Helpful Summary
- Overview: We explain what AI dialers are, how they’re used, what they’re good (and not so good) for, and how you can find a great one.
- Why Listen to Us: We’ve helped hundreds of businesses adopt allbound strategies that get results.
- Why It Matters: An AI dialer may be a game changer for your business, increasing efficiency and productivity while also improving seller experience.
- Action Points: We suggest businesses assess their needs for call volume, personalization, and CRM integration, and then research and demo AI dialers to find the best fit.
- Further Research: Check out the ServiceBell blog for more insights into all things allbound.
Wondering About AI Dialers?
There are all kinds of auto-dialing tools out there.
We’ve covered parallel dialers and power dialers on the blog before—now it’s time to dive into AI dialers. They’re an increasingly popular option for businesses looking to streamline their outbound calling process and increase productivity.
In this ServiceBell guide, we’re giving you a comprehensive overview of this promising sales tool. We cover everything from the basics of AI dialers to their key features and benefits, as well as how to choose the right one for your business.
But first…
Why Listen To Us?
At ServiceBell, effective outreach is a core piece of our allbound platform.
We help businesses take a more holistic, data-driven approach to their sales and marketing efforts. That includes equipping them with the right tools, such as AI dialers, to improve their outbound calling strategy.
The bottom line? We know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to AI dialers.
Also, it's worth noting that "AI dialer" does not refer to AI calling - where AI is used to call real people. AI calling is illegal per the TCPA's recent extension of robocalling laws to apply to all AI-generated voices. An AI Dialer for sales does not use AI to speak on your behalf.
What Is an AI Dialer?
An AI dialer is an auto-dialing tool (like a parallel or power dialer). It’s able to automatically call a large list of phone numbers, saving you time and effort while increasing your call volume. But what sets an AI dialer apart is (surprise, surprise) the use of AI.
There’s no hard and fast rule about how these tools use AI. Instead, there are a few different ways an AI dialer might incorporate the technology.
Key Features of an AI Dialer
- Answering Machine Detection (AMD): AI is often used to detect whether a call has reached an answering machine or voicemail. For example, ServiceBell’s AI AMD allows our parallel dialer to connect answered calls to reps with a very high degree of accuracy.
- Intelligent Call Routing: AI is also often used for routing. AI dialers pull data from integrated CRMs (HubSpot and Salesforce in our case) and use this data to route calls to the most appropriate rep. This improves CX while boosting call success rates.
- Speech Recognition and Analysis: AI can also be used to analyze and transcribe call recordings. This is useful for training, updating contact information, and identifying potential sales opportunities.
- Parallel Dialing: The ability to dial multiple lines simultaneously, and use AMD (above) to determine whether the connect is with a human or a voicemail.
Since AI dialers aren’t technically an auto-dialing tool category, these AI features are often built into other systems to enhance their capabilities. For example, at ServiceBell, we use AI to enhance both our parallel and power dialing tools.
These offer additional features like:
- Sequential or bulk dialing
- Virtual salesfloor
- Call recording
- CRM integrations
- Live website monitoring
- Alerts for ICPs
- Analytics and monitoring
If you’re curious about how all of our features fit together into a seamless allbound sales acceleration platform, feel free to check out our product tour.
What Are the Benefits of an AI Dialer?
More Efficient (and Effective) Calls
The main benefit of using an AI dialer is that it results in more efficient and effective calls. All the AI features we covered above are designed to either:
- Speed up the process of making calls, or
- Improve the quality and effectiveness of those calls.
For example, only about 10% of cold calls lead to a successful connection—that means 90% of the time, sales reps are wasting their time. An AI dialer like ServiceBell with advanced AMD technology means you can skip over these unproductive calls and only connect with potential leads who are actually available to talk.
Reducing Operational Costs
Another benefit? A (potentially) major decrease in operational costs. With an AI dialer, sales reps can make more calls in less time. That means less downtime, less waiting, and more productive time spent actually talking to potential clients (and generating revenue).
Enhancing Seller Experience
By ensuring that sales reps are quickly connected with prospects, AI dialers enhance the seller experience. Your sales teams can move through their prospecting lists much more quickly, and determine whether the lists are a good fit. Then rerun the list in power dial mode if they want to progress through call tasks one-at-a-time.
Increased Revenue
By optimizing the timing and target of outbound calls, AI dialers improve the success rate of these communications, thereby helping businesses increase sales and conversions. This capability is essential for driving more sales, which is a primary goal for any business.
For example, Sila (a customer of ours) faced challenges in generating SQLs. Thanks to our allbound platform, they could engage prospects live on their website, and qualify leads faster with live calls.
This added over $1 million to their pipeline within four months.
How to Choose the Right AI Dialer
Understand Your Needs
Before considering options, clearly define what you need the AI dialer to do for your business. This could be regarding call volume, call handling capabilities, or additional features (such as call recording or reporting).
Your goal is to establish a baseline set of requirements. These will be the core features that your AI dialer must have to meet your business needs.
Integration Capabilities
Next up, you want to think about integrations. This can be very important for a dialing tool—you’ll want to easily access information from your CRM before and during calls, and you also want data from those calls (notes, details, outcomes, etc.) to sync back to your CRM.
And beyond CRMs, there may be other software or tools that your sales team relies on, like sales engagement platforms (email sequencing automation). Make a list of tools you use and see if you can find an AI dialer that meshes with all (or at least most).
For example, ServiceBell’s dialer offers integrations with popular tools, like:
- HubSpot
- Salesforce
- Apollo.io
- Outreach.io
- Salesloft
- Gong
- Slack
- Teams
- Clearbit
- 6Sense
Compliance and Security
Next, make sure the AI dialer adheres to legal regulations in your industry and region, like TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) in the US and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe.
It should also have robust security features to protect sensitive data.
Features and Scalability
Finally, consider the features and scalability of the AI dialer.
Look for advanced capabilities like predictive analytics, call recording, customizable reporting, and a virtual salesfloor for training and development. Make sure it can handle a high volume of calls and can easily scale as your business grows.
At ServiceBell, our AI dialer is just the beginning.
Our platform is packed full of features designed to give sales teams an edge, including on-site video chat, real-time visitor monitoring, co-browsing, routing, scheduling, sequencing, and more—all designed to connect into an end-to-end allbound system.
The possibilities are endless.
You can start by reaching out toICPs on high-intent pages for impromptu product demos. Or you can target specific accounts with personalized messaging and tailored content. Or you can enrich visitor data with your CRM and add them to your call list for the day.
Conclusion
AI dialers are a big step forward in sales engagement tech. They offer many benefits for businesses of all sizes. These dialers automate outgoing calls, boost efficiency, and make interactions more personal.
At ServiceBell, our AI dialer is a core piece of our allbound platform. It integrates seamlessly with popular CRM platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce, as well as with our other features and functionalities.
Contact us to book a demo and see ServiceBell in action.