PhoneBurner’s 2022
Sales Calls Statistics Report

Live Conversations, Total Talk Time, and Voicemails Delivered Come Together as One

When a prospect answers a call from a PhoneBurner user, we quantify that as a live conversation. In 2021, our total live conversations increased to 17,191,051 conversations, a 41.23% increase from 2020. We also saw calls made per PhoneBurner user increase by 9.34% from 2019 to 2020, and by 22.02% from 2020 to 2021.

Total talk time refers to the aggregate number of minutes PhoneBurner users spend on live conversations placed through our power dialer software. From 2019 to 2020, we watched total talk time increase from 21,819,427 minutes to 23,383,105 minutes, a 7.17% increase year over year. Then, in 2021, total talk time skyrocketed to 34,915,216 minutes, a 49.32% increase from 2020.

If a call is made by a PhoneBurner user but is not answered, the user can easily send a voicemail with the click of a button. This accounts for total voicemails delivered, and it’s what we use to also calculate the rate of voicemails delivered on a per-call basis.

The total number of voicemails delivered increased year over year: 15,469,886 in 2019; 17,162,213 in 2020; and 24,463,839 in 2021. At the same time, we saw the rate of voicemails delivered per call slightly increase from 22% in 2019 to 23% in 2020, before dropping to 18% in 2021. That’s a good thing.

What do all these sales calls statistics tell us? It proves that the phone is not only the preferred method of communications for sales professionals and outbound teams, but it’s also a powerful tool for sales professionals who want to have more engaging conversations with their prospects. 

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PhoneBurner’s User Growth

On one hand, we can attribute the increases in all three sales calls statistics here to PhoneBurner’s user growth. It’s not surprising that live conversations and total talk time would increase with more teams using our power dialer software.

As our total talk time increased, the total talk time per PhoneBurner user increased year over year as well. From 2019 to 2020 it went up 7.97%, and from 2020 to 2021 it saw a 3.39% lift. This tells us that the demand for a power dialer software like PhoneBurner increased, and it’s being heavily used by those who purchase it.

At the same time, more calls made with PhoneBurner also nets more opportunities for calls that don’t get answered and go to voicemail. As such, the 42.55% increase in the total number of voicemails delivered from 2020 wasn’t surprising either.

But what about the rate of voicemails delivered per call? If the number of total voicemails delivered increased, why wouldn’t this call statistic also increase?

For a partial answer, look toward the increase in total live conversations and total talk time. If a higher number of PhoneBurner users were on the phone more often and actively talking with prospects, they wouldn’t need to send as many voicemails on a per-call basis.

In other words, PhoneBurner users sent fewer voicemails because they were having more conversations and spending more time on the phone with prospects. And while user growth is an important factor to consider here, it’s far from the most important.

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The Start of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The effects from the COVID-19 pandemic have made a lasting impact on the telephony industry. For many Americans, the pandemic officially began in March of 2020 as sweeping lockdowns were implemented.

This forced organizations to adopt digital-first or remote work solutions for their employees, which were thought to be temporary at the time. Now, almost three years later, many offices have decided they’ll never go back to work in a physical office again.

Others have opted for hybrid work environments with some team members in-office and others fully remote. As a result, we’ve seen countless sales jobs that were once in-person—like outside sales where reps met with prospects face to face—become fully digital.

Even outbound sales teams, who have historically used digital tools, doubled down on digital solutions in order to meet prospects on their turf. Over 75% of buyers prefer a digital-first approach.

Not only are sales teams looking for digital-first tools and processes that help them close more deals, but they’re also using these solutions more than they ever have in the past. Hence, we see an increase in total live conversations and total talk time.

What’s interesting to note though is the period from 2019 to 2020. In this time, we saw a slight decrease in the number of total live conversations on PhoneBurner, which is directly correlated to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Shifting Sales Priorities During the Pandemic

The world came to a grinding halt almost overnight, and with it so did “business as usual.” Where once sales leaders had focused purely on activities like cold calling and meeting quota, now they had the additional burden of managing distributed teams.

Further, sales leaders had to be hyper-aware of factors like employee physical wellbeing, mental health, and organizational stress. There was also a heavy emphasis on employee retention as workers began to pause and wonder, “Is it time to find a new job?”

At the onset of the pandemic, priorities radically shifted. And, as people realized the pandemic wasn’t temporary, priorities shifted again to find solutions that could help adapt long-term or permanently. All this could explain the dip we saw in total live conversations before the increase in total live conversations that followed.

Still, despite the disruption brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw an 8.52% increase in the total number of calls made with PhoneBurner year over year from 2019 to 2020. 

