Struggling with low outbound connection rates? We explore how Upcell, Nooks, and Bowtie tackle the problem through data enrichment, infrastructure, and AI-driven targeting—plus expert advice on when to fix your SDR process instead.
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Connection rates are one of the metrics outbound sales teams obsess over, and understandably so.
You can have the best messaging, well-trained SDRs and a perfectly defined ICP, but if nobody answers the phone, none of it matters.
For our Tech Behind Connection Rates demo day with the SDR Leaders of EMEA community, we brought together three vendors attacking the problem from different directions: Upcell, Nooks and Salesbot, now Bowtie.
Here are the biggest takeaways.
Upcell's argument was simple: connection rate problems often start before an SDR ever presses call.
Most sales teams have accumulated multiple data providers. They might have Cognism, ZoomInfo or another database, alongside separate enrichment tools.
But owning multiple sources doesn't necessarily mean reps benefit from them.
Upcell demonstrated its approach to parallel enrichment, where multiple data providers can enrich a prospect simultaneously rather than relying on a single source or sequential waterfall.
The objective isn't simply finding a phone number. It's giving the rep multiple potential routes to the prospect and understanding which providers are actually delivering the best coverage and results.
One of the most important points from the demo was around the economics of enrichment. Running several providers simultaneously can cost more in credits than a traditional waterfall. But, as Upcell argued, the expensive resource isn't necessarily the few pence spent retrieving another number.
It's the SDR's time spent trying to prospect someone using incomplete or incorrect data.
Upcell also demonstrated prospecting infrastructure that can push enriched contacts directly into the CRM and engagement layer, reducing the amount of exporting, searching and switching between platforms required from the rep.
The lesson for sales leaders is straightforward: don't evaluate data providers purely on how many contacts they claim to have. Measure which providers actually produce usable numbers for your ICP, territories and team.
Nooks approached connection rates from the next stage of the process: once you've got the data, how effectively can you turn it into calls?
Nooks showed how reps can filter calling lists by mobile number, sequence, sequence stage, timezone and even previous pickup likelihood. It also demonstrated its number management, where calling numbers are monitored for spam status across carriers.
That last point matters.
The number you're calling from can have as much impact as the number you're calling.
If carriers are identifying your outbound numbers as spam, changing your script isn't going to fix the problem.
Nooks also demonstrated power and parallel dialling, including adaptive dialling, which adjusts the number of simultaneous calls according to the expected likelihood of prospects answering.
There's an important distinction here though. Parallel diallers increase dial volume dramatically. They don't automatically increase your underlying connection rate.
If a rep moves from 60 calls to 300 calls, they'll probably create more conversations because they've created more opportunities to connect. That's particularly valuable for teams with large addressable markets.
Nooks also showed what happens once somebody answers: account context on screen, live battlecards, conversation intelligence and coaching based on previous calls. That helps move the focus beyond simply creating connections towards creating better conversations.
Salesbot, which has since become Bowtie, attacked the problem from another direction.
Its argument was that most outbound teams are wasting activity because their targeting isn't sophisticated enough.
Traditional prospecting databases rely heavily on static filters: company size, industry, location and job title. But real ICPs are rarely that simple.
You might want a finance leader at a SaaS business with high transaction volume and low ACV. Or a security leader responsible for physical rather than IT security. Or companies actively building an outbound sales function.
Bowtie demonstrated using AI to translate those more nuanced descriptions into prospect searches and then qualify the resulting contacts.
One statistic from the presentation particularly stood out. Bowtie said that across the hand-curated prospect lists it had analysed, the percentage of contacts that were genuinely worth speaking to had never exceeded 40%.
That's potentially a huge amount of wasted activity.
Bowtie's approach is to qualify prospects before teams spend time and data credits enriching and contacting them. It can also expand searches beyond the obvious contacts surfaced by traditional database filters, potentially giving SDRs relevant prospects who aren't receiving the same volume of competitor outreach.
Taken together, the demos cover three different parts of the same outbound problem.
Bowtie improves who you target. Upcell improves the data you have on them. Nooks helps you efficiently turn that data into calls and conversations.
That's a useful way to think about connection rate technology. Rather than asking which single tool will improve connections, identify where the constraint actually sits in your process.
Be careful when you point to connection rate as the problem. Sometimes the headline metric hides the real constraint.
We recently worked with a customer who came to us saying their connection rates were too low. When we dug into the numbers, they actually had a 14% dial to connect rate, which was already very healthy. Though it dropped fast, because reps had no concept of follow up creation. They booked the prospect who answered, or they forgot about them and marked them "disqualified." So once you made one or two passes on the list, everyone else who may answer on dial 4 - 12, never got it.
It got more interesting when we looked further down the funnel. When their SDRs got somebody into a conversation lasting more than two minutes, 80% of those conversations converted into meetings.
So data wasn't the problem. Connections weren't really the problem either.
Their dial to conversation rate was only 11%. They were getting people to answer, but not consistently turning those connections into proper conversations.
They already had Clay. They already had Nooks. Adding another data provider or changing diallers wasn't going to solve it.
Instead, we worked on the SDR fundamentals: coaching their intros and permission based openers, improving confidence and mindset, and making CRM adjustments so follow ups were easier to see, track and commit to.
Once the calling behaviour improved, the technology started doing what it was supposed to do. Nooks became a powerhouse for the team because it was amplifying a better process and better callers.
That's why we look at connection rates as more than one number. If people aren't answering, investigate your data, numbers and dialler infrastructure. If people are answering but conversations aren't happening, that's a different problem.
Sometimes you don't need more connections. You need to get better at converting the connections you already have.
Written by James Donaldson
Founder @ Stakki
