Remember the days when phones didn’t have screens, just buttons? And they were attached to cords that were plugged into the wall? In those days, answer the phone was exciting, perhaps even thrilling. Even if you were expecting someone to call, you were never quite sure who was on the other end when the phone started ringing. That all changed when landlines got caller ID and when cell phones and smartphones became more widely owned. Now you could see who was calling and decide whether or not to answer the phone accordingly. Then that changed again as carriers started to monitor numbers and label them as possible spam or fraud on the recipient’s caller ID.

Today, there are plenty of people who will only answer a call if they recognize the number or have it saved in their contacts. But there are also a huge portion of people who will pick up the phone if it’s an unknown number, though only under specific circumstances. Understanding what these circumstances are and using that knowledge to your advantage can be the key to success in telemarketing.

While most people have the phone numbers of their family and friends (and maybe their favorite takeout place) saved in their phone, there are plenty of businesses with whom they regularly interact whose numbers are not in their address book. Places like doctor’s and dentist’s offices, autobody shops and schools regularly make calls to their clients or students’ parents, and often with important or time-sensitive information. Now, what is one thing all of these businesses have in common? They are all physically located in the same region (or even in the same city) as the person who frequents them, meaning they are likely going to have the same area code as that person.

All this to say, if you want a potential customer to answer a call from an unknown number, if that number has a local area code it is going to significantly increase the likelihood that they pick up. And once they do, your agent will have the opportunity to make their pitch.

How can you ensure that callers are going to see a local area code on their caller ID and that the number won’t be labeled as spam or fraud? If you’re using CallShaper’s dialer software, the solution is the new program Caller ID Auto Pilot, which will assign local phone numbers to your campaign and cycle out any numbers that have been flagged. To learn more about Caller ID Auto Pilot, contact CallShaper today.