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Prospects Face Major Changes as Well

Even as sales teams re-oriented themselves in this new work environment, their prospects adapted at their own pace and possibly took longer. Hence, you get a disproportionate relationship between total calls made and total live conversations recorded for 2019 and 2020.

The shift in a prospect’s priorities also has an impact on total voicemails delivered, as they weren’t available to take calls at a similar rate to 2019. They had to navigate remote schooling for their children, deal with lockdown frustrations, and prioritize mental and physical health.

This could explain the increase in voicemails delivered, and the rate of voicemails delivered per call in 2020. Then, as everyone found stability in their respective pandemic work environments in 2021, call activity began to pick back up.

Again, we’re faced with a question around the rate of voicemails delivered per call. If the number of total voicemails delivered increased, why wouldn’t the rate of voicemails delivered per call increase as well?

One potential explanation is that prospects were able to answer significantly more calls in their remote work environments. They didn’t have to move between meeting rooms, commute, or deal with office distractions as much.

They might have also been more inclined to answer calls in order to “escape” the looming shadow of the pandemic or remote work environments. Human connection became a highly valued commodity.

This line of thinking is corroborated by our total talk time and total live conversation data sets as well—more prospects were picking up more calls and having longer conversations. As such, the rate of voicemails delivered per call decreases.

By 2021, the majority of sales leaders, sales teams, and prospects had fully adjusted to the pandemic. It may not have been pre-pandemic “business as usual,” but a definite rhythm re-emerged and we saw both total calls made with PhoneBurner and total live conversations increase.

The bottom line is that, as our sales calls statistics show, the sales organizations who purchase PhoneBurner are using it heavily, day after day. They’re not bolting it on as a quick fix and abandoning the platform soon after. 

If you’re interested to see how PhoneBurner can help your team, sign up for a free account today.

The Longer a Prospect Spends on the Phone, the More Opportunities You Have

Does the amount of time someone spends on the phone with your reps correlate to a guaranteed meeting booked or closed-won deal? Not necessarily.

However, if a prospect is spending more time on the phone with your reps, they’re interested in the conversation. And the longer a prospect stays on the phone, the more opportunity your sales reps have to move them further into the sales cycle.

In 2019, PhoneBurner users spent an average of 106 seconds on a call with a prospect. In 2020, it was 115 seconds, and the average PhoneBurner call in 2021 lasted for 122 seconds. That’s a 15.09% increase from 2019 to 2021.

If you follow cold call best practices from sales professionals like Greg Woodward and Ryan Reisert, the opening of a call is the most important. This is where your reps need to grab someone’s attention, hold it, and build rapport to keep moving forward with the conversation.

The fact that PhoneBurner users have longer conversations, on average, per live call is a testament to their sales prowess and operational efficiency. And the product we deliver to our users is always going to be optimized to ensure they have more engaging, live conversations. 

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COVID-19 Changed Sales Processes

There’s another layer to these data points regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2019 to 2021, we saw the average length of a live conversation on PhoneBurner increase by 16 seconds.

This can be partially attributed to the fact that companies had to adapt to fully remote work environments for the first time in their history. Plus, sales organizations looked for new and creative ways to get in touch with their prospects. Namely, they turned to the phone.

Cold calling and outbound communications were always cornerstones of a successful sales strategy, but the pandemic reinforced their importance and efficacy. Now, working from their home offices in a purely remote capacity, prospects may have been able to answer more calls, be more eager to speak with others, and build authentic human connections with your reps. 

In our eBook Outbound Sales: 10 Strategies to Close More Deals, we hear from five experts who all agree that having authentic conversations is one of the best ways to sell. It keeps the prospect engaged, helps book more meetings, and, ultimately, helps close more deals. It could also explain the increase in time spent on the phone. Authenticity is crucial, but it can’t be forced. You can, however, learn how to build an outbound strategy around authenticity by downloading our eBook.

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COVID-19 Changed B2B Sales Forever

The COVID-19 pandemic has also permanently changed B2B sales. What began as a quick pivot to accommodate a digital-first team out of necessity has now become an accepted, digital-only approach by many who may never return to an office environment. Further, 75% of buyers and sellers prefer this approach.

B2B decision-makers are more willing than ever to spend on products or services through remote human sales processes—aka, salespeople selling from their home offices. All told, 70% said they would purchase in excess of $50,000, 27% said they would purchase in excess of $500,000, and 15% would spend more than $1 million. Read our B2B sales blog post if you want to explore more detail around these figures.

Since these prospects are willing to pay serious cash and buy remotely or digitally, they’re potentially more likely to stay on the phone with your reps longer as well because they’re comfortable with this new trend. In fact, many of these prospects think remote selling is just as effective, if not more so, than in-person selling. 

