How to Run High-Converting B2B Sales Calls (With Stats)
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
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If your team is making more B2B sales calls than ever but pipeline quality isn’t great, your issue probably isn’t effort; it’s conversion. As a sales leader, you can have SDRs dialling frequently and dashboards full of supposedly positive numbers, but if you don’t have closed deals or revenue, you don’t have progress. So what’s the solution? Spoiler: it isn’t ‘make more calls’.
A high-converting B2B sales call is a structured, commercially focused conversation that moves a prospect to a defined next step, typically from connection to qualified meeting, using intent-led targeting, disciplined discovery and clear qualification criteria.
The ultimate goal for enterprise and mid-market businesses is to build a team of sellers who can achieve this without burning time or losing morale.
Having helped enterprise and mid-market revenue teams with SDR outsourcing and sales development for over 14 years, I’m about to share how we deliver high-converting B2B sales calls at durhamlane, including what we measure, what’s working for us, and how we think about structuring conversations so they generate commercial outcomes.
Focus on call output
When we look at B2B sales calls internally, we focus on output measures such as:
- Call connection rate
- Connection to positive conversation
- Positive conversation to confirmed meeting
- Time to first qualified meeting for new SDRs
Instead of counting dials alone, these metrics tell us whether calls are producing pipeline. As the saying goes, “What gets measured gets managed.” The challenge in sales is making sure you measure the right thing.
What defines a ‘high-converting’ B2B sales call?
Put simply, high-converting B2B sales calls move a prospect one deliberate step forward. They are meaningful conversations that elicit some form of buyer movement.
For us, call conversion means:
- A call connects.
- The prospect shows genuine interest.
- That interest turns into a confirmed meeting.
- That meeting qualifies into pipeline.
Year on year, we’ve made deliberate efforts to improve performance at each stage.
- Call connection rate has increased from around 7% to an average of 10% in mere months. We’re targeting 12–15% by year’s end.
- Connection to conversation rate is sitting at 25%, with a monthly peak this year of 29%.
- Positive conversation to meeting rate is currently 36%, with November peaking at 49%.
To give some context, industry average cold call-to-meeting rates are roughly 2.5%, with top performers achieving 5-8% conversion from dial to meeting. We’re sitting far above this benchmark.
Sales skills can’t fix poor data
Before we talk about call structure, we need to address data quality. If your data is weak, your conversion rate will suffer no matter how skilled your sales reps are.
One of the biggest drivers of our improved connection rate at durhamlane has been our use of a dedicated software for intent-led segmentation. In simple terms, we provide our data, the system categorises it into high intent, low intent and bad data, and we clean the list accordingly.
What we’ve seen:
- High-intent segments connect at 20–30%
- Low-intent segments connect at 3–7%
By removing bad data and prioritising high-intent prospects, we’ve lifted overall connection rates from 7% to 10%. The lesson here is straightforward. If you want stronger B2B sales calls, don’t settle for less than the best data quality and use leading sales technology to help you get there. Complex deals, role clarity may be limiting performance. External SDR support can help rebalance effort quickly while longer-term structural changes are planned.
Best days/times for B2B sales calls
‘Which days or times are best for making sales calls?’ has to be one of our most frequently asked questions. And of course, I’m going to answer with… it depends. Our data shows that days and times vary across accounts and depend on several factors, such as industry, seniority, and the territory we’re prospecting into.
However, as a general average for prospecting into complex environments, we have found that:
Best days for connections:
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
The average across those three days is 25% higher than connections on Monday and Friday. There is a lift midweek, but it’s marginal.
In terms of time of day, we generally see the strongest connection rates between 11am and 2pm, with connection rates around 11.8% during that window.
I don’t share these numbers as recommendations for your own sales calls, but to remind you that you should be looking at your own data and structuring call windows intentionally.
Structuring B2B sales calls
Once you have the right people on the phone, the structure of your conversation is critical. At durhamlane, we use a ‘Selling at a Higher Level’ methodology, which means keeping calls:
- Commercially focused
- Consultative
- Relevant to business priorities
- Clear about next steps
Time-poor buyers do not respond well to overly scripted or overly casual conversations. They respond to clarity and relevance, which is why we go to great lengths to fully understand your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) before starting activity.
The principles we follow
1. Open with relevance
We keep openings concise and tied to something commercially meaningful. Buyers should understand quickly why the conversation matters to them.
2. Hypothesis pitch
Through meaningful conversation, we want to pitch our hypothesis to diagnose a pain and then understand whether it’s a problem worth solving.
3. Align to business outcomes
Rather than discussing features, we explore what success looks like for the buyer and business. We stay commercially-focused, aligning with their preferred outcomes.
4. Define a clear next step
Every effective B2B sales call should end with an agreement on what happens next. Naturally, with B2B enterprise businesses, decisions involve multiple stakeholders and risk mitigation. Conversations and agreed next steps need to reflect that complexity.
