How to Get More Out of Agent Assisted Dialing

As the person responsible for generating qualified B2B sales leads, you’re likely familiar with agent assisted dialing. What you may not know is that the data you feed into your sales dialing programs is far more important than how many dialed calls you make. The data you feed your dialing tools impacts how well your system can dial phone numbers.

If you aren’t familiar with agent assisted dialers, think of them as ways to bypass those pesky phone navigation systems during your outbound sales engagement. Human reps get in contact with a person, and not a machine. Agent assisted calls minimize interactions with gatekeepers as they put you in contact with potential customers directly or give you the opportunity to leave a sales voicemail. 

Learn the definition of sales engagement. Read this blog.

The problem with most agent assisted dialing programs is that sales reps are calling the wrong prospects in the first place. They have little (or no) information available about the people they are calling. When a prospect does not fit your target market profile or has limited interest in your service, you are throwing your time away.

Maximizing Agent Assisted Dialing

Yes. Agent assisted calls may save time, but you’ll be spinning in circles if you don’t have the right processes in place. Sales dialers accelerate an existing process. With bad data, it accelerates failure. With good data, it accelerates success.

To get the most out of agent assisted dialing, make sure you have these things in place:

Scrub Your Data

Eliminate bad numbers from your calling lists so sales reps are not spending time making calls with little or no chance of success. You also need to be careful about where you purchase calling lists. Sometimes by the time you get a list, the information is already outdated and you have wasted your money. Ensure you have the right data from the beginning to get the most out of your agent assisted dialing solution.

Consistent Messaging Across Sales and Marketing

Before you dial phone numbers, make sure you have calling scripts that match your company and product marketing message. Develop scripts that define and differentiate your brand. Insist that callers memorize the script. That means rehearsing it, and practicing the script with a manager before getting on the phone.

When you increase the number of conversations with qualified prospects, you want every prospect to hear a clear and consistent message. Otherwise, you’ll have multiple prospects with very different impressions about what services your organization provides.

Regular and Comprehensive Sales Training

As a sales manager or call center manager, it’s your responsibility to drive the sales training process. Regularly review email templates and scripts that are currently in use. Check in with your team to see what is and is not working. Refine and update your messaging as necessary.

Some sales dialing software provides advanced reports and call reporting. This shows you how well your sales reps are at connecting with decision makers and handling objections. Use tools like call recordings to review actual calls so you can give constructive feedback and address weak areas on your team. Provide focused training and role play typical situations to help callers improve their skills.

Before you put an agent assisted dialing tool in place, make sure you’ve trained your reps on how to guide a conversation that is more likely to lead to a conversion. Don’t forget to emphasize email follow up in your training! Your dialing software won’t help you if you schedule a meeting that never happens.

Sales Workflow

Even with assisted dialing software, your leads can go cold if you don’t open yourself up to other channels. Rely on call, email, video, text, and social media sequencing to build a complete experience for your prospect.

Create and implement a sales workflow so all leads are properly routed to the correct person and leads have a clear path to conversion. A good sales workflow allows you to keep in contact long after that first contact. It helps move your leads along in the pipeline so they’re more likely to close. Make sure you have a bulletproof system in place for follow up emails and automatic reminders for upcoming meetings. If you don’t have a process that makes it easier for you to close deals, rethink this process before you set up an agent-assisted dialer.

Final Thoughts

Continue to use other channels for lead generation and do not put all your eggs into the assisted dialing basket. Used properly, agent assisted dialing should augment, not replace, other lead development strategies.

Now that you know what to do once you have assisted dialing in place, reach out to our team at ConnectLeader to learn more about Team Dialer.