ConnectAndSell: The Definitive Guide

ConnectAndSell is a sales acceleration platform that helps teams reach decision-makers faster,  resulting in more conversations, more appointments, and more closed deals.

The system is an AI and human assisted auto-dialer that  eliminates barriers frustrating outbound calling teams, such as navigating phone trees and voicemails. It enables sales reps to speak directly with their prospects an average of four to ten times per hour. 

The platform operates through two main systems:

• Express Connect: connects sales reps to the first live voice that picks up the call. There’s no need to navigate through phone trees or deal with voicemails. The system bypasses all of that and connects you with a live person.
  
  
• Precision Connect: ensures that the right prospects are reached from the outset. It functions the same as Express Connect, except a virtual assistant works in the background to get reps around gatekeepers. With Precision Connect, you will only find yourself on the phone with the actual contact on your list.

There is a difference in cost between these two options, but keep in mind that Express Connect is an effective option if you are using enriched data that includes direct and mobile phone numbers.

The more contacts you have with direct lines of communication, the better your chances of reaching the person you want to talk to.

ConnectAndSell offers automated dialing features, AI-powered conversational assistance, a human-augmented system, live coaching, performance analytics, and transcripts.

• Conversation Acceleration: connects reps with decision-makers quickly and efficiently. The platform uses parallel dialing to make several phone calls at once. It connects you with the right people—no phone menus. When someone on the other end picks up the call, all other calls are dropped instantly. 
  
  
• Live Coaching: Sales managers can listen to live calls, enabling them to deliver real-time coaching as reps navigate conversations. Coaching from managers or peers can help team members to improve their approach, refine messaging, and convert more leads into appointments.
  
  
• CRM Integrations: ConnectAndSell integrates with HubSpot and Salesforce, allowing for easy transfer of data between your CRM and the auto-dialer. Reps can enrich critical data in real-time as they dial.
  
  
• Targeting & Analytics: Provides visibility into sales performance, including dial-to-connect rates, conversion rates, and call dispositions. This data-driven approach fuels better decision-making, helping your team reach the right prospects at the right time.
  
  
• Pipeline Attribution: Helps you measure the ROI of your investment into the platform. It provides a full picture of how every conversation influences your pipeline, from initial contact to closed business. With detailed attribution, you can measure the exact impact each call has on pipeline growth, giving you vast insights into what is working and what needs improvement. These insights drive smarter investments in sales tactics, targeting, and messaging.
  
  
• AI-Powered Notes: Leverages AI to summarize conversation notes and suggest follow-up text. 

One of the most notable features is CASSi, ConnectAndSell's conversational AI assistant. This tool powers automation, provides real-time feedback, and offers suggestions for improvement. It also helps with phone number enrichment, prioritizing leads based on intent and providing performance coaching.

The automated dialing system is another feature that helps sales reps avoid the time-consuming process of manually dialing numbers or navigating through complex phone menus. Instead, ConnectAndSell connects reps with prospects who are more likely to engage, significantly reducing downtime between calls.

In addition, the system offers an intuitive disposition system to track the outcomes of every call. After making a call, reps select a disposition—such as “interested, send info” “scheduled a meeting,” or “not interested, follow up later”—which you can use to trigger automated follow-up actions in your CRM.

This integrated system keeps reps organized and ensures no lead is overlooked or forgotten.

ConnectAndSell integrates directly into popular CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce, allowing you to build active, data-enriched lists in your CRM and link them directly to the auto-dialer.

This is an important feature that solves a problem many organizations do not realize they have.

Out of all the calls your sales reps make on a daily basis, how often are they adding insights from those conversations into structured data in your CRM? In most cases, these insights stay buried and forgotten in call notes.

When your CRM is integrated with ConnectAndSell, you can have as many as ten data properties visible when reps connect with prospects on a call. These properties can be linked back to your contact records in HubSpot or Salesforce.

After ending a call, the sales rep will choose a call disposition from a dropdown menu, add a few notes to reference in the next conversation with the prospect, and update key data properties about the contact, like “Competitive Lease End Date” or “Buying Role.” This critical data is then saved and synced back to your CRM, allowing you to run reports or marketing and sales automations based on the information.

This allows you to systemize data gathering on phone calls and track the information for business intelligence – something many organizations have never accomplished before.