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The Advent of STIR/SHAKEN and “Scam Likely” Flags

The final layer here revolves around the STIR/SHAKEN regulations implemented on June 30, 2021, to combat scammers and number-spoofing, and restore lost trust in phone communications. Along with those regulations were reputational analytics algorithms that the major carriers implemented in partnership with Hiya, TNS, and First Orion.

These algorithms are what monitor and flag calls as "Scam Likely.” While we can’t draw a flawless correlation between average time spent on a call and the new regulations, it’s possible that we see longer talk time as a result of everything mixing together.

Before, people used to pick up their phone when it rang, even if they didn’t recognize the number. If the call was spam, they would quickly hang up. Now, since more calls are being flagged as “Spam” or “Scam Likely,” people know when to pick up and when not to pick up. When they do pick up, they’re making a conscious choice to engage in a conversation with your reps. They’re more bought in from the start.

As a sales leader, your key to success is to do everything in your power to mitigate your risk of being flagged as “Spam” or “Scam Likely.” There’s no magic tactic that will guarantee you avoid these flags, but there are many things you can do to help mitigate your risk. Be sure to access our free checklist here to gain tactical insight on how to deal with "Spam" or "Scam Likely" flags.

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Aside from the action items in the checklist, one of the best things you can do to fight “Scam Likely” flags and improve live answer rates is to work with the right partner, like PhoneBurner. Trying to win this fight by yourself is beyond challenging.

Our team has deep relationships with Hiya, First Orion, and TNS, the companies who work with the major carriers on the reputational analytics algorithms that flag calls. If your numbers get flagged, PhoneBurner will directly engage with these companies to help you navigate the situation, so you can focus on what matters most—your work.

Potential Annual Buying Patterns Show Themselves

As our PhoneBurner platform trends show, there are certain times during the year when your calls have a higher likelihood of being answered. We see the highest potential in Q1 and Q2 before it slightly decreases into Q3 and Q4.

Quarterly trends vary widely by industry and B2C rganizations. However, the trends we see in these sales calls statistics suggest a pattern for how businesses, and some consumers, may approach buying throughout the year.

For example, the fact that prospects don’t answer as much in Q4 could be due to the fact that they’re slammed with the holiday rush and closing out the fiscal year.

At the same time, prospects might be more receptive to calls in Q1 because they’re starting the new year with a freshly approved budget. Here, they enter the research phase of their purchase cycle as they look for potential new products or services, and they answer more calls than they did in Q4.

When Q2 rolls around, prospects have conducted enough research to the point where they can confidently pull the trigger and make a purchase. They want to get on the phone with you and get the deal signed, which explains why they may answer more consistently with Q1 levels here.

However, things begin to change in Q3 as many prospects have likely made their purchases and are now focused on implementation of the new product or service. At the same time, there’s a seasonal slump that comes into play during the summer months with vacation. Not only that, budgets might be nearing full expenditure as prospects prepare for the year-end season.

The buying trends, as we see it, look like this: prospects research new products in Q1, make decisions and spend budget in Q2, wrap up sales discussions with your reps in Q3, and then wind down their purchases in Q4.

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Some Quarters Are Better Than Others, But Keep Calling Year-Round

Remember that prospects still answer the phone over the course of the entire year. We don’t want you to abandon calling your prospects just because you’re in Q4 as opposed to Q1.

You should call year-round, but always remain prepared for fluctuations from quarter to quarter. Maybe you can use our PhoneBurner platform data to optimize your calling strategy on a quarterly basis and reach out to prospects at times during the year when they could be more receptive to answering the phone.

What’s interesting is that this same quarterly trend remains constant across our 2019 and 2020 sales calls statistics as well. 

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Getting Granular: Optimize Your Strategies on a Monthly Level

We can also dig deeper beyond the quarterly cycle and explore these trends based on the specific month during the year. Our sales calls statistics here reinforce the narrative surrounding the quarterly buying cycle.

Going to this more granular, monthly level can enable you to further optimize your calling strategy and stack your efforts in specific months. For example, the new year starts strong in January and then slowly tapers off over the rest of the year.

Think through the ways you can adjust your team’s sales forecast and goal setting accordingly. Maybe you can give your team a bit more flexibility if they don’t hit their quota each month; holding tight to quarterly quotas instead of stressing about monthly quotas could make a huge difference where motivation, productivity, and results are concerned.

You could also investigate what it looks like to commit to larger quotas during the peak months when prospects may answer the phone more. Start the new year with a call-heavy outbound sales strategy in Q1 and keep the pressure on the phones in Q2.

