Cold calling report 2026: what 23.4 million dials show
Across 23.4 million outbound sales dials placed through Trellus between August 10 and November 8, 2026, a live person answered 10.3% and 5.4% became a conversation of 30 seconds or more. Answer rates fell through the day and barely changed by weekday. Parallel dialing produced more conversations per hour, and fewer answers that lasted.
At a glance
- Dials that reached a live person
- 10.3%
- Dials that became a 30-second conversation
- 5.4%
- Live answers that lasted 30 seconds
- 52.3%
- Average live portion of an answered call
- 75 s
Of 23,358,068 dials, 1.5% turned into a conversation of two minutes or more. About half of the people who answered were gone within 30 seconds.
Earlier in the day is better
On weekdays the share of dials answered by a live person fell almost every hour from morning to evening. A dial at 9 AM Eastern was 54% more likely to reach a person than one at 7 PM, and 87% more likely to become a 30-second conversation.
- Lasted 30 seconds or more
- Ended sooner
Numbers behind the chart
| Hour (Eastern) | Dials | Live answer | 30-second conversation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 AM | 393,751 | 12.2% | 6.7% |
| 9 AM | 1,179,105 | 12.0% | 6.7% |
| 10 AM | 1,902,004 | 11.5% | 6.3% |
| 11 AM | 2,305,130 | 11.0% | 6.0% |
| 12 PM | 2,334,802 | 10.5% | 5.6% |
| 1 PM | 2,545,727 | 10.0% | 5.2% |
| 2 PM | 2,705,385 | 10.1% | 5.2% |
| 3 PM | 2,750,283 | 10.0% | 5.1% |
| 4 PM | 2,496,078 | 9.8% | 5.0% |
| 5 PM | 1,687,999 | 9.4% | 4.6% |
| 6 PM | 947,620 | 8.5% | 4.0% |
| 7 PM | 496,401 | 7.8% | 3.6% |
| 8 PM | 201,406 | 7.5% | 3.3% |
Hours are Eastern time for calls to prospects across US time zones, so 9 AM here is earlier in the day for a prospect further west. The direction is clear; the exact hour is not a local-time finding.
The weekday barely matters
Monday through Thursday were within a tenth of a point of each other. Friday was slightly lower on both measures.
| Day (Eastern) | Dials | Live answer | 30-second conversation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 4,188,104 | 10.4% | 5.5% |
| Tuesday | 4,843,586 | 10.4% | 5.5% |
| Wednesday | 4,884,449 | 10.3% | 5.5% |
| Thursday | 4,801,610 | 10.3% | 5.4% |
| Friday | 4,086,713 | 10.1% | 5.2% |
Parallel dialing: more conversations per hour, fewer answers that last
A parallel dialer calls several numbers at once and connects the rep with whoever answers; a power dialer calls one at a time. Both halves of the result matter. On days when a caller used only parallel dialing, they had 7.9 conversations of 30 seconds or more per active hour, against 5.5 on single-line days: 42% more. But a parallel answer was less likely to last: 36% to 43% of live answers on parallel dials reached 30 seconds, against 64% on single-line dials.
Per active dialing hour
| Mode that day | Caller-days | Dials | Live answers | 30-second conversations | Median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single line only | 8,911 | 51 | 8.3 | 5.5 | 4.9 |
| Both in one day | 5,480 | 181 | 16.1 | 7.7 | 6.9 |
| Parallel only | 1,351 | 291 | 20.3 | 7.9 | 7.2 |
Per dial
| Lines dialed at once | Dials | Live answer | 30-second conversation | Live answers that lasted 30 seconds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 line | 7,654,079 | 15.9% | 10.2% | 64.4% |
| 2 lines | 4,241,500 | 8.7% | 3.8% | 43.4% |
| 3 lines | 4,640,756 | 7.5% | 3.0% | 40.7% |
| 4 lines | 1,323,038 | 6.9% | 2.7% | 39.4% |
| 5 lines | 5,498,695 | 7.0% | 2.5% | 36.4% |
Per dial, parallel rates are lower by design: when one line answers, the others are dropped, and teams use parallel dialing on larger, colder lists. That is why the per-hour table is the fairer comparison, and why it still is not proof of what a switch would do for a given team.
How this was counted
- Source. Trellus call records: outbound dials placed through Trellus telephony from August 10 to November 8, 2026 (13 full weeks), 23,358,068 dials. The dialing-mode comparison per hour uses October 26 to November 8, 2026.
- Live answer. Call analysis found a live portion on the call. Voicemail and unanswered calls are not live answers.
- Conversation. A live portion of 30 seconds or more, the same threshold the Call Data API documentation suggests.
- Active hour. Time between one caller's consecutive dials when the gap is 10 minutes or less. Caller-days with under half an active hour or under 20 dials are left out.
- Privacy. Counts only. No customer, team, rep or phone number appears in the data behind this page, and every figure covers hundreds of teams.
Limits
- These are calls made by Trellus customers, mostly US business-to-business sales teams. Other industries, countries and dialers will differ.
- Hours are Eastern time, not the prospect's local time.
- Weekends are under 3% of dials and come from different kinds of teams, so they are left out of the tables.
- Dialing mode is the setting on each dial. Lists, industries and reps differ between modes, so the comparison describes what happened, not what a change of mode would cause.
- A live answer of a few seconds can be a wrong number or an immediate hang-up. The 30-second line is a floor for a conversation, not a measure of a good one.
Cite this report
- According to Trellus data on 23.4 million outbound dials, 10.3% of cold call dials reach a live person and 5.4% become a conversation of 30 seconds or more.
- According to Trellus data, the live answer rate on weekday dials falls from 12.0% at 9 AM Eastern to 7.8% at 7 PM.
- According to Trellus data, 52.3% of answered cold calls last 30 seconds or more.
Source line: Trellus, "Cold calling report 2026: what 23.4 million dials show", November 11, 2026, https://www.trellus.ai/cold-calling-report
The tables on this page are also a file: download the counts as CSV. Its permanent address is https://www.trellus.ai/cold-calling-report.csv
Questions
What share of cold calls reach a live person?
In this data, 10.3% of outbound dials reached a live person and 5.4% became a conversation of 30 seconds or more. The figures cover 23.4 million dials placed through Trellus between August 10 and November 8, 2026. Voicemail and unanswered calls are not counted as live answers.
What is the best time of day to make cold calls?
Earlier was better. On weekdays the live answer rate fell from 12.0% of dials at 9 AM Eastern to 7.8% at 7 PM, and the conversation rate from 6.7% to 3.6%. Prospects were spread across US time zones, so this shows the direction rather than an exact local hour.
What is the best day of the week to cold call?
The day made little difference. Monday through Thursday each had a live answer rate between 10.3% and 10.4% of dials. Friday was slightly lower at 10.1%, and its conversation rate was 5.2% against 5.5% earlier in the week.
Does parallel dialing produce more conversations?
Per hour, yes: caller-days that used only parallel dialing had 7.9 conversations per active hour against 5.5 on single-line days. Per answer, no: 36% to 43% of live answers on parallel dials reached 30 seconds, against 64% on single-line dials. Teams also use the two modes on different lists.
How long does a cold call conversation last?
When a person answered, the live portion averaged 75 seconds. 52.3% of live answers lasted 30 seconds or more and 14.2% lasted two minutes or more, so roughly half of answered calls ended within the first half minute.
Trellus is a Chrome extension that adds power and parallel dialing inside the CRM a sales team already uses. Related: the best time to cold call, what a connect rate is, parallel and power dialing compared, why calls show "Spam Likely", and pricing.