain), surveyed Dec. 17–29, 2025
Read with care: Hiya sells call protection and branded caller ID. This is a stated default, not a measured answer rate. Hiya's marketing restates its six-country result as "86% of unidentified calls go unanswered", but the survey counted people, not calls.
Gong Labs' analysis of more than 300 million cold calls found an average connect rate of 5.4% (calls answered by a prospect divided by dials), against 13.3% for top-quartile reps.
Gong, The hidden power of cold calling: insights from 300M calls · 2024-07-18 · More than 300 million cold calls recorded on Gong
Read with care: Vendor data (Gong sells revenue software), published with a sales-training partner to promote a book. The date range isn't stated. In the same data, the average rep booked a meeting from 4.6% of conversations and the top quartile from 16.7%.
The Bridge Group's 2023 SDR Metrics report found SDRs average 3.6 quality conversations a day, a 55% fall since 2014.
The Bridge Group, 2023 SDR Metrics: Sales Development Models, Metrics, and Compensation Research · 2023 · 365 B2B companies (69% based in North America; $45M median revenue; $52K median average selling price)
Read with care: Self-reported by companies, and a quality conversation counts written replies as well as phone connects, so this isn't a phone connect rate. The same report gives a median of 40 phone activities a day out of 104 total activities, and an average of 11.3 attempts per cadence.
Orum reported an overall connect rate of 5.3% across calls on its dialing platform in 2023.
Orum, Dramatically improve your cold call connect rate using Orum's AI dialer · 2024-03-29 · All calls on Orum's platform in 2023
Read with care: Vendor data. The post doesn't define a connect or separate power from parallel dialing. Orum's earlier claim that a 2% connect rate is the "industry standard" cites no source.
Cognism's State of Cold Calling 2024 report found 9,247 of 55,701 dials (16.6%) connected, and 254 meetings were booked from 5,265 conversations (4.82%).
Cognism, The State of Cold Calling in 2024 · 2024 · 55,701 dials and about 10,000 cold calls by Cognism's sales team, with partner We Have A Meeting
Read with care: One company's sales team, calling with its own contact data (Cognism sells contact data and credits mobile numbers for the rate). The date range isn't stated, and a connect isn't defined. Its "success rate" is meetings per conversation, not per dial.
RAIN Group's Top Performance in Sales Prospecting research found 49% of buyers prefer to connect with sellers by phone, rising to 57% of C-level and VP-level buyers.
RAIN Group, Sales Prospecting: Tips, Techniques, and Strategies · 2022-03-29 · 488 buyers and 489 sellers who prospect, across 25 industries
Read with care: RAIN Group sells sales training. This is a stated preference, not an answer rate. The page doesn't give the fieldwork date; the article was published in 2022 and last updated in 2026.
Hiya reported in January 2024 that answer rates had grown since iOS 17, in some cases by over 100%, because call-screening features such as Live Voicemail and Google Pixel Call Screen register screened calls as answered.
Hiya, Hiya unveils first branded calling solution with performance analytics across 40 countries · 2024-01-31
Read with care: A vendor statement with no published sample. It matters for every answer-rate figure: a pickup by a screening assistant is not a conversation, so compare connects (a person on the line) rather than answers.
Research
When to call
The studies disagree. The best-known one, from 2007, found late afternoon best for reaching web leads; newer platform data puts the peak in the morning. Test your own lists, inside the legal hours.
The Lead Response Management study found 4–6 p.m. was the best time to reach web leads, 114% better than 11 a.m. to noon, and 8–9 a.m. and 4–5 p.m. were the best hours to qualify them.
InsideSales.com and Dr. James Oldroyd, The Lead Response Management Study · 2007-10-16 · More than 15,000 web-generated leads and more than 100,000 call attempts at six companies, three years of data
Read with care: About 20 years old and drawn from inbound web leads at six companies, run with a dialer vendor. The 8–9 a.m. block was 164% better than 1–2 p.m. for qualifying. Newer vendor data disagrees on the best hour (see Orum and Cognism below).
The Lead Response Management study found Wednesday and Thursday were the best days to call web leads: Thursday was 49.7% better than Tuesday for making contact, and Wednesday 24.9% better than Friday for qualifying.
