What Are Sales Dialers? How They Work & Why You Need One Today

A sales dialer is one of the most important pieces of marketing automation that you can invest in for your company. While dialing a phone number may seem like a basic task, a sales dialer offers more than just the ability to place calls quickly.

From power dialing to predictive dialing, you can get through more calls per hour with a sales dialer than you can by placing calls manually.

In addition, some sales dialers offer pre-recorded voicemails and VoIP options, saving you time and money over traditional phone calls.

What is a sales dialer?

A sales dialer is a type of software that automates the process of making phone calls. They’re often a major feature of CRM platforms.

It is not the same thing as a robo-dialer, which is used to make automated phone calls and leave pre-recorded messages in bulk, often against FCC regulations.

A sales dialer simply makes the process more efficient for your human representative, who can speak with your prospect if they pick up and leave a voicemail if they don’t.

One benefit to using a sales dialer along with your CRM is that your sales rep will have access to your prospect’s call log and purchase history.

That makes it easy to rank customers based on their quality score, and leave notes on each customer’s profile with any updates.

How does a sales dialer work?

There are several different types of sales dialers, each of which is suited for a different type of sales campaign. The type of dialer you use will depend on how many calls your sales reps make in a day, and whether you are calling up warm or cold leads.

A modern sales dialer will use the latest technology to cut down on inefficiency and increase your team’s talk time with customers.

Whichever type of dialer you use, remember to use it with a CRM like OnCourse for the best conversion rate and to track the results of your sales campaign.

Preview Dialing

If you’re calling up warm leads for a high-value sales campaign, then a preview dialer may be the best fit for your team.

This type of dialer is best for complex calls because it gives the sales rep a preview of the customer’s call record and allows them to prepare for the call in advance.

Your sales rep can view the date and duration of previous calls, as well as any notes that were left by other sales reps.

This is a great tool for following up with customers who are already in your sales funnel and are expecting a callback to close the deal.

Simply hit the “call” button to initiate a call with the customer using the built-in dialer. Or, if the timing isn’t right, reschedule the call and move to the next contact.

Power Dialing

The next type of sales dialer is a power dialer, also known as a progressive dialer. This type of dialer is best for cold calling many leads back-to-back.

Use a progressive dialer when your sales rep is calling a customer for the first time, or doesn’t need to preview their call history and personal information.

The main benefit to a power dialer is speed: by allowing your team to focus on talk time, they’ll be less distracted by other tasks and less likely to make manual errors.

With this type of sales dialer, though, the sales rep doesn’t have a choice in whether or not to make a call. It simply places one call right after the other.

So it’s best to use this type of dialer when you have a long list of leads and a consistent sales script, and it doesn’t matter which individual rep calls which contact.

Predictive Dialing

The third type of sales dialer is a predictive dialer, which uses more complex technology to place many calls at once before handing off answered calls to a human sales rep.

This is a way to cut down on the amount of time that your sales reps spend dealing with answering machines and busy signals, which can still be an issue with power dialing.

Again, this is not the same as robocalling: with predictive dialing, you simply reduce the amount of time that your sales rep has to wait for a response. As soon as the customer picks up, an agent steps in to take the call.

You’ll need multiple sales reps on hand to ensure that a predictive dialer works properly. This is because the dialer “predicts” when an agent will be idle, and connects them with a new customer as soon as they complete the previous call.

If there aren’t enough sales reps available, then your customers will experience more abandoned calls and you may run afoul of cold-calling rules. When used properly, a predictive dialer can reduce the time between calls to as little as three seconds.

The downside to a predictive dialer is that the customer might hear an awkward pause after they say “Hello” while waiting for an agent to pick up.

And, if more than 3% of calls are dropped, you could face a fine from the FCC.

VoIP Calling

Another way that you can implement a sales dialer is to place VoIP calls, which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. This means that your calls are placed over the Internet -- just like a Skype call -- rather than over a traditional phone carrier.

Not only can this save you on phone costs, but it means that your sales reps can work from anywhere, and don’t have to be physically present in the office.

Sales dialers can place the call from a local number, making it look more familiar to your prospects and increasing the likelihood that it will be picked up.

Voicemails

Finally, sales dialers allow you to pre-record voicemails and choose which one you want to leave with a particular contact. Instead of wasting valuable time recording a voicemail for each unanswered call, simply leave one you’ve recorded ahead of time.

Your sales dialer will wait around and “listen” to the voicemail greeting for you, and then drop in your pre-recorded message at the appropriate time.