Then, you could consider subtly re-allocating efforts in Q3 and Q4. For example, you might have reps spend a little more time self-prospecting high-priority, serious leads to engage with. To be clear, reps should still be calling, but maybe they don’t need to be calling at an elevated frequency during the slower months.

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STIR/SHAKEN Disrupted 2021

One last thing to note for the 2021 data is the impact of STIR/SHAKEN and the reputational analytics that determine whether or not a call gets flagged. In both 2019 and 2020, we noticed that the yearly trend followed suit with prospects answering the most calls in January before it slowly decreased over the rest of the year.

However, June is the important month to pay attention to—STIR/SHAKEN was implemented on June 30, 2021. In 2019 and 2020, the trends in prospects answering the phone remain relatively consistent from May through September.

When we get to 2021, it’s the first year in our three-year dataset where that trend shifts and drops at the end of June. That’s a quantifiable impact that stems directly from the implementation of STIR/SHAKEN and reputational analytics algorithms.

It’s important that we, as an industry, don’t gloss over the impact of these events. Now, more than ever, sales organizations have to work hard to ensure they’re in compliance with regulations to avoid being flagged as “Spam” or “Scam Likely.”

There’s no magic formula that guarantees your calls will never get these flags, but there’s a lot you can do to mitigate your risk. For example, you need to seriously assess the fitness and efficacy of your lead providers.

If your leads have outdated numbers and are made up of prospects who aren’t interested, your calls aren’t going to get answered. That, in turn, will alert the reputational analytics systems that your calls might be spam. 

Ensuring you have high-quality leads from a reputable vendor is a powerful way to mitigate your risk of “Scam Likely” or “Spam” flags. The end result with efforts like this is to improve live answer rates for your team, and there’s plenty of other tactics you can implement today to fight back.

Change Your Assumptions Around Sales Activity

Typically, you might think the last half of the month would have higher potential for calls being answered since sales teams are working to close out their months strong. These are the days when Sales Development Representatives and Account Executives often hit the phones hardest.

However, our PhoneBurner platform data shows that calls have a higher potential of being answered during the first half of the month rather than the second half of the month. It’s crucial to note that the change is exaggerated in the graph above. In reality, it’s a small change.

Despite that, there’s something here that correlates to a salesperson’s personal calendar of activity. It could pay to get your calls in earlier in the month, so you don’t get caught in the noise of other sales reps desperately trying to hit their monthly numbers.

Reps can also optimize their workload so that, during the first half of the month, they’re spending more time calling over other activities like prospecting. In the second half of the month, that ratio could flip. That way, reps can focus on their calls during the times when it’s most impactful to get an answer and, thus, book more meetings, host more demos, and send more contracts. 

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Process Is Most Important

What’s interesting is that the change across the whole month is relatively small. To grasp the full insight, take a step back with us and walk through a quick thought experiment.

Let’s say you make 100 calls in a month, and 17 of them are answered. Now, by hitting the phones harder earlier in the month, you’re able to get 18 calls answered—one more than before.

That extra answered call could result in one more booked meeting, which ends up as a closed-won, which adds to your overall pipeline value. That could boost your key sales metrics for the month or quarter.

However, there’s an inverse line of thinking that says this isn’t a very dramatic increase, and one extra answered call isn't that big of a deal. It’s OK to have that thought, but if you do, then your focus needs to shift towards process.

There are many AI dialers, auto dialer software solutions, and predictive dialer software platforms out there that will be able to pin down the perfect week of the month, day of the week, and time of day to call. But if you’re only seeing one additional answered call come from that, what’s the real value those products offer?

Here, process becomes more important than anything. Maybe you build out automated workflows that increase your callbacks, rather than optimizing your schedule to call on Mondays or Tuesdays, or the first or second half of the month.

A power dialer software, like PhoneBurner, which has process-oriented tools outside of the power dialer software, can be a powerful solution for you and your team. These tools help optimize your time, but they also empower your reps to operate more efficiently and autonomously.

For example, your reps can drop pre-recorded voicemails with one click. Even if voicemails only get a 1% to 2% callback rate, you’re still looking at a net increase in potential number of live conversations. They can send SMS text messages just as easily.

If email is a preferred outbound method for your team, your reps can pair their calls with emails to further increase their callback rate. PhoneBurner’s email tracking functionality lets them know which prospects engage with their emails for hyper-targeted outreach. 

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How PhoneBurner Client On Q Financial Optimized Process

One of our clients, On Q Financial, chose to adopt a wide range of PhoneBurner features for their outbound reps, including Local Caller ID, voicemail drops, and workflow automation. Their management teams also made use of call recordings and reporting analytics.