InsideSales.com and Dr. James Oldroyd, The Lead Response Management Study · 2007-10-16 · More than 15,000 web-generated leads and more than 100,000 call attempts at six companies, three years of data
Read with care: About 20 years old and drawn from inbound web leads at six companies. Pages that credit Gong with "Wednesday and Thursday" are quoting this study.
Orum's 2024 platform data showed connect rates were highest at the start of the day, peaking at 10 a.m. local time, then dipping from 2 p.m. and declining through the rest of the workday.
Orum, Sales reps book half a million meetings over the phone via Orum in 2024 · 2025-01-08 · Calls on Orum's platform in 2024 (7.4 million connections)
Read with care: Vendor data; the hourly rates themselves aren't published. Orum notes the most dials were made around 2 p.m., when connect rates were already falling.
In Cognism's 2024 cold-calling data, the most meetings were booked from calls at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. (39 each); Thursday produced the most meetings (58) and Friday the fewest (44).
Cognism, The State of Cold Calling in 2024 · 2024 · 55,701 dials and about 10,000 cold calls by Cognism's sales team
Read with care: These are meeting counts, not rates per dial, so they also reflect when the team chose to call. One company's sales team; the date range isn't stated. The report also quotes a 4–5 p.m. finding from another vendor, which we couldn't check at its source.
Research
Local caller ID
Most people screen calls from numbers they don't recognize, and a local area code makes them far more willing to pick up than a toll-free or out-of-state number.
Show the numbers
| Local area code | 27.5% |
|---|---|
| Out-of-state area code | 13.0% |
| Toll-free number | 7.0% |
Source: Software Advice, Survey: Local Presence Dialing—Foot in the Door, or Door-Slammer?
Software Advice's survey of 2,310 U.S. internet users found people nearly four times more likely to answer an unknown call from a local area code: 27.5% said they were likely to answer it, against 13% for an out-of-state area code and 7% for a toll-free number.
Software Advice, Survey: Local Presence Dialing—Foot in the Door, or Door-Slammer? · 2014-06-20 · 2,310 randomly selected U.S. internet users, four-day online survey
Read with care: A survey of what people said they would do. The article is no longer on Software Advice's live site; the link is the publisher's page as archived.
Research
Spam labels and unknown numbers
A spam label on the caller ID changes everything. These are the figures on how many calls get flagged and what people do about unknown numbers.
Show the numbers
| Answer immediately | 14% |
|---|---|
| Reject immediately | 28% |
| Wait for a voicemail | 41% |
Show the numbers
| 2023 | 7.3 a week |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 7.6 a week |
| 2025 | 9.9 a week |
Source: Hiya, State of the Call 2026: Detailed Data and Insights
Hiya's Global Call Threat Report for Q4 2023 found that 29% of the calls Americans received from unknown numbers were spam, and U.S. consumers received an average of 15 spam calls a month.
Hiya, Report: Americans experience one of the lowest rates of fraud in the world despite climbing nuisance calls · 2024-02-08 · A representative sample of calls observed on the Hiya Voice Security Network (Samsung Smart Call devices and the Hiya app), Q4 2023
Read with care: Hiya's own network and its own labels. Only 1% of U.S. unknown calls were fraud; the rest were nuisance calls. Nearly three years old.
Across six countries in Hiya's State of the Call 2026 survey, only 14% of consumers say they immediately answer calls from numbers they don't recognize; 28% reject the call right away and 41% wait to see if the caller leaves a voicemail.
Hiya, Eroding trust is crippling the voice channel · 2026-04-14 · More than 12,000 consumers in the U.S., UK, Canada, France, Germany and Spain, surveyed Dec. 17, 2025 to Jan. 2, 2026
Read with care: Self-reported. These three answers are the ones Hiya published; the rest of the responses aren't broken out. Hiya sells call protection and branded caller ID.
Americans say they receive an average of 9.9 unwanted calls a week, up from 7.3 in 2023, according to Hiya's State of the Call 2026 survey.
Hiya, State of the Call 2026: Detailed Data and Insights · 2026-03-02 · 2,003 U.S. adults in the latest wave, surveyed Dec. 17–29, 2025
Read with care: Self-reported estimates. The six-country average was 7.4 a week. Hiya sells call protection.
