What is an outbound call & how can RingCentral help you make them?

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Written by  Andy Watson
Senior Manager, Product Marketing
Reviewed by John Finch
VP, Product Marketing, AI Customer Experience
Updated: 20 August 2024
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Successful outbound calling is a powerful way to improve customer relations and grow your business. In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about managing an effective outbound call center team.

Outbound call meaning: What is outbound calling?

In a business context, outbound calls mean any calls your organization makes rather than receives. The term is usually applied to calls made by agents in a call or contact center, often for sales or lead generation purposes.

There are a range of reasons why agents or representatives of a business may make outbound calls. They include:

  • Telesales activities
  • Telemarketing sales services
  • Market research
  • Non-profit or charity fundraising
  • Appointment setting
  • Survey outreach
  • Customer notifications
  • Post-sale follow-ups
  • Collections.

Is outbound calling the same as “cold calling”?

Having read the definition of outbound calls, you may well be wondering if that means they’re the same as so-called “cold calls”. The answer is that all cold calls are outbound calls but not all outbound calls are cold calls.

Cold calling occurs when an agent reaches out to a list of prospective customers who haven’t previously expressed interest in a company’s product or services. It gets its name because contacts are not expecting the call. They aren’t “warmed up” to the idea of receiving a call from a caller, or the business or company they represent.

This type of calling is carried out to engage prospects in targeted conversations to generate interest in a product or service, close sales, or achieve other business goals. When done well, it is a cost-effective and efficient means for businesses to engage prospects one-on-one, and encourage them to move to the next stage in their buyer journey.

Businesses and their call or contact centers, however, will also often make outbound calls to prospects or leads who have been “warmed up”. As well as to existing customers or contacts for reasons other than sales or lead generation. So, cold calling is a sub-section of outbound calling rather than a synonym.

Inbound call meaning: Inbound vs. outbound calls

Often, the best way to get the fullest understanding of a concept is by also examining its opposite. So, let’s get into the counterpart of outbound calls; inbound calls.

An inbound call is initiated by someone outside of your business; often a customer or a prospect. You may or may not be expecting the call, and it could be made for a number of different reasons, including:

  • To place an order
  • To seek help with a product or service issue
  • To find the answer to a specific question or query
  • To get details on an upcoming delivery.

That’s why there’s a distinct difference between outbound and inbound call center operations—the purpose and form of the calls they handle are often completely distinct.

Now that we’ve got to the bottom of inbound call vs outbound call, just how can your business ensure it gets its outbound calling right?

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Tips to improve your outbound calling strategy

Outbound call centers can’t simply be set up and then left to fend for themselves. If your business is going to make effective outbound calls, they need to be underpinned by a solid strategy. 

The following are some tips and best practices to help you make the most of your call center outbound calls:

Outline your goals and KPIs

Every effective strategy needs to have well-defined goals and clearly outlined metrics to track progress towards achieving them.

Think about the reason for your outbound call. Is the objective of the call to set up an appointment with a prospect? Is it to sell a product or service? Or perhaps you want to encourage the prospect to take further action?

Goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) should be consistently tracked and updated as your business grows and evolves. Clearly defined goals and established KPIs will enable you to measure the outbound call success of your strategy, and inform any future improvements you can make.

Important KPIs  include:
  • Average handle time
Length of calls relative to the number of calls; long average handle time may indicate poor closing skills, insufficient prospect comprehension, or more general failings in outbound call management.
  • Conversion rate
Most often, this is defined as the number of sales vs the total number of outbound calls. However, a “conversion” isn’t always a sale. The purpose of some outbound calls is to schedule another meeting or otherwise warm up a lead. In any case, a higher conversion rate is better.
  • First call close rate
Number of closes that occur after the first call, relative to the number of calls made. This is an outbound calling metric specific to sales calls—i.e., those calls made with the definite purpose of completing a deal, there and then.
  • Occupancy rate
How much time sales reps spend calling vs not on calls. It’s important to try to keep this as high as possible. With the right outbound service or contact center solution, you can minimize the time reps spend on after call work (ACW), which helps to keep them on the phone.
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The script function of RingCX

2. Draft worthwhile call lists

It’s important to outline lists that are made up of qualified leads to ensure outbound agents are more likely to succeed in transforming potential customers into paying customers.
Researching prospects is an important part of any outbound calling strategy. When agents are aware of product needs, the prospect’s location, industry, and more, they will be armed with more information that can be used to inform calls and guide prospects towards a sale.
The proper tools, like a customer relationship management solution, can help agents to keep track of leads and target their calling efforts, and rank leads. 
What’s more, CRM software tracks and centralizes customer data which, when integrated with an outbound call center platform, can streamline proactive communication across teams and departments. RingCentral RingCX, for example, has native CRM integrations with many of the most popular platforms.

3. Engage the prospect

The first phone call an agent makes to a prospect is a defining moment in their future with your business—that is, if they have one. Agents need to be trained satisfactorily on the best communication practices for making cold calls, warm calls, survey calls, and whichever other types of outbound calls your contact center makes.

