Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for outbound sales centres.
A checklist built from how outbound sales centres work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Campaigns, scripts and targets
- List batches and attempt limits
- Suppression and consent lists
- Call outcomes and callbacks
- Sales, appointments and client acceptance
- Caller targets and incentive slabs
- Shifts, attendance and floor view
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For campaign managers
- For callers
- For team leaders
- For quality listeners
- For client managers
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Records worked, reached and converted by batch
- Attempts per record and gaps between them
- Callbacks promised against callbacks made
- Sales accepted and rejected by reason
- Conversion by caller, team and campaign
- Incentive earned and clawed back by caller
- Suppression matches removed per batch
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- Dialler or telephony platform
- SMS
- WhatsApp or other messaging
- CRM
- Client delivery export
- Call recording storage
- Spreadsheet import
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Does it place the calls itself?
- How is a suppression list used?
- Can two teams share one list without calling the same person twice?
- What happens when the client rejects a sale?
- Can callers see their own incentive during the month?
- Can it book meetings for the client’s field team?
- Does it check calls for required wording?
- How do old lists come across?
- What does it cost?
- Is it needed for a dozen callers on one product?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- List batches lose their history
- Suppression lists are applied by hand
- Outcomes are counted differently by each team
- Incentives are worked out at month end
- Client rejections come back late
Prefer to talk it through? See the outbound sales centres page.