In Hiya's State of the Call 2026 survey, 90% of Americans agreed that businesses should identify themselves in caller ID when they call.
Hiya, State of the Call 2026: Detailed Data and Insights · 2026-03-02 · 2,003 U.S. adults, surveyed Dec. 17–29, 2025
Read with care: Hiya sells branded caller ID. Across all six countries surveyed, Hiya reports 73% agreement.
TNS's 2026 Half-Year Robocall Investigation Report found that 10–12% of all call traffic passing Verstat caller ID verification is still tagged as unwanted, and 17% of confirmed spoofed calls carry "A" attestation.
TNS (Transaction Network Services), TNS 2026 Half-Year Report Warns Voice Communications Still Vulnerable · 2026-07-28 · More than 1.9 billion daily call events across 150-plus carriers and nearly 300 million subscribers
Read with care: Figures are from TNS's press release; the full report requires a request form. TNS sells call analytics and branded calling. The point for callers: passing STIR/SHAKEN verification doesn't prevent an unwanted label.
The YouMail Robocall Index estimated that 4.0 billion robocalls were placed in the U.S. in October 2026, about 129.8 million a day or 12.3 per person.
YouMail, YouMail Robocall Index: October 2026 Nationwide Robocall Data · 2026-11
Read with care: YouMail sells call blocking. An estimate of automated calls, not limited to scams. The page updates monthly.
Research
Talk time
How long successful calls last, from studies that recorded them.
Show the numbers
| Successful calls | 350 sec |
|---|---|
| Unsuccessful calls | 194 sec |
Source: Gong, Evolve the cold call: 8 data-driven techniques to surpass quota
Gong's analysis of recorded cold calls found successful calls averaged 5 minutes 50 seconds, against 3 minutes 14 seconds for unsuccessful ones.
Gong, Evolve the cold call: 8 data-driven techniques to surpass quota · 2021-08-16 · "Thousands of cold calls" recorded on Gong; the exact count isn't given
Read with care: Vendor data with no date range. The two durations appear in a chart on the page. Gong analyzes recorded conversations and doesn't say how it treats very short calls, which may be why its averages run longer than dialer data (Orum reports 52 seconds, Cognism 83 seconds).
In Gong's data, reps did the talking 55% of the time in successful cold calls, and their average monologue lasted 53 seconds, vs. 25 seconds in unsuccessful calls.
Gong, Evolve the cold call: 8 data-driven techniques to surpass quota · 2021-08-16 · "Thousands of cold calls" recorded on Gong; the exact count isn't given
Read with care: Vendor data with no date range.
Orum's platform data shows the average cold call lasts 52 seconds, while the average call that books a meeting lasts closer to 6 minutes.
Orum, How Long Is a Successful Cold Call, Really? · 2025-04-17 · Calls on Orum's platform; period not stated
Read with care: Vendor data. The post doesn't say which calls are included in the 52-second average or over what period.
Cognism's State of Cold Calling 2024 report found the average cold call lasted 83 seconds.
Cognism, The State of Cold Calling in 2024 · 2024 · 55,000 direct dials and 10,000 cold calls by Cognism's sales team
Read with care: One company's sales team; date range not stated.
Research
Speed to lead
How quickly you call back a new lead changes whether you reach them at all.
Show the numbers
| Within an hour | 37% |
|---|---|
| 1 to 24 hours | 16% |
| More than 24 hours | 24% |
| Never | 23% |
Source: Harvard Business Review, The Short Life of Online Sales Leads
Research published in Harvard Business Review found that firms that tried to contact online leads within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead as those that tried even an hour later, and more than 60 times as likely as firms that waited 24 hours or longer.
Harvard Business Review, The Short Life of Online Sales Leads · 2011-03 · 1.25 million sales leads received by 29 B2C and 13 B2B companies in the U.S.
Read with care: Published in March 2011, so the data is at least 15 years old. One of the three authors was CEO of InsideSales.com, a sales-software vendor. The comparison is within an hour vs. later; this study says nothing about a five-minute window.
The Lead Response Management study, led by Dr. James Oldroyd with InsideSales.com, found the odds of contacting a web lead dropped 100 times, and the odds of qualifying it 21 times, when the first call came at 30 minutes rather than 5.
