Time to hit the phones! Phone calls with prospects allow you to create a meaningful connection between you and your potential customer while you increase their awareness of your product or service.
SalesLoft’s Dialer allows you to place calls efficiently directly from our platform and even on the go with SalesLoft Mobile.
Making a call is as simple as hitting the “Call” button in the dialer, having a conversation with the person on the other end, and hanging up. Still, there are additional tools within the dialer that can contribute to your overall efficiency.
In this article, you will learn how to place calls with the SalesLoft Dialer and the additional features the dialer offers, including:
- How the SalesLoft Dialer Works
- Access the Dialer
- Dialing in SalesLoft
- Phone Number Formatting
- Call Using Pass Through
- Call Using LocalDial
- Drop a Voicemail
How the SalesLoft Dialer Works
SalesLoft partners with Twilio, a cloud based communications platform, to provide our robust dialer. Twilio uses VoIP (Voice-over IP) to make calls. This means that any calls made occur over your network, so your calls will be completed from your computer and you no longer need to use your desk phone.
You have two options for making calls with the SalesLoft dialer:
- VoIP: Twilio dialer provider. Relies heavily on your network provider. You will need to set up QoS and follow Twilio's best practice guidelines.
- Pass through: Dialer method that allows the first “leg” of the call to use VoIP to call your cell or desk line (carrier provider). The second “leg” of the call will use your carrier provider (i.e. AT&T, Verizon). Since pass through uses your carrier provider, you don’t need to rely on VoIP/your network.
Whenever you make a call, we send the call info to Twilio. Then Twilio places the call based off of the information. Twilio uses your area to find the best server for you to connect to the person you are calling.
Once the call reaches the recipient, they will answer or ignore the call (you know, how calls go). If the recipient answers the call, this is where your network comes into play. Your network and Twilio work together for the duration of the call. This connection between your network and Twilio will be the primary factor behind call quality.
The more people on your network making calls or using the network, the more likely you will run into call quality issues. Imagine being surrounded by 500 people at a concert or stadium and everyone's on their cell phones. The network gets overloaded and won’t let you send messages, make calls, or post anything. This is the exact same thing that happens on a high traffic VoIP network.
If your team is experiencing dialer or network related issues, please check out our dialer troubleshooting guide.
Access the Dialer
When it's time to make your calls there are a few options to access the SalesLoft Dialer within the platform. To learn more about those options, check out the Access the Dialer within SalesLoft article.
Dialing in SalesLoft
Calling through SalesLoft is a lot like calling from your cellphone, but it takes place in a web browser.
To dial a number, use one of the following options:
Enter the phone number on the dial pad
Once the dialer is open, click the dial pad icon in the top right corner of the dialer to view the full dial pad. Now you can type the number from your keyboard OR use your mouse to click the phone number.
Once your call is done, hang up and log your call.
Use the dialer to search for a contact
Type in a Person’s name to search for their contact info within SalesLoft. Different search options with phone numbers will appear. Select the person you are looking for and their phone number will populate in the dialer. Hit Call.
Once your call is done, hang up and log your call.
Things to Note: The search for a contact function is only available from the dialer within the platform. In the Dialer Available Everywhere, use the Person tab to search for SalesLoft People.
Select an alternative phone number
If the Person has multiple phone numbers on their record and the user wants to auto-populate the dial pad with one of the other numbers, they can click on the dropdown arrow next to the current dial pad number and switch to a different one.
Once your call is done, hang up and log your call.
Use the dialer to search for an Account name
This will pull up a list of all the contacts within an organization. Scroll through the dropdown and pick the specific person you would like to call.
Once your call is done, hang up and log your call.
Phone Number Formatting
While phone numbers may be entered into the dialer in the US standard format, we recommend using E.164 phone number formatting to complete your calls.
I know what you're thinking, E.164 looks like a code, what does that even mean?
E.164 is the international telephone numbering plan that ensures each device has globally unique number. So, while our standard numbers look a little something like this: (404) 555-1234, the E.164 format adds a country code to help specify the number. If you are calling internationally, you definitely want to enter phone numbers using this format.
E.164 formatting for phone numbers follows this pattern (check out the parenthesis for an example):
- Plus sign (+)
- International Country Calling code (1 when calling countries in North America)
- Local Area code (404)
- Local Phone number (555-1234)
Dialing International Numbers
For international numbers, the standard number may require some reformatting. For example, if someone in the UK has the local number is 020 7183 8750, the E.164 format would be +442071838750. Here's how that number breaks down:
- Plus sign (+)
- International Country Calling code (44 when calling countries in United Kingdom)
- Local Area code (Countries may use an additional "0' in front of the subscriber number. With E.164 formatting, this '0' must usually be removed. For our example, the number will be "20".)
- Local Phone number (7183-8750)
What if you are dialing a number using an extension?
E.164 formatting indicates the use of:
[+] [country code] [subscriber number including area code];ext=XXX
However, the maximum digits in a true E.164 number is 15 digits, so the the extension will ultimately be ignored. Due to this, we recommend entering the extension in a second field.
In the Person Details Overview, you will find an Office Phone Number option, along with a separate Extension field. By adding the extension to this field, you will be able to field the extension number as you are dialing from the Person's Profile page. This will make it easy to punch in the number on the dial pad while calling.
Things to Note: The Phone Extension field is also an available field in your Field Configuration. This means a team admin can map the extension field to import that data directly into the field.
Call Using Pass Through
Pass through calls allow you to take your SalesLoft call from an a different phone, like your cell phone or desk line.
To learn more about using pass through from the SalesLoft Dialer, check out our Pass Through Calls article.
Call Using LocalDial
When you are calling a new prospect, using a local area code can encourage the prospect to answer the phone. LocalDial dials your calls from a phone number that contains the same area code you're calling into.
LocalDial must be enabled by an Admin before it can be used. For more information on enabling LocalDial, check out our full LocalDial article.
To use LocalDial in the dialer, follow the instructions below:
- Open the Dialer.
- In the top left corner of the dialer, select the LocalDial icon to Enable LocalDial.
- Complete your call.
Drop a Voicemail
Drop-in voicemail messages, or voicemail drop, allow you to pre-record the perfect voicemail message so you don’t have to waste valuable time reciting the same message over and over.
To learn more about recording your drop-in voicemail messages, check out our Drop-In Voicemail Recordings article
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.