Integrating ConnectAndSell with HubSpot also allows the rep to open a contact record when they connect with that person on a call. This helps them quickly reference all available information about the prospect, including meeting dates, emails, and calls.

If ConnectAndSell does not offer a native integration with your CRM, you can use the system by importing your call lists into the dialer using CSV files.

Before starting your calling session, log into your CRM and any other apps you will need while dialing.

It’s a good idea to close any apps that use a lot of system resources while you are dialing. Our advice is to run ConnectAndSell in an incognito Chrome browser to reduce resource strain.

1. Log into ConnectAndSell from Chrome.

Click on your CRM icon (you will need to have the integration app installed in your CRM) or by entering your username and password.

From the home screen, you will be able to access:

Calling Lists: Reps can see their assigned lists only. Managers will be able to see everyone’s lists. There are two types:

• First conversation – no follow up tasks are associated with these lists. They are used to determine: Am I contacting the right person? Am I using the right message? Is my timing right?
  
  
• Follow up – Anyone you convert into a meeting or qualify in some way will go to this list. As long as there is a call task associated with your contact in your CRM that is due or past due, that contact will be on this list.

Contacts – shows you which contacts are in each list.

Reports – contains a variety of data. The useful report for reps will be the “Conversation History” report. This allows you to listen to your call recordings and identify areas for improvement.

2. Make sure your audio settings are configured properly.

Change your system defaults to whatever speaker and microphone you prefer to use. If you are using a Bluetooth headset, make sure you disconnect from all other devices before using it on ConnectAndSell.

3. Check your caller ID.

In each row where your call list is, you will see vertical ellipses on the right. This is where you can set your caller ID.

Use randomized, customized, and local touch (random caller ID, but using an area code near the prospect you are calling).

If you opt to use a custom call ID to plug in your own phone number – make sure you are calling a small list of people who are expecting a call from you. Otherwise, you risk contacts blocking your phone number and tagging it as spam.

You will also want to refresh your list before dialing, making sure the most recent data in your contact records will be reflected in your call lists.

4. Select the list you are going to call, and load them.

You will see a prompt called “Better Phone Numbers” pop up. ConnectAndSell collects data on which phone numbers individual contacts are most likely to answer, based on call activity by other users on their platform. By opting for “Better Phone Number” you are giving the app permission to select the “best phone number” for you. These phone numbers will not be visible to you, nor will they map back to your CRM.

5. Connect to the call bridge.

You will see the queue of callable contacts on the left. In the center, you will see your dialing mode and a button that says “Start Selling.”

You have the option to pre-record a greeting or a voicemail if you want. If those options are not enabled, you will click the “Start Selling” button to initiate a dialing session.

The platform will start parallel dialing across four different numbers or so. When someone picks up the call and says “hello,” it will drop all other calls and connect you. The instant where hear a water drip sound in your ear, that’s your cue to start talking. Don’t hesitate or there will be a delay on the other end, which will make your prospect suspect a sales call.

6. After completing the call, a “Call Wrap” time begins.

The rep will choose a call disposition from the dropdown list, add notes to the teleprompter, update any data properties, and go back to dialing. Once the dialing begins, the call wrap time ends. You will be able to see how much time reps are taking in the call wrap activity in the reporting dashboard.

To maximize the benefits of ConnectAndSell, it’s important to integrate it into your daily sales activities. Here are some best practices that will help your team achieve the best results.

Call Scripting and Communication

Maintaining smooth communication during calls is obviously important, and good scripts are the foundation of success.

When the person on the other end answers, it’s crucial to first ask an open-ended question. This brief moment of exchange serves a dual purpose: it gauges the mood of the person on the other end and provides a slight pause, allowing you to read insights from your last conversation.

For example, asking “How’s your day going?” gives you the chance to adjust your approach based on the response, while also buying time to read the call notes or other details displayed on the screen.

Keep your introduction concise and get straight to the point. The longer it takes you to explain why you are calling, the more likely they are to interrupt you or hang up. Most importantly – reduce business-like buzz phrases and cliches that don’t communicate your value. Focus on relaxing and talking to people as if you just called up an old friend.

Calling prospects is a nerve wracking task. One of the best ways to relax is to change your mindset. You aren’t calling people to sell them -- you are calling to help them, and the purpose of the call is qualify them for help. Maintaining a service mindset will help you approach calls with the sort of confidence and professional posture needed for success.

