An agent dialing by hand spends a lot of the day typing numbers, listening to rings and leaving voicemails. A power dialer takes that part over. You hang up, write your note, and the next call is already ringing.
Power, predictive or manual
| Mode | How it works | Suits |
|---|---|---|
Manual or click-to-call | You dial each number yourself | Referrals, past clients, a handful of calls a day |
Preview | Opens the lead, waits for you to press dial | Warm leads you want to read up on first |
Power | Dials one number per agent as soon as you're free | Most solo agents and small agencies working lead lists |
Predictive | Dials several numbers per agent, based on how many usually answer | Teams of several agents on large lists |
For one agent or a small team, power dialing is usually the right pace. Nobody ever answers to silence, because the dialer calls only when you're free.
What an insurance dialer must check before it calls
- Do Not Call lists. The federal registry, your own internal list, and ideally known litigators. Every number, checked again right before the dial, not only when the lead was imported.
- Calling hours. Based on where the lead is, not where you are. A lead in California at 8 am your time in New York is still asleep.
- Consent records. If a lead came from a web form, the TrustedForm or Jornaya certificate should stay with the lead, where you can find it if anyone asks.
- One person, one record. Leads bought from two vendors shouldn't get two calls.
Your compliance team sets the rules. The dialer's job is to apply them on every call without depending on anyone's memory.
Other features worth paying for
- Answering machine detection, so you hear a person, not a greeting.
- Local caller IDs, because people answer local numbers more often, and spreading calls across numbers keeps them from being flagged.
- Call outcomes that book the follow-up, so a "call me Thursday" becomes a Thursday callback.
- Recordings and notes on the lead, for coaching and for any question later about what was said.
- A mobile app, if you take calls away from your desk.
Flat-rate or per-minute
Dialers charge in two main ways. PhoneBurner, a popular choice among agents, includes unlimited power dialing in its seat price, from $140 a month billed annually. If you dial all day and want the same bill every month, that's a real advantage.
Adoptiv's Dialer Plus is $169 a seat and includes a CRM, a business phone number with unlimited US and Canada calling, AI call notes, predictive as well as power dialing, and 25 caller IDs. Dialer minutes are billed per minute from a prepaid wallet on top. It suits agencies that want the dialer, phone system and CRM in one tool rather than the lowest flat price for dialing alone.
How Adoptiv handles insurance calling
Adoptiv's power and preview dialing lets you set the pace per campaign, so referrals can run in preview while bought leads run in power. Compliance screening checks every number against the federal Do Not Call list, known litigators and your own list, and checks again right before each dial. Answering machine detection keeps agents on live conversations. Consent certificates stay on the lead, and calls outside 8 am to 9 pm in the lead's time zone are flagged. For what to say once the call connects, see our life insurance cold calling scripts.