From bilingual voicemails, to a customized message for each stage of your sales funnel, take as much time as you need to record the perfect voicemail, then use it repeatedly to increase your chances of a call-back.

You need a sales dialer to grow your company.

Even with all of these benefits, is a sales dialer really necessary? You may be doing just fine without one, and aren’t sure whether you want to make any changes to your team.

But even the most experienced sales team is limited by the amount of talk time they have with customers, and by the manual labor that it takes to place a call.

A sales dialer makes it easier to grow your company by increasing the amount of leads that your sales reps can contact in a day, and reducing idle time and human error.

Plus, it can help with both cold leads and with high-value customers. Your reps can use predictive and power dialing to reach new leads at scale, while using preview dialing to follow up with existing leads that need a more personal touch.

Whether you’re trying to grow your customer base, or simply increase the number and frequency of purchases, a sales dialer can boost the productivity of your existing team, and allow new reps to learn the sales process more efficiently.

Finally, by using your sales dialer with a CRM, you’ll be compiling records of every call that you can use to improve your sales strategies and overall customer experience.

Here are some sales dialers you should be looking at.

As mentioned earlier, each type of dialer has its own uses, so you’ll want to choose the one that’s the best fit for your business. From predictive dialers to VoIP services, here are five of the best sales dialers to consider as you grow your business in 2020:

OnCourse

First, if you want to combine your sales dialer with other CRM technologies, OnCourse may be the way to go. OnCourse offers in-app calling built into the CRM, giving you all the benefits of a preview dialer with full customer profiles.

It allows you to call from your task list with one click, while showing you a clear history of every previous interaction, including SMS messages, emails, and call logs.

Plus, you can call from a local number to increase pickup rates, and set a forwarding number so you can easily answer call-backs on the go.

You can also record calls for quality review, transfer calls between team members, and create pre-recorded voicemails that you can leave when no one picks up.

In short, OnCourse is an efficient way to automate sales calls, while still giving your team plenty of ways to provide a human touch.

PhoneBurner

PhoneBurner is a power dialer that provides a cloud-based solution to your sales dialer needs. It’s great for remote teams, since it works over VoIP and can provide you with a dynamic LocalID, no matter where you’re calling from.

You can connect to the system through your browser or phone, while viewing your sales script and your contact’s time zone all on the same screen.

It also allows you to search and filter leads, giving you full control over which prospects to prioritize during each dial session.

Finally, you can record multiple voicemails to drop into your contact’s inbox if they don’t answer your call. Just choose which one is right for each contact, and then move on to your next call while PhoneBurner does the rest.

CrazyCall

CrazyCall is a power dialer that is also useful for incoming calls and international calls. It’s suitable for sales teams, support teams, e-commerce, and more.

You can start by scheduling your calls using the Auto Dialer function, and decide how many attempts you want to make before removing a contact from your queue.

If you do business with overseas customers, you can choose an international number for both outgoing and incoming calls.

CrazyCall also has a widget that can be set up to appear on a page of your website, giving visitors the option of requesting or scheduling a call-back.

While CrazyCall doesn’t have a full suite of CRM tools, it can be integrated into your existing CRM software to keep track of all of your customer interactions.

Aircall

Aircall is another cloud-based platform that’s suitable for call centers and sales teams, and uses computer telephony integration (CTI) to connect with other software.

Use the Power Dialer to make sales calls, and set up an automated post-call workflow to streamline the steps your sales reps need to take after a call.

Aircall also has several coaching tools, including call monitoring and call whispering, that allow you to coach new sales reps and improve their call results.

You can also route calls based on a team member’s skills or language, and set up local numbers in over 100 countries, no matter where your team is located.

Five9

Five9 offers a suite of cloud contact tools, including several types of sales dialers. Switch between multiple dialing modes, including power and predictive dialing options.

Five9’s predictive algorithm takes time zones and other data into account to dial at the optimal rate for the number of agents you have on hand.

You can set your own call-to-agent ratio, or switch to the Preview Dialer to let your sales reps review each customer’s profile before making a call.

It also offers a Manual Touch Mode that’s fully compliant with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and can help you adhere to the FTC’s guidelines.

Choose the right dialer for your team.

While many sales dialers offer CRM integrations, being able to make in-app calls and review the results of your campaign in real-time is key to growing your business.

That’s why all-in-one CRM software like OnCourse may be more effective than using a stand-alone dialer. With built-in call features and in-depth reporting options, OnCourse can help your sales reps sell 500 times faster than they can on their own.

Request a demo from one of our representatives to learn more about how OnCourse can jumpstart your sales campaign!