InsideSales.com and Dr. James Oldroyd, The Lead Response Management Study · 2007-10-16 · More than 15,000 web-generated leads and more than 100,000 call attempts at six companies, three years of data
Read with care: Presented in October 2007, so the data is about 20 years old. Run with a dialer vendor on six companies' inbound web leads, not cold lists. These are changes in odds, not in the chance of reaching someone. Often misattributed to Harvard Business Review or to MIT alone. The link is a 2008 copy of the original study page; the publisher's current summary is at leadresponsemanagement.org.
The same Harvard Business Review research audited 2,241 U.S. companies with a web-generated test lead: 37% responded within an hour, 24% took more than 24 hours, 23% never responded, and the average response time among companies that replied within 30 days was 42 hours.
Harvard Business Review, The Short Life of Online Sales Leads · 2011-03 · 2,241 U.S. companies
Read with care: Published in March 2011; at least 15 years old.
The Lead Response Management study found the odds of contacting a web lead fell by more than 10 times within the first hour, and the odds of qualifying it by more than 6 times.
InsideSales.com and Dr. James Oldroyd, The Lead Response Management Study · 2007-10-16 · More than 15,000 web-generated leads and more than 100,000 call attempts at six companies, three years of data
Read with care: About 20 years old; inbound web leads at six companies; changes in odds, not in the chance of reaching someone. The study also reports that after 20 hours, additional dials hurt the chance of contacting and qualifying a lead.
Research
Dialing more than one line
What published sources say about multi-line dialing.
Orum's analysis of its cold-calling data found power dialing converted about 6.4% of connects into meetings vs. 3.8% for parallel dialing, while parallel dialing produced more meetings per hour at every seniority level (0.88 vs. 0.62 an hour when calling individual contributors).
Orum, When to power dial and when to parallel dial · 2025-09-11 · Orum platform data behind its State of Cold Calling report, which covers more than 1 billion dials
Read with care: Vendor data; Orum sells both modes. Power had the higher connect rate per dial at every seniority and longer conversations (Admin calls averaged about 9 to 11 minutes of talk time in power vs. 4 to 5 in parallel). Orum attributes parallel's lead in meetings per hour to roughly 2.5x the dial velocity, which depends on list size and quality.
FCC rules bar abandoning more than 3% of telemarketing calls answered by a live person, measured per campaign over 30 days, and count a call as abandoned if no live rep is connected within 2 seconds of the person's greeting.
Read with care: A legal limit, not a benchmark. The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule has a matching 3% safe harbor (16 CFR 310.4(b)(4)), and both require letting unanswered calls ring at least 15 seconds or four rings. Dialing several lines at once can create abandoned calls when more than one person answers. Whether these rules cover a particular B2B program is a question for counsel.
Method
How this report is made
Published research.Every third-party figure comes from the publisher's own study, report or page, linked beside it, with its sample, date and caveats. Where we could only find a figure quoted elsewhere, we say so. We leave out widely repeated statistics we couldn't trace to a source.
TopReach data. Outbound calls placed with the TopReach dialer, read from our production records, aggregated and anonymized. No workspace, person or phone number is identifiable. A number appears only when at least 5 different workspaces and 300 calls are behind it; smaller groups are left out. Numbers dialed 50 or more times are treated as test lines and excluded, as are calls the rep never took.
Definitions.A call is an outbound attempt to a lead. Answered means picked up by a person or a machine. A connect means a rep talked with a person. Talk time is a connected call's duration. A local caller ID means the caller ID's area code matched the lead's.
Cite it. TopReach Research, "Connect Rate Report 2026", https://gettopreach.com/research/connect-rate-report. For third-party figures, cite the original study. Corrections follow our editorial standards.
FAQ
About the report
Keep reading
- Calls per hour calculator Power vs parallel with your own numbers.
- Calling hours by state and province When it's legal to call, in the lead's time zone.
- Why calls show as spam The causes and the fixes.
- Local presence A number from each lead's area code.
- Power vs parallel dialer When to use each mode.
- Cold calling cadence How many attempts, and when to stop.
Talk to more people every hour.
Power and parallel dialing, local presence and follow-ups in one CRM, on the web and your phone.