The Dialer

Historically sales were done with a store front that customers could visit or by door to door vendors bringing their wares and services directly to their customers. Recently shifts in sales practices have led to the development of “Inside Sales”, a very different focus with very different tools.

Inside sales differ from traditional, or outside sales, in several ways. The clearest distinction is how customers are encountered. Inside sales are often conducted from an office or call center, through the use of a computer and telephone. Sometimes visits or appointments are set up for a face to face visit, but the phone becomes the primary tool of communication.

Numerous different kinds of hardware and software have been developed to aid in the process of inside sales. Dialers have emerged as a staple in the inside sales industry. Dialers, or dialer software, are programs that monitor, record, alter, and streamline the calls that are made by any single sales agent. Not all dialers are the same, but many fall into a few basic categories.

Predictive dialers are designed to give increased control and flexibility to sales teams to improve the amount of talk time each agent has over the course of a workday. A ratio dialer works by calling a set amount of leads per available sales agent. This call per agent ratio takes into account that some calls are never answered by the lead. Ratio dialers can leave a prerecorded message when they encounter a voice mail system, and never bother the sales agent with the machine. The salesperson’s time is spent only with prospects.

A second type of dialer is the auto dialer. With auto dialers, the dialer will call through a list of leads automatically, patching them through to the sales representative as the call starts to ring. If a call is not answered the salesperson can choose to leave a voice message. An auto dialer reduces the amount of dropped calls from unavailable representatives or pauses between when the client answers and when the sales person connects to the call that may occur with a ratio dialer.

Power dialers are a third kind of dialer used in inside sales. A Power dialer can call through a list of numbers, similar to an auto dialer, but a power dialer gives more control to the call agent. The agent is able to control the rate of calling, by calling the agent as it makes a call to a lead. The salesperson answers the call, which is then patched through to the lead. Power dialers also have the ability to leave voice messages, emails, and faxes if a call is not answered.

All dialers are designed to increase productivity of inside sales departments. They all require a preprogrammed list of leads, but each have their own nuances to allow dialers to meet the needs of the diverse inside sales community.