What does a dialer do? How about a CRM?

What does an auto-dialer do? The short answer is that it increases sales. That is a tall order for any one business tool. That is why auto-dialers go hand-in-hand with CRMs (customer relationship managers). This pairing provides all the options needed to triple or quadruple sales.

An auto-dialer is a telephony software solution that lets a single telephone operator call through a large volume of phone numbers. What that means is that any particular sales agent can increase the amount of calls that they make during a regular business day. The more calls made the more sales are made. The auto-dialer pulls these numbers from the CRM, which stores contact information in a database.

The auto-dialer automatically routes calls through to the sales rep. Wasted time dialing and dialing wrong or busy numbers is eliminated by the use of an auto-dialer. In addition, an auto-dialer can be programmed to only call numbers in specific time zones or geographic locations at predetermined times of day or days of the week. This allows agents to call leads only during the most productive hours.

Auto-dialers also speed up the how much time a sales rep needs to spend following up on calls each day. One way it does this is by automatically capturing and recording information on each call. This can include the name, address, zip code, and call duration for each lead. In addition, comments about the result of the contact can easily be typed into the CRM to be retrieved the next time that customer is dealt with by the sales team.

Following up is quicker and easier by email messaging or fax messaging software solutions built in to many Customer Relationship Managers. When a sales rep makes a promise to email or fax additional information to the contact he or she can do so immediately with a click of the button from within the CRM. Additionally, email and fax templates can be saved in the system that sales reps can quickly select and send. Consenting contacts can also be added to email campaigns. This is where the Customer Relationship Manager automatically sends, at predetermined intervals, a selection of previously written emails to the lead. The CRM automatically personalizes the emails with the name or business of the lead. These email campaigns serve to help the lead be prepared, or nurtured, for a future conversion

The dialer and CRM both cut time and increase revenue in sales. They effectively get agents connected to leads, keep in contact with clients, and prepare leads that did not convert to become valuable customers in the future.

A Comparison of Telephone Dialers

A phone dialer is a type of telephony software that helps a single sales representative dial a large volume of leads. Because the phone dialer automatically calls through a predetermined list of contacts, the sales rep is able to stay on the phone longer and close more sales.

These dialers are also known as auto dialers or outbound dialers. These auto dialers will allow sales reps to reach thousands of prospective customers per day.

There are several types of telephone dialers, with the main kinds being ratio dialers, predictive dialers, and power dialers.

Ratio and predictive dialers both work to keep the sales reps on the phone every moment they are logged into a dialer initiative. Ratio dialers place numerous, simultaneous calls for each available sales representative. When one of these calls is answered the rest are dropped and the sales rep is transferred to that call. Predictive dialers usually call less people at a time, but start dialing leads before any sales representatives become available. This ensures that a lead will be waiting for each available sales rep, but when leads answer sales calls before any sales representatives are available, those leads are expected to wait on the line until a sales rep is routed in – they rarely do.

Dropped calls are a standard part of inside sales when using either a predictive or ratio dialer. Power dialers offer a solution to the problem of the dropped call.

A power dialer, in comparison to other dialers, focuses on quality interaction between the sales representative and their contact. This is achieved by having the power dialer place a call to only one lead at a time for each sales rep. The sales rep hears the phone rings, and can respond immediately when the call is answered. There is no “preferred drop rate” with a power dialer.

The power dialer is a technological improvement over manual dialing, increasing the number of calls made in a day by roughly 3 times. Power dialers are perfect for B2B communications, where secretaries need to be impressed by a sales rep before they connect him to their boss, and each individual sale is larger. In B2C sales, a power dialer stops the wasting of hundreds of leads a day because of the placement of too many calls.

All of these auto dialers can increase a sales representatives call per day ratio, but only a Power Dialer ensures that each call placed becomes a money making opportunity.

Lead Generation, Web Form Callback

Companies succeed best when they have a lead generation plan. Web form call back is a powerful CRM and power dialer feature that can easily help any lead generation campaign be even more successful.

Many remote sales companies purchase a large number of unqualified leads for their sales representatives to cold call. Cold calling is the practice making unsolicited calls to potential customers. These cold calls have a very low rate of success, but the list of unqualified leads is often the cheapest to purchase. Companies who exclusively cold call often fail to realize that the money saved by purchasing cheap leads rarely equals the cost in time and money spent on calling these leads.

Another common, but ultimately unproductive, system for gathering leads is to expect sales reps to find their own. Companies who engage in this kind of practice frequently find their sales reps spending upwards of forty percent of their day trying to find a person to call.

An effective marketing campaign designed to generate leads is by far the best method of lead generation. These leads are pre-qualified by the marketing process, and significantly more likely to convert into a sale. The most successful businesses target many different outlets in their lead generation campaigns: radio, television, newspapers, and the web. Such marketing campaigns produce both scalable and sustainable sources of new and qualified leads.

