Does Agent-Assisted Dialing Actually Accelerate Sales?

Outsourcing part of the sales development role to an agent-assisted dialing service may not be as advantageous as expected. Not all software and technology are a good fit for all businesses. It depends on the sales cycle and the type of product being sold. With claims of 125 dials and 7-10 conversations per rep per hour, it may seem like it accelerates sales. But at the end of the day, the cons may outweigh the benefits.

What is agent-assisted dialing?

Agent-assisted dialing, not to be confused with agent assist technology, is a combination of SaaS software and human intervention. The software dials numbers on a list. Human agents navigate phone trees and gatekeepers to connect with prospects. When prospects answer, agents transfer calls to sales reps who initiated the dialing. It’s a lot like spinning a roulette wheel – you don’t know which prospect you’re going to land on.

Do the math

The statistics might sound good but when you do the simple math, the average conversation works out to be 6-8 minutes long. That’s hardly long enough to do more than qualify a prospect. That doesn’t leave any time to have a decent conversation, ask more probing questions, or discover the prospect’s pain points. Are these short calls going to work for your sales team? If not, this may not be the right sales acceleration solution.

Lost learning opportunities

Internal reps never learn key elements of sales with these types of platforms. Skills like how to navigate phone trees, find the right person, get past gatekeepers, and most of all, pitch. If you don’t allow your sales team to practice, how do you expect them to improve?

Missed connections

Not only do reps miss out on learning experiences, they only have a split second to gain some context around who they’re about to speak with. Plus, when the call gets patched through, there’s usually some sort of pause or blip before they can engage with the prospect. This, doesn’t create a good customer experience, especially when it’s the first time that prospect is speaking to your company. And if the pause is long enough, it may even result in the prospect abandoning the call.

It’s expensive

Agent-assisted dialing involves human intervention that comes at a high price. Is this how you want to spend your profits?  Factor in call abandonment and potentially poor prospect experiences and it becomes even more expensive. If it won’t produce the type of results you’re expecting, it’s not a good investment.

Although the goal might be to increase rep productivity, this option does the opposite. If you’re looking for a better sales acceleration solution, consider RingDNA instead. It frees up reps to do what they do best in less time, with a better customer experience, and increased rep efficiency.