Connecta Reach: Stop Paying B2B Sales Agents to Wait on Hold

Connecta Reach is an AI caller that takes the waiting out of B2B calling. It works through phone menus, sits on hold, talks to receptionists and books callbacks, running up to three calls for each waiting agent. Your agents only pick up when the person you want is on the line, so the same conversations need fewer agents.

Where Does a B2B Sales Agent's Time Actually Go?

On a B2B calling list, most of an agent's time goes before the conversation starts. The number on the list is usually a switchboard (a company's main number), so the agent listens to it ring, works through a phone menu (an IVR, the "press 1 for sales" system), sits through hold music, explains themselves to a receptionist, and often finds out the person they wanted isn't in. Then they note it, and try again another day.

Decision-makers do take calls. In RAIN Group's research with B2B buyers, 82% said they accept meetings with sellers who reach out to them, and 69% had accepted a call from a new provider in the past year. The hard part is reaching them. Gong's analysis of more than 300 million cold calls found the average rep reaches a live prospect on just 5.4% of dials, and ZoomInfo puts the time to reach a decision-maker through a switchboard at 22 minutes for each successful connection. Much of that time is spent waiting, not selling.

Only the last row needs a salesperson. Reach takes the rest.

How Does Reach Save Agent Time?

Reach works inside your existing outbound campaigns. Your agents log in and wait in the campaign. Reach makes the calls, does everything before the conversation, and only brings an agent in when the contact is on the line. Each call goes like this:

1. It introduces itself honestly, as an AI calling on behalf of your company, using the caller name and company you set.
2. It works through phone menus. By default it heads for reception first, then the operator, then sales. If no option leads to a person, it records a dead end instead of guessing.
3. It waits on hold for up to the limit set on your campaign, then records the outcome and moves on.
4. It asks for your contact by name, taken from a column in your lead list. If that's empty it uses the lead's first and last name, and with no name at all it asks for the person in charge.
5. It hands the call to a person. Once your contact is on the line, Reach connects them to one of your waiting agents.
6. It books the follow-up. If the contact is out, Reach asks when is best to call back, books a callback in the dialler for that time, and records what it learned on the lead, so nobody has to remember to try again.

The result is that your agents' time goes on conversations with the people on your list, not on the phone system in front of them.

How Many Calls Can Reach Run per Agent?

Reach can work up to three calls at once for each waiting agent. The number is a campaign setting, from one to three. Most B2B calls spend their first few minutes in menus, queues and conversations with receptionists, so several can be in progress for every agent who is free.

When one of those calls reaches the contact, Reach connects it to the waiting agent and carries on with the others. They're still on hold, in menus or talking to reception, and by the time the agent finishes, the next contact may be on the line. Reach only starts new calls while an agent is waiting, so it doesn't build up calls nobody can take.

Sometimes two contacts come on the line together and only one agent is free. When that happens, Reach apologises, explains that nobody is free, and books a callback for a time that suits the contact. The line is never left silent. Reach records these calls as their own outcome, so you can see how often it happens.

Can Reach Reduce the Number of Agents You Need?

Yes, because it removes the waiting from each agent's day. You can use that time in two ways: handle the same number of conversations with fewer agents, or get more conversations from the team you already have. Either way, Reach doesn't replace your salespeople. It replaces the time they spend waiting.

To estimate the effect on your own team, time a sample of about 20 calls to business switchboards. For each one, note the minutes from dialling until the agent is speaking to the named contact (or gives up), and the minutes of actual conversation. The first figure is the time Reach takes off your agents. Count, too, how many calls end with the contact unavailable, because each of those becomes a callback Reach books instead of a repeat attempt.

Reach suits outbound teams whose lists are full of switchboards rather than direct lines, especially where the person you need is senior and protected by a front desk. That includes B2B energy brokers calling finance directors and business owners about renewals, commercial insurance and finance brokers, telecoms and IT resellers, and B2B service companies following up on enquiries.

