Calling over the internet is nothing new. Systems like Skype became household names as early as the mid-2000s, and today web-based voice and video calling are favorite tools of even the most technophobic grandmothers the world over. On the commercial side of things, the simplicity, accessibility, and affordability of web-based calling have changed the face of telephone-based sales, thanks largely to one specific technology – the sales dialer, also known as the power dialer.

Sales dialers are software platforms designed to completely replace traditional hardwired phone systems in business settings. They provide all of the key features of legacy business phone systems – and many more – operated entirely over the cloud, requiring nothing but an internet connection and a microphone. Power dialers aren’t just built to enable calling; they’re built to supercharge it. Sales power dialers automate and enhance the calling process so much that the productivity and quality benefits they offer have made them mission-critical software for almost all modern phone sales operations.
 

How Does a Sales Dialer Work?

Sales dialers enable a sales agent to essentially log into a phone over the web, accessing the entire user interface on their computer screen, or in the case of certain mobile-enabled dialers, on a smartphone app. The only hardware involved is a headset, simplifying the system and eliminating the costs associated with desktop enterprise phone sets.

In stand-alone power dialers, the agent can import their daily call sheet or the calling details for each lead. The calling process is then performed over the web using a cloud-based voice-over-internet protocol or VoIP system. The agent can manually dial numbers using an on-screen keypad, or they can launch calls directly from their imported lead information or through a pre-populated calling list. In cases where the dialer is included in or linked to a customer resource management platform (CRM), the dialing capability may be extended directly into the CRM, enabling the agent to dial VoIP calls from directly within a lead’s customer profile. 

In addition to outbound calling capabilities, sales dialers also generally provide all of the inbound calling features necessary in any modern call center or business environment, including an interactive voice response (IVR) system, round-robin automatic call distribution, and more. 

Billing is done on a per-user or per-minute basis. Because calling over the internet requires no special infrastructure or hardware, both installation and monthly costs are generally significantly lower than a traditional enterprise phone system delivered over hardwired lines.

 

How a Sales Dialer Can Boost Sales

The features included in all good power dialers make them powerful phone sales tools, offering benefits covering everything from heightened efficiency to improved use of customer data to better training and beyond. The following represent just some of those benefits, but the full list of ways power dialers can help sales organizations is much longer. 

 

Sales Dialers Enable Agents to Reach More Customers

Locating a phone number on a list and manually dialing it can easily take five to ten seconds. That might not sound like much, but over a full day of calling, it really adds up. With a power dialer, tools like one-click and fully automatic dialing allow the same process to be performed in as little as a fraction of a second. That staggering increase in calling speed makes calling with a power dialer far more efficient than manual dialing. Add in features like one-click voicemail drop, which eliminates the need to wait for the beep, and agents can potentially save minutes on each call. The result is that in any given shift, an agent can dial far more numbers and, in turn, get in contact with far more prospects. In a game of percentages like telephone sales, increasing the number of contacts directly increases the number of closes, meaning increased revenue and higher commissions – a win for everyone involved. 

 

Sales Dialers Enable Agents to Improve Answer Rates

Calling from a hardwired line limits agents to making calls from their assigned number. That’s a problem when calling out-of-area or out-of-state prospects, because an unfamiliar area code popping up on call display is a direct ticket to the answering machine. Some power dialers, on the other hand, give agents the option to use local presence – a feature that allows agents to select their outgoing number from a pre-loaded list of organization-owned numbers. Agents can then choose the relevant number to match the geographical area they’re calling into, boosting answer rates by as much as 65%. 

 

Sales Dialers Enable Agents to Utilize Data More Effectively

Power dialers on their own don’t necessarily improve the sales process itself, but a power dialer connected to a customer resource management platform puts the full power of advanced customer data in an agent’s hands right while they’re on a call. Being able to both utilize and collect customer data while on a sales call enables agents to increase the speed and effectiveness of the sales process whenever multiple contacts are required, enables better call preparation, and, maybe most importantly of all, helps make the sales process feel more personal – an important factor when dealing with today’s promotion-weary customers. 

 

Sales Dialers Give Agents More Control

The advanced tools included with sales dialers also provide agents with more control over their calling workflows, both outbound and inbound. A good power dialer will allow agents to see the full details of whoever is calling directly on-screen, cherry-pick certain inbound calls in the hold queue based on preference or importance, schedule callbacks in a matter of a couple clicks, and forward certain calls to their personal phones on days they’ll be out of the office.

 

Sales Dialers Help Managers Get More from Agents

Perhaps one of the most underrated features of sales dialers is the role they play in management. Power dialers are highly useful management tools because they enable everything from decision making, to quality control, to training direction, and more. Managers can easily pull up analytics on agent performance, listen back to recordings of historical calls, and even listen-in live while agents are on the phone with prospects. The result is better planning, better quality control, better regulatory compliance, and better individual agent training plans. 

 

The benefits we’ve discussed above – just a partial list of everything dialers have to offer – make it clear that power dialer software a must-have for all modern sales organizations leaning heavily on the phone as a sales or prospecting tool. In today’s post-COVID world, that doesn’t just mean telemarketing companies; it means essentially all sales departments. 

A stand-alone power dialer represents a smart investment with the potential to more than pay for itself through its impact on revenue generation, but an even smarter investment is a power dialer that comes already built-in to a leading customer resource management tool. That’s CRMDialer, and the unique synthesis of CRM and full-featured dialer is the reason it’s the top choice in industries ranging from direct marketing to real estate to insurance to solar sales and beyond. 

To find out more about everything CRMDialer has to offer to your sales organization, reach out to a member of the team, or see the platform in action first-hand by starting your no-commitment free trial of CRMDialer today!