Set a target on calls made and you will get more calls made. You will also get shorter conversations, more numbers dialled that were never going to answer, and a monthly report that looks better while the business does not. This is the oldest measurement mistake in phone selling.
Why is calls made a misleading number?
Because it counts attempts, and attempts are entirely within the caller control regardless of whether anything useful happened. The number is attractive only because it is easy to collect and easy to compare.
A caller who ends conversations thirty seconds earlier produces a materially better-looking day. So does one who works through a list of numbers that have failed five times already, because each failed attempt still counts. Neither behaviour helps the business, and both are rational responses to being measured on volume.
What does talk time tell you that call count does not?
Minutes in connected conversation cannot be increased except by having more conversations or longer ones. Both are the job.
Read it alongside call count rather than instead of it, because the pair is more informative than either alone.
| Pattern | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| High calls, low talk time | Dialling dead numbers, or ending calls too early |
| Low calls, high talk time | Real conversations; often the best converter on the team |
| High calls, high talk time | Working well, or a list that is unusually responsive |
| Low calls, low talk time | Availability problem rather than a technique problem |
The second row is the one that surprises managers. The caller who looks least busy on a volume report is frequently the one closing.
What do talk time and call count both miss?
Whether the conversations went anywhere. Talk time and call count together cannot show it. That is what outcomes are for.
A caller with strong talk time whose outcomes cluster entirely in call back later is having pleasant conversations that are not progressing. That is a coaching observation you can only make when the outcome of each call is recorded at the time, which is the whole argument for capturing it on the handset rather than reconstructing it in the evening.
How should a manager use talk time and call numbers?
Compare like with like, watch trends, ask before concluding, and show people their own figures.
Compare people on the same lists. Talk time on fresh enquiries and talk time on a two-year-old database are not the same measure, and comparing them punishes whoever drew the worse list.
Look at trends, not days. One quiet day means nothing. Three weeks of falling talk time on the same source means something.
Ask before concluding. A caller whose talk time drops for a fortnight usually has a reason, and it is frequently a list problem or a personal one rather than effort.
Show people their own figures. Callers who can see their own talk time tend to manage it themselves, which works considerably better than a manager reading numbers aloud once a week.
Which calling number does nobody track but should?
Missed calls returned. Alongside talk time, watch how many incoming calls each person missed and how many they returned. Outbound activity is only half of a calling team, and a business that answers well but dials modestly looks idle in a report counting only outbound work.
Dialmio reports attempts, connections, talk minutes, outcome spread, missed calls returned and speed to first call from the calls themselves, so nobody writes any of it. The detail is on call analytics, and the per-person view is on daily team call reports. To turn these numbers into a fair target, see how many calls a telecaller should make per day.