Did you know that it takes sales reps about 90 minutes of cold calling each day to book just one single appointment with a potential customer? This may not surprise you when you consider your own cold calling success rate.
What if you could book more appointments within that 90 minutes?
Powerful solutions like predictive dialing software can help you and your Sales team boost efficiency by allowing you to get through your lead list faster. The faster you move through the list, the less time it will take you to turn cold calls into hot prospects. Then you can move prospects through the sales funnel faster to seal the deal.
Allow us to explain and share how cloud contact center solutions can take you to the next level.
What is a Predictive Dialer?
A predictive dialer is an autodialer software that uses automation to connect agents with prospects and clients instantly. A predictive dialer uses algorithms to determine when an agent will be available based on factors like average wrap-up time. Predictive dialers can call multiple numbers at once to increase overall productivity by maximizing outreach.
How many times have you called a prospect only to be greeted by a dial tone or voicemail system? When that happens, It’s probably frustrating and feels like a waste of time. Predictive dialers eliminate this annoyance while maximizing talk time and productivity. Agents will speak to a real person rather than wasting time with voicemail machines.
How Does a Predictive Dialer Work?
Predictive dialers work by dialing multiple numbers at once. If there is a busy signal or if a call goes to voicemail, these dialers automatically dial the next number in the queue. When a call is connected and a prospect answers, the software connects the call with an available agent.
A predictive dialer is designed to help Sales teams connect with as many prospects and existing customers as possible. Like the name adequately suggests, predictive dialers intelligently predict when an agent will be available to take the next call.
The way predictive dialers operate will change over time as the overall flow of contact centers naturally also changes. This means that the system adapts to different parameters to accurately predict agent availability, ensuring that calls are connected in a timely manner with minimal agent downtime. These parameters may include:
- Abandonment rate - The maximum number of calls that are dropped or abandoned. If this percentage drops considerably, the system automatically adjusts to dial less intensively.
- Time-Out - How long you want the call to ring before dropping it and moving on to the next number in the call list.
- Time between calls - Minimum time the dialer has to wait before moving on to the next phone number on the database.
- Retries - The maximum amount of times the same contact is going to be called before moving on to the next number on the system.
Essential Predictive Dialing Features
While most predictive dialing software comes with features that can help Sales teams of all sizes, there are several features that should be essential considerations when seeking out the right provider.
1. Answering machine detection
Some predictive dialers can differentiate between a person actually answering a call vs. a voicemail system. If the dialer calls a number and detects a voicemail system, the call can be disconnected faster in order to move on to the next number in a contact list.
2. Call recording
Call recording is an essential feature for proper compliance as well as training purposes.
3. Compliance management
Auto dialing software must comply with proper compliance, opt-out procedures, the national Do Not Call registry and Do Not Call lists. Failing to comply to proper compliance procedures can be disastrous for businesses, resulting in legal issues and potential fines.
4. Integrations
It’s also important to ensure that predictive dialing software integrates with different tools that businesses use to streamline tasks and perform regular business activities. These could include CRM platforms, sales software, and more. Integrations can not only optimize business processes, but they can also provide a better customer experience.
Integrations allow you to easily keep client records up to date. By integrating predictive dialing software and CRM platforms; agents will have all the information they need about potential customers at their fingertips, including different contact points through social media, how many times a lead has been called, and more.
5. Call reporting and analytics
It’s also essential that your predictive dialing solution provides real-time call reporting and analytics. Not only is this feature important to help your system automatically adjust to different variables like those previously mentioned, but it also provides vital information that allow you to make data-driven decisions to contribute to overall business success.
How Does Predictive Dialer Software Boost Efficiency and Sales?
Predictive dialer software boosts efficiency and sales in many ways.
For one thing, predictive dialers eliminate manual processes that take up a lot of time like dialing numbers and logging calls in systems. Considering that the average sales rep spends about 18% of their time on administrative tasks, using innovative tools like predictive dialer software can go a long way towards helping Sales teams focus their time on revenue generating activities.
Predictive dialers also reduce downtime for agents. With less time idle between calls and waiting for clients to answer, agents will spend more time building relationships with prospects and existing customers.
What’s more, teams will spend more time actually on the phone with customers instead of a dial tone that leads nowhere.
Predictive Dialers Vs. Auto Dialing, Power Dialing, and Progressive Dialing
Predictive dialers, power dialers, and progressive dialers are all different types of auto dialers, which automatically dial telephone numbers from a contact list. Here are some of the key differences between different types of auto dialers.
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Predictive Dialers
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Power Dialers
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Progressive Dialers
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Agent Availability
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Predict when agents will be available and place calls based on average wrap-up time
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Detect an available agent and call the next contact on the list
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Must wait until the agent assigned to the specific client becomes available
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Connection
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Connect calls even if an agent is busy
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Connect calls only with available agents
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Ensure the assigned agent is available before connecting the call
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Ideal Call Volume
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Moderate to high
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High
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Low or moderate
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When choosing the right dialer for your business, it’s important to take your call volume and business goals into consideration.
Related: What is a Progressive Dialer and How Does it Work?
Using Predictive Dialers to Drive Business Success
Predictive dialers can help your Sales team make more calls in a shorter amount of time. And by connecting only with potential and existing customers instead of dial tones, you can increase the amount of meetings you book to go on to close more deals.
There are many more solutions you can use to boost and maximize Sales team efficiency, productivity, and overall success, all while improving your customer experience.
Learn more about net2phone’s business communication solutions for Sales teams today!
FAQs
When should you use predictive dialing?
You should use predictive dialing if you place a large amount of outbound calls. Contact center environments can greatly benefit from predictive dialing software to help optimize time management and reduce manual tasks.
How do I choose the right dialer for my business?
Choosing the right solution provider comes down to your overall business goals and features you’re looking for to optimize your business processes. With powerful tools like uContact from net2phone, you can get all the functionalities you need in one single business communications tool.
How much does a predictive dialer cost?
Predictive dialing software costs vary between different providers and features as well as the amount of users. This software can be included in contact center platforms to pack a powerful business communications punch.
Are predictive dialers legal?
Predictive dialers are legal as long as the system you use is reputable and adheres to proper compliance laws and regulations, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
Why get a cloud-hosted predictive dialer software?
Not only do cloud-hosted predictive dialer softwares offer the previously mentioned benefits like increased efficiency and sales, but they also often include various other features to help organizations boost business communications and build stronger customer relationships. net2phone’s solutions are designed to help you make the most of every interaction.
Learn more about our different plans and speak to an expert today.