How Does Reach Handle Gatekeepers and Call Screeners?

Reach handles a gatekeeper the way a good caller would: it asks for the person by name, says who it is and why it's calling in one sentence, and if the contact isn't available, asks when is a good time rather than whether it can call back. A gatekeeper is anyone who decides whether your call reaches the person you asked for, usually a receptionist or personal assistant, and a caller who is clear and polite is easier to put through than one who is vague.

Smartphone call screeners act as gatekeepers too. Since iOS 26, iPhone users can turn on Call Screening, which answers unknown numbers, asks the caller for their name and reason for calling, and shows the reply as text before the phone rings. Google's Call Screen on Pixel phones works in a similar way. Reach recognises a screener and gives its name, your company and the reason for the call, rather than staying silent. Our guide to must-have UK dialler features explains why screener handling matters, and many businesses are now replacing their own phone menus with conversational AI.

Reach never pretends to be a person. It says it's an AI at the start of every call, and your agent only joins once the person you asked for is on the line.

Is It Legal to Cold Call Businesses in the UK?

Yes. Under PECR you can make live marketing calls to a business number, as long as it isn't registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) or Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS) and the business hasn't told you to stop calling. Companies register with the CTPS, while sole traders and some partnerships register with the TPS, so the ICO advises screening B2B lists against both registers as well as your own do-not-call list. Our guide to TPS and CTPS screening covers this in more detail.

Reach is part of Connecta, Hostcomm's UK cloud dialler, so the controls on your other outbound campaigns still apply. TPS and CTPS screening is applied on the account, calling hours and days are set per campaign, and calls go out on valid UK caller ID over Hostcomm's UK carrier platform. That matters because Ofcom expects a presented number that is valid, dialable and able to take a return call, and a brief information message if a call is answered and no agent is free within two seconds.

The cost of getting this wrong has gone up. Since 5 February 2026, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 has raised the maximum PECR fine to £17.5 million or 4% of global turnover.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many calls can Reach make for each agent?

Up to three at once for each waiting agent, set per campaign. When one call reaches the contact, the agent takes it and Reach carries on with the others. Most teams start at one and increase it while watching how often a contact is reached with no agent free.

Does Reach replace my agents?

No. Reach handles the waiting, the phone menus and the receptionists, then connects the contact to one of your agents. The sales conversation is always with a person. What changes is how many agents you need for the same number of conversations.

Do AI callers have to say they're AI in the UK?

There's no UK law that specifically requires an AI caller to say it's an AI. Calls to people in the EU are different: Article 50 of the EU AI Act has required AI systems that talk to people to make that clear since 2 August 2026, according to the European Commission. Reach says it's an AI at the start of every UK call anyway, because people deserve to know who they're talking to.

What rules apply to B2B energy broker calls?

Energy broker calls follow the same PECR rules as other B2B marketing calls, including TPS and CTPS screening. Ofgem adds rules through suppliers. Since December 2022, suppliers can only work with brokers signed up to a qualifying dispute resolution scheme for microbusiness contracts, and for non-domestic contracts signed from 1 October 2024, broker fees must be shown in the contract's principal terms (Ofgem). In June 2026 Ofgem also opened a market review of brokers and other intermediaries. For the US rules, see our guide for US energy brokers.

Can we try Reach before using it on a live campaign?

Yes. Reach is in beta and Hostcomm switches it on per campaign. The simplest test is a small campaign at one call per agent that calls your own main number, so you can hear the whole route from the other end. You'll need a lead list with a column for the contact's name, the caller name, company and reason Reach should use, a callback number, and a hold limit.

If your agents spend more of their day waiting than talking, Reach is worth a test on your own lists. See how it fits with the rest of Connecta, or talk to our team about switching it on.

Written by Chris Key, founder of Hostcomm, which has provided UK telephony since 2004. Last updated 15 November 2026.