Cold calling isn’t dead as some people try to state but it is even growing and remaining one of the most influential and effective tools for sales. When it comes to outbound sales, cold calling tools, such as cloud predictive dialer software, are generally considered the most effective tools among all available instruments, such as bulk email software or mass SMS mailings, because they allow us to reach out to customers in real-time mode, which boosts the chance of a successful sale or at least a chance of getting a qualified lead for further work.
But what about different types of auto dialers that are used for cold calling? Are they similarly effective or are they designed to serve diverse purposes?
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What are the main types of outbound calling software?
There are two classifications of auto dialers, one of them include three auto dialing mode, and another includes four dialing modes. So, the first classification defines Predictive, Power, and Preview dialing modes as the only available dialing modes, while the second classification system states that there is also a Progressive dialer.
Predictive dialing mode is the fastest one, with an average pace of calling of over 100 dials per hour with 75% of successful attempts.
Power dialing mode is a bit slower, with an average pace of calling of over 75 dials per hour with very different success rates which start from 50% to 75%.
Preview dialing mode performs over 50 dials per hour with a success rate similar to the Power dialer.
The progressive dialer is a kind of Power dialing mode with higher speed, because the Power dialer has a dialing ratio of 1:1, while the Progressive dialing mode has a calling ratio of 2:1 or 3:1. Dialing ratio means how many calling tries are done at the same time, so Power dialer calls one number at a time, while Progressive calls two or three phone numbers at the same time.
Why is the Predictive dialer the most popular dialing mode?
First of all, the Predictive dialing mode can be considered as the most intelligent auto dialer ever developed. Why is it so? First of all, Predictive dialing mode dials phone numbers with such an incredible speed because it permanently measures such vital outbound calling metrics as average call duration, agent availability, and agent idling time to find out when the agents will end their current conversations even when these conversations are still in progress. This means that Predictive dialing mode will start calling new contacts from the list even when agents are processing calls with previous clients, and the new call will be ready exactly at the moment when the prior call is over. With such a smart algorithm, the Predictive dialer provides average agent occupancy rates of over 80%, and in some cases even over 85%!
Other auto dialers start calling new leads only when the agent is free, which means that no ongoing calls are in process. This is the main reason why Predictive dialer provides the fastest dialing pace among other cold calling tools, and that’s also why it can provide much higher success rates of over 75%, while for other auto dialers connection rates may be lower, around 50%.
Predictive dialing mode, nonetheless, isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” solution. It is designed to process such tasks, as cold telemarketing, cold sales, lead generation, updating of old or outdated contact lists, or debt collection. For warm bases or for bases of current customers, there are Power and Progressive dialing modes which are more suitable for such tasks. That’s also the right answer for the question “what’s better – predictive vs progressive dialer?”. Why?
First of all, the Predictive dialer has more requirements for its configuration. It requires a few agents to work in an appropriate way, and poor configuration or wrong setting may cause such a negative consequence as a high percentage of dropped calls. To be honest, the Predictive dialer can’t cause too many dropped calls, but the reality is that in some jurisdictions, even 5% of dropped calls during telemarketing campaigns are illegal and can be sanctioned with a fine or even ban from telemarketing – this relates to the US legal regulations too.
This is why a Predictive dialer is a tool that has to be used wisely, with an absolute understanding of legal requirements and your current business needs and opportunities. Using a Predictive dialer with one agent involved may cause more harm than good.
Nonetheless, the Predictive dialer has some extra features that make it a universal solution for both experienced telemarketers and beginners.
These features include multiple campaign launching, which means you can run a few campaigns at the same time with different goals, and the only requirement is to have enough agents for this work.
Another feature is incorrect phone number identification which means that the system identifies such nonbinding phone numbers as busy rings, out-of-cellular-zone, answering machines, incorrect phone numbers, and so on. Calls to such numbers won’t be linked to agents, the system will ignore them and provide you with a report that will include phone numbers that are incorrect so you can update the lead base.
Flexible redialing rules are another great option – this feature allows you to redial unsuccessful calls automatically, in accordance with pre-set redialing rules. Thus, all unsuccessful calls that weren’t answered for any reason will be recalled as many times as needed with any chosen amplitude of time.
The final, but not the least important feature is powerful reporting and analysis tools that provide you with detailed information regarding every campaign you have launched. This means you will receive real-time dashboards with data about the overall number of calls performed, the percentage of successful and unsuccessful calls, average call duration, agent statuses (Ready, Not Ready, etc.), the percent of dropped calls, and many other metrics which will help you to analyze the performance of a campaign and make needed adjustments to improve the productivity. Thus, the Predictive dialer has all the needed features to make your outbound calling strategy successful and bring you new sales and new satisfied customers