The internet serves as a powerful tool in gathering the leads generated through marketing campaigns. The internet is currently the fastest growing and least expensive source of leads for almost every business. Web form callback technology makes the creation of an effective lead generating website even more important.

Web form callback works like this: First, a web form is created a posted on the company website. Interested prospects fill out the web form. The information on the form, such as name, phone number, and email, is instantly captured and transferred to a CRM. The accompanying dialer then routes that newly created contact to a sales rep. The rep then places a call to that lead. Within minutes of submitting the form online the lead is contacted.

Web form callback technology not only produces leads that are interested in the company’s services, it enables the sales rep to contact that lead while the company is still top of mind. This lead generation strategy yields much higher returns than any campaign that focuses on mass amounts of unqualified leads or on sales reps solely responsible to find their own.

Regardless of type, and Auto Dialer is a needed Sales Tool

Auto dialers are powerful software tools used in inside sales. The purpose of an auto dialer is to give the sales representative the ability to dial more quality leads in a day as he or she could without the technology. Numerous companies provide auto dialer software for call centers and individual sales people to use in their work.

To operate, an auto dialer needs to be programmed with a list of phone numbers. If the sales company uses a CRM (customer relationship manager) this call list can be uploaded from the list of leads within the CRM database. As these numbers are called by the auto dialer the CRM displays for the sales rep all available information on the lead, including contact info and previous contact history. These numbers are routed to and answered by the best available sales rep. This greatly reduces the amount of time individual sales representatives spend looking up a leads’ contact information, manually dialing the phone numbers, and sitting through ring tones, busy signals, and answering machines.

Some auto dialer providers require their customers to purchase and host the auto dialer software on their own computer system. Others may require special hardware to be bought and installed to use their auto dialer system. These practices can drive up the cost of acquiring an auto dialer, significantly.

An alternative to this is a company that provides a hosted auto dialer. These hosted dialers require no on site software hosting, instead all of the necessary software and databases are housed on the host company's servers and accessed through the Internet. An online hosted auto dialer also requires less specific telephony hardware as some other auto dialer providers. Hosted auto dialers only require a telephone, a phone line, and a computer with Internet access.

Auto dialers are able to be integrated with other telephony software. A CRM can be used to upload and save data on the leads and customers dialed. Email and fax messaging solutions can be used to send important messages to contacts right from the dialer interface while the sales rep is still on the phone with the contact. Inbound-outbound call blending allows sales representatives who are using an auto dialer to also receive incoming business calls.

In addition to online auto dialers, there are several different forms of these telephone dialers, such as the power dialer that strategically dialers one lead per each available sales rep at a time. Regardless of the type of auto dialer, they are used for one purpose – make more calls and close more sales.

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Ken is one the bosses over at InsideSales.com. He's a great guy with a keen sense on what works and what doesn't when it comes to remote sales opperations. He has quite the resume, but I'll let Ken tell you all about it over at his own Blog. It will be worth the click to get access at all of the juicy knowledge Ken's been gathering over the year.

Ken's Blog:
Inside Sales Entrepreneur
http://www.kenkrogue.com/

Why do I need software to do telemarketing?

Businesses that practice remote sales need to use telemarketing software in order to be productive. Telemarketing is now used by many retail businesses, and these remote call centers should be organized, efficient, customer service oriented, and above all—profitable. Telemarketing software has been developed to help the growing number of businesses reach these goals. The use of telemarketing software provides a competitive edge in this market by allowing companies to get more done.

The auto dialer is a type of telemarketing software. Dialers call through a list of leads or contacts. In between calls the sales representative stays logged into the dialer system and the dialer continues to calls leads for him. This allows the dialer to immediately route new calls to the sales person. Over the course of a typical work day each sales agent is able to make more calls and spend more of their day selling. Compared to dialing manually sales agents are able to make as many as four times the amount of sales calls when using a dialer.

Contacts can be uploaded directly from a CRM and many dialers have the ability to integrate with the top CRMs. CRMs (customer relationship managers) also track all of the processes associated with remote sales. From the information screens within the CRM calls can be made instantly to contacts and clients. With this click-to-call technology a single mouse click will connect a sales agent to the specified contact.

Email messaging is an important feature available with telemarketing software. Remote sales professionals spend up to a third of their day following up on the calls they made that day. This involves sending emails with additional information on products or promotions. Email messaging technology cuts this time drastically by automating the process. Email templates are designed before the sales calls even take place and can be tested to see what email best achieves the desired action. When an email needs to be sent, it can be done during the actual phone call from within the CRM. By cutting out the time it takes to follow–up, sales agents can spend more time on the phone making calls and closing sales.

The investment in these software programs is worth it to any organization that expects to compete in the remote sales market.