George H. W. Bush forever changed the world of telemarketing when he signed The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. The TCPA halted hundreds of thousands of nationwide auto-dialing attempts, and its effects continue to ripple into the dialing efforts of businesses today.
If you want to keep profits as high as possible, you must make sure that you waste as few leads as possible. Every abandoned call lowers your chance of contacting that prospect again. Think about the times you’ve received abandoned telemarketing calls; would you be likely to answer a call from that number still?
You also want to remain within TCPA compliance regulations. Ambulance chasers have the potential to put a dent into your profits if you repeatedly step outside of those guidelines. Rather than playing whack-a-mole with people who file small claims lawsuits, change your dialing tactics and avoid them entirely.
By incorporating preview dialing into your approach, you can easily remain within TCPA compliance while skyrocketing contact rates. What is the best way to involve preview dialing into your calling efforts?
Use a Predictive Dialer To Narrow Down Your List and Increase Contact Ratios
While a preview dialer keeps you entirely within compliance, it’s unreasonable to use it to dial through your entire list. It is time-consuming to dial numbers individually. Using a predictive dialer saves a significant amount of time, especially since most lists that have thousands of contacts on them.
It would help if you made your first contact attempt using a predictive dialer. You can set your abandonment rate, and the computer will do its best to align with the frequency you select. This feature keeps your agents from wasting time on disconnected numbers and no answers.
Once you narrow your list down using a predictive dialer, you have a list of more qualified leads remaining. You want to make sure that you do everything not to waste any of these leads; now it’s time to transfer over to a preview dialer.
Load Unanswered Calls Into the Preview Dialer
Once you narrow down your list of qualified prospects, you should create a new list and load it into a preview dialer. This step allows for a more intentional approach. Agents can select which leads to call and when to call them. Call prospects back at correct times rather than waiting for the dialer to attempt the call.
It also ensures none of your calls to qualified prospects end up abandoned. These leads are real people and carelessly discarding phone calls will frustrate them. They’re unlikely to answer another attempt, wasting both time and money.
Using a preview dialer gives you the best chance to connect with each prospect. Ever-increasing numbers of people avoid answering numbers they don’t know. Once you get a lead on the phone, you pass through one of the most challenging parts of the sales process.
Preview Dialing Keeps You in Compliance
Not only does preview dialing help you connect with leads, but you remain entirely in compliance with TCPA regulations. As long as you do not call those on the Federal Do Not Call list, your agents can freely dial with a preview dialer. Since there is no way to abandon a call when using a preview dialer, your abandonment rate remains at zero.
Although it’s more time consuming to use a preview dialer, the alignment with compliance regulations can make it worth it. It’s easier to use a preview dialer when you have a large team of agents. The more human resources you have, the quicker you can work through lists of qualified prospects. This method may not be as helpful for companies who only have a few representatives on the phone.
Still, even these smaller teams can narrow lists down to a manageable size before switching to a preview dialer for a targeted approach. Don’t eliminate preview dialing before at least attempting to incorporate it into your cadence; you may find it’s more effective than you imagined.