How to start B2B sales calls
The first 20 seconds often determine whether a sales conversation progresses. What we’ve reinforced through coaching and AI-led role-play is that confidence is key. We focus on:
- Being direct
- Referencing a relevant commercial driver
- Avoiding filler language
- Earning the right to continue
To support our sales development reps, we use an AI-powered role-play solution that allows them to practice sales calls before going live. This has had a measurable impact on ramp time. Previously, it took around 45 days for a new SDR to generate a qualified meeting. Now, we average around 20–22 days.
In short, if you want a winning B2B sales team, you should be measuring time to output.
Making B2B sales calls feel consultative
A common concern among sales leaders is that calls either feel too transactional or too passive. Consultative selling means pairing curiosity with commercial outcomes.
In practice, that looks like:
- Exploring strategic initiatives
- Understanding financial impact
- Identifying urgency and decision pathways
- Linking potential solutions to measurable improvement
At the same time, we maintain that focus on progression because a call that ends with “send me some information” rarely converts and shouldn’t be classified as potential pipeline.
The importance of a qualification framework
One of the biggest mistakes in B2B sales calls is confusing interest with opportunity. A prospect may engage, ask questions and even agree to a follow-up call or meeting, but that doesn’t automatically mean there is commercial substance behind it.
At durhamlane, we use our Magic35 qualification framework to ensure consistency. Magic35 helps sellers assess whether an account represents a viable opportunity by focusing on the commercial fundamentals inside the call itself; the scale of the challenge, the organisational impact, the seriousness of intent and the realistic pathway to purchase.
This means we don’t progress calls simply because they were positive. Magic35 provides a consistent filter so that B2B sales calls generate opportunities with substance.
Over time, that discipline compounds. Conversion rates are more reliable, forecasting becomes more accurate, and sellers focus their energy where it has the highest probability of return.
Download our Magic35 Diagnostic Tool kit to learn the seven criteria for sales conversations with purpose.
Frequently asked questions about B2B sales calls
Which B2B sales call techniques work best for high-ticket SaaS or services?
Intent-led targeting, structured openings, business-focused discovery and clearly defined next steps consistently produce better outcomes in complex sales environments.
How do I start a B2B sales call so prospects stay engaged?
Open with relevance, keep it concise, and link the reason for the call to a genuine commercial priority.
How can I train my team to run better B2B sales calls?
Combine structured frameworks with AI-led role-play and manager coaching, and measure time to first qualified meeting.
What metrics matter most in B2B sales calls?
Connection rate, connection to conversation, positive conversation to meeting, qualified pipeline, and ramp time to revenue output.
What is a good connection rate for B2B sales calls?
Connection rates vary by industry and data quality. In our experience, general outbound data connects at 3–7%, while intent-qualified segments can reach 20–30%. Overall connection rates of 10%+ indicate strong targeting and data hygiene.
How do you shorten SDR ramp time in B2B sales?
Structured onboarding, AI-led call practice, clear qualification criteria and measuring time to first qualified meeting can significantly reduce ramp time.
Why do B2B sales calls fail?
Most B2B sales calls fail due to poor data quality, lack of structure, weak qualification discipline or an over-focus on activity rather than measurable progress.
How can I improve my B2B sales call process?
- Audit your conversion points: Measure connection rate, connection to conversation and positive conversation to meeting.
- Clean your data before activity: Segment by intent, remove bad data and prioritise quality over quantity.
- Analyse your best days and call windows: Use your own performance data to structure calling time intentionally.
- Standardise call structure across the team: Ensure every seller follows a commercially focused, repeatable framework for leading conversations.
- Coach openings and discovery: Use role-play, call reviews and practical feedback to improve the first seconds and the quality of qualification.
- Implement a clear qualification filter: Apply consistent qualification criteria, such as durhamlane’s Magic35, before progressing deals.
- Measure time to first qualified meeting: Track ramp time to revenue output.
B2B sales call benchmarks (durhamlane data)
- Call connection rate: Average 10% (target 12–15% by year-end 2026)
- High-intent data connection rate: 20–30%
- Low-intent data connection rate: 3–7%
- Connection to conversation: 25%
- Positive conversation to meeting: 36% (peak 49%)
- SDR ramp time: Reduced from 45 days to 20–22 days
A reminder: these are averages across our business and vary by seniority, industry and territory.
Bringing it all together: What to do next
The common thread through everything we’ve covered is simple: progress beats activity.
High-converting B2B sales calls don’t happen simply because teams dial more. They happen because leaders are measuring the right outputs, teams are targeting the right accounts, and meaningful conversations are matched with qualification frameworks.
We’ve shared some of what’s working for us this financial year, including improved connection rates through better intent data, stronger conversion from conversation to meeting, faster SDR ramp times, and consistent qualification through Magic35. All of this is the result of deliberate attention to the KPIs that generate revenue. We measure and adjust, constantly.
If your team is stretched, struggling with inconsistent sales performance, or finding it difficult to generate enough qualified opportunities from new accounts or existing customers, this is exactly where outsourced sales development can make a measurable difference.
We bring proven call frameworks, sales technology, and disciplined qualification, without you needing to build and manage the infrastructure internally. This means predictable pipeline and stronger revenue efficiency across both new business acquisition and customer expansion.
To explore how outsourced SDR can help, book a short call with our team. We’ll share what we’re seeing across similar industries and discuss whether we’re the right fit.