Use the Teleprompter for Consistency

The teleprompter is a multi-line text field where reps can take notes after a call. For example, a rep might enter these notes and then enter a callback date of 4/15 on the date selector:

Connected on 3/25. He was busy, in the middle of a massive migration project. Discussed our security product. Follow up in three weeks to set appt.

When the contact is auto-added back to the dialing list on April 15, the rep will see the notes they took down three weeks earlier and pick up the conversation where it left off. This allows for a more personalized experience for the prospect and leads to a greater chance of converting the call into a scheduled meeting.

Reps using the teleprompter also stay focused and clear in their message, which improves the flow of the conversation and leads to better engagement with prospects.

Organize Follow-Ups and Enrich CRM Data

Every sales call can provide valuable information regardless of whether or not the rep succeeds in scheduling a meeting.

They will have an opportunity to confirm who the decision-maker is and competitive contract end dates. Capturing these data points will enable you to create CRM lists, reports, and automation that keep these opportunities from falling through the cracks. 

The disposition tool allows reps to capture call outcomes in a structured way as well. After each call, a disposition is selected to reflect the conversation outcome.

Common dispositions our clients use include:

• Scheduled meeting
• Rescheduled meeting
• Busy, send information
• Busy, call later
• Not interested, follow up
• No longer with company
• Do not call

These dispositions can also be mapped back to the contact’s record in HubSpot, keeping your active calling lists organized so follow-ups happen when they should

Salespeople with a lot of leads might struggle to remember each conversation’s context, but dispositions provide an easy way to track where each lead stands and what next steps are needed.

Use Real-Time Insights for Improvement

One of the most valuable aspects of ConnectAndSell is performance analytics. This feature gives sales managers and reps detailed insights into their performance, helping the team identify areas for improvement.

Reps can track their call volume, connection rates, conversions into scheduled meetings, and how effective their pitch is.

For example, a rep might find that their conversion rate is lower for a particular list segment, prompting them to modify their approach.

Managers can use this data to coach reps as well, targeting areas where they may be struggling. ConnectAndSell offers suggestions for optimizing scripts based on how well previous scripts have performed. This continuous feedback loop leads to incremental improvements that result in greater success over time.

Use Transcripts to Revisit Conversations

ConnectAndSell generates transcripts of every call in real-time.

These transcripts allow sales teams to revisit past conversations and ensure continuity when following up with prospects.

This feature helps reps reference important details from a conversation, such as specific concerns or questions raised by the prospect. Sales teams can use these insights in follow-up messages and make their outreach more personalized.

This feature is especially useful for tracking multi-step sales processes where numerous calls may occur over weeks or months.

Add New Prospects Regularly

Maintaining a healthy pipeline is essential for consistent sales success. A good practice is to regularly add new prospects to the system, ensuring your outreach doesn’t dry up.

Sales reps who continuously add new leads into the system are more likely to maintain momentum and keep their outreach fresh. It's crucial to aim for a larger number of prospects in the pipeline than the number of calls made. If a team is making 100 calls per day (usually about an hour on the dialer), they should aim to add 300 new prospects to their list.

This approach helps avoid the common pitfall of “dry” sales pipelines, where reps find themselves running out of people to call. By focusing on lead generation consistently, sales teams ensure they have an ongoing supply of potential opportunities to work with.

Optimize the Redial Window

The redial window is a customizable feature in ConnectAndSell that determines how long the system waits before attempting to call a prospect again after an initial failed attempt. The default setting is typically 15 minutes, but this can be adjusted based on your team's needs.

This setting can make a significant difference in overall outreach effectiveness. For instance, a shorter redial window may lead to more immediate follow-ups, which can be particularly useful when dealing with high-priority leads or time-sensitive opportunities. By adjusting the redial window, teams can increase their chances of making contact with prospects during optimal hours.

Manage Referrals 

Referrals are a valuable source of new business, and ConnectAndSell makes it easy to manage them. When a prospect refers a decision-maker to you, the system automatically creates a follow-up task for the new contact.

The system ensures that no referral is lost in the shuffle, providing a clear task for follow-up and tracking progress with the same level of diligence as any other lead. This streamlines the process, so sales teams can keep their focus on conversion rather than getting caught up in administrative tasks.