Now, they’re making more calls and getting in touch with leads faster than ever before. But what’s most important is how the process has improved the quality of conversations they have. Prospects are answering and actively engaging in calls with their reps.

Creating a call cadence built on processes like this can pay major dividends when it comes to getting prospects on the phone and into your sales funnel. Remember that at the end of the day, no technology or strategy optimization can replace poor outbound tactics.

Focus on your process first, like On Q Financial. Train your reps properly, build strong cadences, and create engaging call scripts. Make sure your leads are sourced from a quality lead provider.

Not only can this help increase the quality and length of your conversations with prospects, but it can also help mitigate your risk of being flagged as “Scam Likely” or “Spam.” These are the areas where you have the most control, so do everything you can to equip your sales teams for success.

Tuesday Wins by a Slim Margin

Our sales calls statistics show that the day of the week with the highest potential to have your calls answered is Tuesday, but not by much. Both Monday and Wednesday are in a very close second place. In fact, all three days are almost tied with each other for best day of the week to cold call.

Thursday and Friday can’t be ignored either; your calls have a high potential of being answered by a prospect on both days. They rank just barely lower than Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

What’s really interesting is to look at the weekend. Your calls have decent potential of being answered on Saturday and Sunday as well. Now, that doesn’t mean you should be calling people on the weekends. Always remember your professional courtesy.

Sometimes, however, a business or industry does need to make calls on the weekends. In those instances, it’s reassuring to see that our PhoneBurner platform data shows people still pick up.

During the typical Monday through Friday work week, the bottom line remains that people answer the phone often and consistently. So, you should call prospects every day of the week. 

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Segment by Day and Reason for Calling

You can help your team optimize their calls for Monday through Wednesday, with a special focus on Tuesday calls if you want your best possible chance of getting a live answer. You may even segment your call activity based on the type of call being made.

For example, if you need to make calls that drive revenue and it’s imperative they be answered, you can prioritize them during the first three days of the week. Customer check-ins and other similar calls could be made during the back half of the week.

At PhoneBurner, we’ve worked with thousands of mortgage agents and designed a weekly call cadence in partnership with them that serves as a strong, real-world application of this example. Each day of the week is segmented with a specific target prospect and sales activity:

This process has helped mortgage agents build a more engaged pipeline, fast. If you’d like to see how PhoneBurner can help your sales organization, no matter what your industry or role, sign up for a free trial today.

Before we dive in, a quick note: all times on this graph are in CST. Further, our data here represents the time within an hour when your reps call. So, the 8 a.m. bracket consists of the time from 8 a.m. to 8:59 a.m.

Now, we hear two questions frequently. First, people ask, “Is cold calling dead?” Second, they ask, “What’s the best time to cold call?”

Our sales calls statistics can provide concrete answers to both of these questions. First, cold calling is not dead—it’s effective and quickly becoming the preferred outbound channel for sales organizations. Second, the single best time of day to cold call is from 10 a.m. to 10:59 a.m. CST.

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Going Beneath the Surface

The simplicity of these answers shouldn’t distract us from what’s beneath the surface and how it can help sales leaders optimize their team’s outbound sales and cold calling strategy.

For example, you may want to have your reps show up to work at 8 a.m. and start dialing right away. Others who see this data may want their reps to wait until 9 a.m. or 9:30 a.m. to start dialing. A lot of this depends on the time zone you’re calling from and how you like to run your team.

Maybe your reps could start their days with intensive prospecting work that equips them with relevant context around their targets before dialing. They could also get warmed up, review scripts, create email templates, or pre-record voicemails to drop during their call block.

Generally speaking though, your team has a high potential to get calls answered from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., before winding down at 4 p.m. That trend is expected, as prospects often spend time getting into their day before picking up the phone, and they don’t answer as they get ready to go home.

What’s interesting though is that right at 5 p.m. until 5:59 p.m., our data shows that prospects still pick up the phone. They even answer calls into the 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. hour brackets.

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An Opportunity to Shake Things Up

Should you call outside of normal business hours? You could, but always remember professional courtesy and try not to pester people.

Still, calls made later in the day might be well-suited for a quick 30 to 60-second conversation where your reps try to set meetings for bigger, longer conversations. In many ways, this could also act as a strong pattern interruption.

That is, most prospects expect to be called earlier in the day around 10 a.m. If they receive a call later in the day, they might pause and be more inclined to pick up because it’s counter to their expectations. 

If you’re looking for ways to coach your reps to embrace the phone, download our eBook Outbound Sales: 10 Strategies to Close More Deals. It’s filled with strategies, scripts, and templates from five masters of cold calling and outbound that can help.