Fixing Low Answer Rates in Hubspot: A Step-by-Step Guide

Before we can fix anything, we have to know what’s actually wrong. Guesswork won’t cut it. We need to dig into the data, even if HubSpot’s reporting feels a bit limited sometimes.

First things first, let’s get a baseline. What’s your real answer rate? You can build a custom report in HubSpot to see how many calls get marked as "Connected" versus "No Answer" or "Busy."

But don’t stop there. A single number doesn’t tell the whole story. We need to break it down.

• Look at it by rep: Is one person on the team having a particularly rough time? Maybe they need a little extra coaching, or maybe they’re stuck with a bad list.
• Look at it by lead source: Is that new list you bought a total dud? Seeing a terrible answer rate from one source is a huge red flag.
• Look at it by campaign: Is a specific outreach effort falling flat? Maybe the messaging isn’t landing, or the timing is off.

And while you’re in there, look beyond just the answer rate. Check out the average call duration. If you’re seeing a ton of super-short calls, it could mean your reps are hitting bad numbers and hanging up fast, or they’re getting shot down the second someone says hello. A low answer rate combined with a low conversion rate for the calls that do connect? That’s a sign of a deeper problem—maybe bad data, a weak script, or just plain burnout.

Here’s the hard truth: today, the biggest thing standing between you and a prospect is their phone’s carrier. If your number shows up on their screen as "Spam Likely," it’s game over before it even starts. Getting your caller ID reputation right is non-negotiable.

So what’s with the "Spam Likely" flag?

It’s the carriers—Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile—using algorithms to protect people from robocalls. The problem is, their systems are on high alert, and sometimes, legitimate sales teams get caught in the net. The things that trigger these flags are exactly what a stressed-out sales team might do:

• Making a ton of calls from the same number in a short time.
• Getting very few pickups (which tells the carrier the calls are unwanted).
• Getting blocked or reported by prospects who are tired of being called.

Sound familiar? Here’s how to fight back and build a good reputation.

The irony is, the old way of thinking—just dial more, dial faster—is exactly what gets you flagged as spam now. You have to dial smarter.

You can’t have a good answer rate with bad data. It’s that simple. Every wrong number you dial, every contact who left their job six months ago—it’s not just a waste of your time. It’s actively hurting your caller ID reputation and burning your budget.

The numbers are kind of shocking. Sales reps waste over a full day every week just dealing with bad data. And that data is always going bad. People change jobs, get new numbers, and companies go under. The list you bought last year? It’s decaying at a rate of about 2% every single month.

So, it’s time for a little spring cleaning in your HubSpot CRM.

• Step 3.1: Merge the Duplicates. Nothing’s more embarrassing than having three different reps call the same person because their contact info is a mess. Use HubSpot’s duplicate management tool and merge those records.
• Step 3.2: Ditch the Hard Bounces and Unsubscribes. If you can’t email them and they don’t want to hear from you, why are they still on your call list? Create an active list in HubSpot for these contacts and, on a regular basis, just delete them. Be ruthless.
• Step 3.3: Put the Unengaged on Ice. Got a bunch of contacts who haven’t opened an email or visited your site in a year? They’re probably not going to buy. Create a list for them, maybe try one last re-engagement campaign, and then suppress them from your active calling lists.
• Step 3.4: Actually Check the Phone Numbers. This is the big one. Manually verifying every number is impossible. But you have to have a process to make sure the numbers are good. Data enrichment tools can help, and some providers even offer phone-verified mobile numbers that can be up to 87% accurate.

Cleaning your data isn’t just admin work. It’s protecting your ability to reach the people who actually want to talk to you.

Okay, your caller ID is clean and your data is solid. Now, let’s talk about when you call. Just dialing all day long is a recipe for burnout. A smart, data-backed plan will get you more conversations with less effort.

Finding Your "Golden Hours"

You’ve probably seen a dozen blog posts about the "best time to call." The truth is, it depends on who you’re calling. But there are some patterns that give us a great place to start.

• Mid-Week is Your Best Bet: Most studies agree that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are the sweet spot. Mondays are for catching up, and on Fridays, everyone’s already thinking about the weekend.
• The Late Morning Window (10 AM - 12 PM): This is a prime time. People have cleared their morning emails but haven’t checked out for lunch yet. They’re in a productive groove.
• The Late Afternoon Window (4 PM - 5 PM): This is the other hot spot. Decision-makers are often done with their meetings for the day and might actually have a minute to talk.

Persistence, but Make It Smart

You know you can’t give up after one or two tries. Most connections happen after at least six attempts. But that doesn’t mean calling someone six times in one day.

A call is so much more powerful when it’s not completely out of the blue. Warm them up first. Send a relevant email. Connect on LinkedIn. When they see your name on the caller ID, it’s not a cold call anymore. It’s a follow-up. And that makes all the difference.

You can have the best strategy in the world, but if your tools can’t keep up, you’re still going to be stuck. And let’s be real: while HubSpot's native calling features provide a convenient starting point, high-performing sales organizations quickly find out that they must graduate to a dedicated, deeply integrated sales engagement platform like Kixie to achieve their goals.

The Trouble with Native HubSpot Calling

As you grow, you’ll start to feel the pain points:

• You Run Out of Minutes: HubSpot plans have hard caps on calling minutes. For a team that’s serious about outbound, those limits disappear fast.
• There’s No Power Dialer: It’s all manual, click-to-call. One. Number. At. A. Time. The amount of time your reps waste listening to dial tones and voicemails is staggering.
• The Pro Tools are Missing: Things that should be standard—like one-click voicemail drop or automated local presence—just aren’t there.
• Your Hands are Tied on Reputation: Because the calls run through a third-party service (Twilio), you have very little direct control if your numbers get flagged.

How Kixie Gives HubSpot a Boost

This is where a dedicated sales engagement platform like Kixie comes in. It’s built to solve these exact problems and plugs right into HubSpot, turning it into a proper outbound machine.

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  It Actually Integrates:

  Kixie’s integration is deep. Every call, text, outcome, and recording logs automatically and natively in the HubSpot timeline. No more manual data entry. Your CRM stays the single source of truth.

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  The Multi-Line Power Dialer:

  This is the real productivity engine. A rep can dial up to 10 numbers at once. Kixie filters out all the busy signals and voicemails and only connects your rep when a real person answers. This can lead to over 300% more live conversations. It’s a total game-changer.

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  It Solves the Spam Problem:

  Kixie is built for this. ConnectionBoost handles the local presence dialing automatically, and the platform helps you manage and rotate your numbers to keep them clean.

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  You Can Automate Your Workflows:

  Kixie plugs into HubSpot Workflows. You can set up triggers to automatically start a call or send a text based on a lead’s behavior. It’s flawless follow-up without lifting a finger.

• ✓

  You Get Real Conversation Insights:

  Because of the native integration with HubSpot’s Conversation Intelligence (CI), every call is transcribed and analyzed. You can see what’s working in your scripts and what’s not, which is huge for coaching.

Getting a tool like Kixie isn’t just about making reps faster. It’s about making them more effective. The data in HubSpot gets better, the coaching gets smarter, and your whole sales process becomes more predictable. You stop guessing and start growing.