There’s a fine line drawn between engaging a prospect with valuable information, and bothering them when they don’t want to be bothered. To effectively engage prospects, agents should follow these general outbound calling steps:
  1. Pique their interest: Make a good first impression by using their name, using information about them to your benefit, and keeping the conversation about them.
  2. Make them feel valued: Do your homework and show them that they’re not just another name on your call list by mentioning something you know about their business or goals.
  3. Don’t waste their time: Be direct, showing them that you value their time.
  4. Set a follow-up appointment: End the call on a high and pave the way for continuing your journey with that client.
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A contact center agent on her laptop following the script function from RingCX

4. Use outbound call scripts or call flows to keep calls on track

Some kind of guidance or framework for outbound calls will help your reps to effectively engage with every prospect or lead. That’s what you’ll be giving them if you choose to use outbound calling scripts or call flows.

Scripts are useful for guiding agents, increasing their confidence levels, and keeping them on the right track. They provide answers to common questions and suggestions for overcoming objections. Calling scripts must be flexible, though, so that agents can lean on them when they are struggling, without following them in a way that sounds unnatural.

As many prospects and leads prefer the more natural feel of unscripted calls, using outbound call flows may be a better choice for your contact center.

Call flows are like less structured, more flexible scripts. The most effective examples give agents ideas to keep calls moving, the information and answers they need to do so, and potential responses to certain scenarios. All without any prescribed language that may feel robotic to a call’s recipient.

 5. Implement the right outbound call management software

Choosing the right outbound call management system will ensure that your agents, supervisors, and managers are best placed to fulfill the other tips for effective outbound calling.

The best software will offer tools for managing multiple campaigns simultaneously. They’ll include intelligent routing and dialing solutions, transfers and automatic call distributor tools, as well as CRM integrations.

Businesses operating call centers or outsourcing call center operations can optimize agent performance with robust and scalable call management software. These solutions improve agent efficiency and productivity by enabling them to proactively engage with leads and customers with personalized data.
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Benefits of the best outbound calling services

Choose the right outbound calling software, and your contact center can enjoy a raft of notable benefits, including:

Better lead generation and qualification

Effective outbound calls generate stronger, more authentic leads and help to qualify them through real-time, direct communication.

The right outbound calling services help you to achieve those kinds of outbound calls. Flexible auto dialer features better connect your reps to leads in the first place. Integration with your CRM can then put the information they need for successful calls at their fingertips.

Increased customer satisfaction and retention rates

In today’s digital world, the human element of meaningful conversation can get lost in interactions occurring through social media, SMS, email, and chatbots. Talking to a real-life representative can enhance the customer experience by personifying brands. Outbound calls, too, excel in showing proactiveness and responsiveness in addressing customer needs. Happy customers are much more likely to be repeat customers.

Significant cost savings

The costs associated with employing a call center sales team are much lower than employing mobile salespeople who are required to travel from client to client.
Outbound calls enable businesses to cross geographical borders, boosting their business globally.  What’s more, there’s less downtime between calls and increased daily reach.

The right outbound call center solutions for your business

Your choice of outbound call center software is key to the success of your business. There are plenty of alternatives, so how do you know which one is right for your business?

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RingCentral RingCX can help you enhance agent productivity and efficiency by streamlining operations and empowering teams with the tools they need to succeed. It’s scalable and integrates with the other platforms that are essential to your business activities. Here are just some of the outbound calling services and features you get:

  • Integrated CRMs: Enable agents to consolidate vital customer data and quickly access all the information they need to communicate effectively. With access to previous voicemails, call recordings, and previous interactions, agents get a 360-degree view of the prospect or customer’s journey so far. 
  • Automatic dialers: Streamline your outbound calling and make more connections with flexible dialing options. Choose from progressive, preview, predictive, and voice broadcast dialers depending on your business’ needs.
  • Reporting and analytics: Get real-time insights into agent performance and better understand the experience of your customers or leads.  Inform training sessions, improve performance quality, and make better, data-driven decisions.
  • Call recording and monitoring: Help managers to track agent performance and make suggestions during live calls (call whisper) or jump in where necessary (call barging)--all to ensure every call is a success.

Make every outbound call count with RingCentral RingCX. Get a demo today to learn how it can help your sales teams close more deals.

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 Outbound call FAQs

The difference between inbound and outbound calls lies in who makes them. Inbound calls are those made by individuals outside of your organization to you. Outbound calls are made by you to individuals outside of your organization.
There are many different reasons for making outbound calls. Many businesses use outbound calling for sales and lead generation. Sales reps call prospects with the hope of interesting them in their products or services. That may then lead to a further meeting or sales call, or could result in a sale, then and there.

Outbound calls are also often used to seek out and gather information. For example, in the case of market research or a business proactively looking for customer feedback. Speaking of proactivity, some companies also use outbound calling for customer service. In these cases, they reach out to the customers to inform them about potential problems, issues, or changes before they can cause trouble.
Choosing the right dialer depends on the goals of your business. Many of the best contact center solutions feature more than one kind of dialer, giving you the freedom to choose which one best suits your needs.

So, what are your options?
Preview dialers present information about a call to an agent so they can preview it, before the call. Progressive or power dialers call phone numbers one after the other for each of your agents—calls that don’t ring or aren’t answered are disconnected immediately. Predictive dialers make multiple calls at once and connect callers as soon as an agent is free—they use algorithms to set the calling cadence.
Manual dialers are also an option for businesses that have the time to dial contact numbers individually. A business that’s just starting out might not have enough data to require an automatic dialer. Equally, a large business that rarely makes outbound calls might find it easier to manually dial as needed. Whichever dialer you choose should be based on the scale of your business.