How to Sell Direct Inward Dialing Services?
What is Direct Inward Dialing?
Providing Direct Inward Dialing (DID) services can be a lucrative business line for you as an IT or telecommunications provider. But, how do you convince your clients DID can benefit them? Learning the basics first will definitely help.
According to Cisco: “DID is a service offered by telephone companies that enables callers to dial directly to an extension on a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) or packet voice system without the assistance of an operator or automated call attendant. This service makes use of DID trunks, which forward only the last three to five digits of a phone number to the PBX or router/gateway.”
In other words, Direct Inward Dialing is a method to direct calls that do not require an operator. With this modality, your client would only need to invest in one phone line but could still have multiple direct numbers routed to specific people or voicemails in the organization.
Let’s break it down in this example:
- “ABC Company” needs to add direct lines going straight to a salesperson and a customer service representative.
- These lines need to work in addition to the general 800 number, but “ABC” does not want to spend the extra cost of buying multiple new lines.
- DID would solve this challenge by allowing them to purchase a single phone line and a few other phone numbers to be directed through that line and reach the desired people in the organization.
This brief scenario may help you explain to any customer asking, “What is a DID?” or even “What is a DID number?” However, there is more information to explore in order to convey all the advantages Direct Inward Dialing can have for any business.
Related: How to Make Money as a SIP Provider
How does Direct Inward Dialing Work?
Particularly those customers without an IT or telecom background will need a comprehensive explanation of how Direct Inward Dialing works. If you sense that providing a little more detail will help you seal the deal, make sure you keep your description concise and straightforward.
In general, your customers will be more inclined to invest in DID phones with the following arguments:
- Your company provides trunks and associates phone numbers with these trunks. Trunks are pathways that can handle many calls at the same time. The customer purchases a set of phone numbers, say from 567-1000 through 567-1234, and the telecom directs those phone numbers through the company’s one or many trunks.
- The call comes into the PBX and then routes the call to the desired location. Instead of a receptionist answering calls coming in to the general phone number, once the call comes into the PBX, DID automatically directs it to the intended recipient, but without the hassle and costly expense of multiple phone lines.
To make things easier, here’s another example of what is a Direct Inward Dialing at work from Techopedia:
- A given company has eight trunk lines (or physical lines).
- It additionally rented 100 phone numbers.
- Since it has eight trunk lines, it can accommodate a maximum of eight calls at once, and all other callers will receive a busy signal.
- The exceeding callers can wait in line until the call is disconnected or leave a message. Both scenarios may cause low customer satisfaction levels and could increase the chances of a claim.
- If the company uses a DID phone, it can automatically divert the call to the necessary operator or workstation instead.
Hopefully, you now have more information helping you confidently answer “what is a DID number?” with a simple way to explain its functionalities.
Related: What to Look For in a SIP Reseller Platform
What Are the Benefits of DID?
Direct Inward Dialing provides your customers with several benefits, saving them money and time in the long run and enabling a smoother experience for their customers. Let’s review them in detail.
Caller Goes Directly to the Intended Recipient
When customers call trying to contact the customer service desk or sales, instead of being sent through a receptionist or a complicated phone menu at the beginning of their call, they can reach the person they wish to speak with directly, saving time and frustration on their part. An Operator is not Always Necessary
Companies may still require an operator in some instances, but for the most part, an employee whose main job is to direct calls becomes redundant when the system can perform the same tasks.
No Need for Multiple Phone Lines for Each Recipient
Direct Inward Dialing offers the flexibility of direct phone numbers for each department or employee in the organization if necessary without the expense of purchasing multiple phone lines. This is a significantly strong selling point.
Instant Gratification
A dedicated phone number will let your customer’s clients and stakeholders contact them instantly and directly without the need to wait in line, get busy signals or be transferred around from one extension to the other.
Call Forwarding on the Road
A DID phone enables all remote or traveling employees to receive work calls on their mobile phones.
Marketing Campaign Tracking
Your customers could obtain Direct Inward Dialing phone numbers specifically for advertising or marketing purposes which will let them track those calls to see how well the campaigns performed.
SIP Trunk-Powered DID
Your customers may be interested in knowing Direct Inward Dialing with SIP trunks enable them to easily add blocks of numbers.
When implementing DID with SIP trunks, a DID phone number will allow the company to receive calls directly from anywhere: their VoIP, IP PBX or analog PBX extension. Companies will receive calls on any of their SIP trunk lines because the DID does not depend on a dedicated phone line.
SIP makes DID scalable, which means your customers can order as many as they need. You could offer:
- More Than One: If your client just needs a handful of numbers.
- More Than One Hundred: When your customer needs to buy large banks of phone numbers (anywhere from 10 to 100, for example)
- No More Than One Trunk Needed: Your customer only needs one SIP trunk. You could offer DID for the company to have the flexibility of direct phone lines for each person without investing excessively in buying multiple phone lines.
If you partnered with the best SIP provider, they could offer the ability for you to sell an inbound Direct Inward Dialing route to a primary and a secondary IP-PBX. If your customer is running dual PBX for redundancy, for instance, your partner could first attempt to deliver the inbound call to their primary PBX and, if it fails, send it to a secondary PBX.
Premium SIP trunk programs will also offer the ability to forward your client’s calls to a backup PSTN number in the event of a routing failure. They can seamlessly configure these in a user-friendly control panel.
Make sure you find the right SIP ally with outstanding system capabilities to make selling Direct Inward Dialing a breeze. SIPTRUNK’s program has the most reliable, high-performance network, plus powerful software tools to create a healthy, steady income for you and generate savings for your customers immediately. Get started today.
