The sales conversation has always bummed people out. A sales call has always been met with some prejudice. To top it off, 44% sales reps actually give up after just 1 follow-up.
Does this mean the death of cold calling?
No. In fact, cold calling is five to ten times more effective than email campaigns.
That being said, to achieve the ideal results your sales reps must keep dialing. However, sloppy dialers and the manual effort always wears out your agents, which in return impacts your cold call success rate.
To improve your cold calling success rate, you must explore the different types of dialers and see what aligns with your needs. In this blog, I will discuss various types of auto dialers and their functions.
Different Types of Dialers
There are a variety of dialers that can rescue your agents from the mundane task of manual dialing. They are differentiated by their capabilities, so let’s take a look at them:
Predictive Dialer:
A predictive dialer collects data and analyses average call answering time taken by agents. Based on this information, it will dial a list of numbers simultaneously until it is answered. Once a call is answered, it will automatically route it to an available agent.
To understand predictive dialer, it is important to understand what is pacing ratio. The pacing ratio is the no. of calls that the dialer dials out per agent. For example, in a1:3 pacing ratio the dialer will dial out 3 calls simultaneously for one agent.
In the case of predictive dialer, you can set the pacing ratio. However, the dialer detects the call abandon rate and adjusts the pacing ratio accordingly. So in these way the predictive dialer ensures that the maximum number of calls get dialed out and minimize the abandon rate by adjusting the pacing ratio automatically.
The predictive dialer can recognize answering machines, busy tones and even SITs (Special Information Tone). It will only transfer a call to an agent, if a live person is connected. This process is completely automated and does not burden the agent with any manual task. In fact, it allows the agent to use the spare time to speak with as many prospects as possible, improving their performance and success rate. This mode of dialer is extremely beneficial for high volume calling with a smaller workforce.
Progressive Dialer:
A progressive dialer is another automated dialing system that only dials through the contact list only when agents are in available state. In other words, it makes one call at a time for each agent with a pacing ratio of 1:1. The system maintains the pacing rate and does not adjusts it automatically with the abandon rate.
This dialer mode is specifically designed to boost agent efficiency and talk time, without risking a surge in abandonment rate. Therefore, it will only make calls when an agent is available to respond. This is beneficial for low volume but high value campaigns.
Preview Dialer:
Preview dialer is a click-to-call mode, where agents are given a preview of the contact’s information in a screen pop-up before they place the call. In this dialer, the agents have the liberty to review specific customer information to prepare themselves before placing the call. They can also choose to skip to the next contact, without dialing the previous one.
With a preview dialer, the agent has complete control on how he wants to conduct the cold calling process. This mode is relevant for low volume calling for high value clients.
Click-to-Call CRM Integration:
A compatible or flexible CRM can be integrated with a click-to-call feature which will allow agents to just click on the phone number on-screen to place the call. Such an outbound process is a bit slower than other auto-dialers, however, it is more robust.
In this feature, the agent will have complete access to all customer information on screen while the call is ongoing. This will boost your agent’s capabilities significantly as they can effectively sell or upsell.
Further, whatever information is collected from the call recording can be tagged into the CRM. The click-to-call feature will allow certain prompts to show-up on the agent’s screen to set disposition of the call or a follow-up call easily without much manual effort. For example, whether the customer is interested, what stage of the sales process is the prospect in, or when is a follow up call scheduled. With all this information within a single screen, will improve your agent’s productivity and with necessary CRM data while making a sales pitch.
How To Choose The Right Call Center Dialer?
With so many types of auto dialing options available, it is important to understand which one is best suited for your business. Every business is unique with different sets of resources. Let’s focus on some key factors that you must consider before investing in a dialer system.
What Kind Of Call Center Process Do You Need This Dialer For?
Understanding the reason for which you need a dialer is a crucial determining factor. The process will reveal what are your needs, and based on that you can choose the right dialer.
Some of the major processes are for which you might need a dialer are:
- Sales
- Upselling or Cross-selling
- Surveys
- Insurance Reminders/Debt Collection
If you are choosing for sales, then a predictive dialer will be extremely beneficial. However, if you are choosing to upsell or cross-sell, customer context will be very important for the agent. In such scenario, a click-to-call CRM integration will be beneficial.
Further, if you have a debt collection setup, then minimal customer information will be enough prior to placing the call. In this case, a preview dialer will be a perfect fit.
What Is The Strength Of Your Workforce?
The second important factor to choosing your dialer is knowing how many agents will be using this dialer for your calling process. Once you have a specific number for how many agents are required, you can determine the volume of calling that will take place. In case of high volume calling a predictive or progressive dialer will be an optimal choice. Whereas for low volume calling, a preview dialer is good enough.
A dialer is a much powerful tool than we give it credit for. For businesses that are lacking manpower for their process but requires high volume calling, can fill in this gap with a robust auto-dialing system. A predictive dialer can help by constantly calling through the list, and connecting only when a live human responds.
How Invested Are You On Your Lead Source?
Some businesses shed a lot of revenue to purchase or generate leads. If your business is one of them, then you cannot casually just call and let go of them. With so much at stake, these leads cannot be wasted. Instead, a thorough sales process must be in place to ensure maximum lead conversion rate. This means, the sales process will be longer than usual for a higher ROI. In such cases, the preview dialer or a click-to-call CRM integration will be a fine solution.
On the other hand, if your leads are being generated on-the-go at a bulk, then you can proceed with predictive dialer to segment them and proceed accordingly.
What Is Your Prospect Persona?
Your target consumer persona or value is crucial to determining what kind of a dialer should be used. Choosing the wrong kind of dialer can repel your target consumer and keep you out of business. To avoid such mishaps, you must evaluate your prospect persona.
In a B2B process, the sales journey is more intricate with much at stake. From moving past the gatekeeper, to having personalized conversations with your prospect, you need prior context and preparation before every call. In this case again, the preview dialer or a click-to-call integration seems to be the ideal choice.
In a B2C process, where the call volume is higher but with less at stake, you can proceed with a predictive dialer. It will also help you segment the dead leads from the active ones.
Conclusion
Auto-dialer systems are like the sustenance for any call center process. Without one, your agents cannot survive the high-paced environment of the call center. Choosing the right dialer will improve your agent’s talk time by 300%, which translates to a higher conversion rate.
