What is Local Presence Dialing and How Does it Work?

• When Should I Use Local Presence Caller ID?
• Is Local Presence the Same as Number Spoofing?
• Advanced Local Presence

Cold Calling is TOUGH Business

Cold calling in 2022 is harder than it’s ever been. Smartphones and cell networks have built-in spam detection, consumers are more savvy than ever, and fraudulent robocalls are on the rise. It’s a small miracle that anyone answers cold calls at all.

This is why local presence dialing exists. It’s the single most important technology for actually reaching prospects on the phone these days.

Think about it from the customer’s point of view. It isn’t hard to do, since being in sales doesn’t mean you don’t get cold called yourself from time to time. If your caller ID says “Spam Risk,” “Telemarketer” or something similar, chances are you won’t pick up.

If the caller ID is just a phone number, the chances might still be slim, but there’s a chance you’ll answer. If it’s a number local to where you’re living, it could be an important call – your doctor’s office or auto mechanic, for example. According to a recent study by SoftwareAdvice, using a local presence dialer when cold calling increased connection rates by 400%.

It might seem like trickery to some, but remember – the person you’re calling has the power to hang up at any time. The point is, you got your foot in the door, hopefully long enough to make your pitch.

When (And When Not) to Use Local Presence

There’s a time and place to use local presence. It’s a powerful tool, but in certain situations it can actually be counterproductive.

Use local presence when…

• You are cold calling prospects
• You are trying to get ahold of a customer and you think they might be screening your calls

Don’t use local presence when…

• The customer is expecting your call
• You have already built a professional relationship with the customer

Consider carefully whether or not to use local presence when…

• You plan to leave a voicemail asking the customer to call you back
• You think a customer might be screening your calls, but you have a good professional relationship and have reason to believe the customer would be upset that you “tricked” them into answering your call

Types of Local Presence

Number Spoofing

If you have negative associations with the idea of local presence dialing, this version of local presence is probably the reason why. Number spoofing is the practice of calling from a number you do not actually own.

If you’ve ever gotten a call that appeared to be coming from your own phone number, that caller was spoofing your number. Most of the “Spam Risk” and “Telemarketing” calls you receive are from spoofed numbers.

Needless to say, we don’t recommend number spoofing. Not only does it make prospects less likely to answer your calls, it violates FCC regulations and can come with a hefty fine.

Privately Owned Number Pools

Very large companies, such as Hilton Hotels & Resorts, own a large pool of phone numbers across the country or, in some cases, the world. They have a private phone system that can cycle automatically between these numbers.

There’s nothing wrong with this form of local presence, except that for small companies it is prohibitively expensive. However, there are variations on this form of local presence that can work for medium sized businesses.

At Kixie, we offer private, shared local number pools that are affordable for small and medium sized businesses. These number pools can be customized by area, and can include international numbers. International local presence can be hugely beneficial if your team is calling internationally, since people can be wary of accepting international calls due to cost.

It’s important to note that even non-spoofed phone numbers can be flagged as spam. These days, it’s easier than ever for consumers to flag calls as spam–even if the call was completely legitimate and legal, so it’s important to take steps to prevent your call from showing up as spam.

If you are making a high volume of calls on a daily basis, this is another big advantage of using local presence. Instead of putting your direct number out there and risking it being flagged as spam, you can dial from a pool of numbers, and if one of those numbers is flagged as spam you won’t have to worry about changing your email signature or getting new business cards.

With Kixie’s local presence number pools, if one of your numbers is flagged as spam we will switch it out and replace it with a fresh number for you, at no extra charge.

Advanced Local Presence (ConnectionBoost)

If you can’t afford your own pool of numbers – or simply would like to have access to a much larger pool of numbers – Kixie’s unique ConnectionBoost feature allows you to call with a different caller ID, using over 50,000 real phone numbers across the globe.

ConnectionBoost is three features rolled into one: AI powered global local presence, progressive caller ID, and spam detection.

AI powered local presence automatically switches out your caller ID to match the area code of the number you are calling, dynamically selecting phone numbers most likely to be answered.

Progressive caller ID automatically changes your phone number each time you call a prospect, so you never use the same number twice in a row. This is ideal if you are trying to catch someone between meetings but don’t want them to think you’ve been bugging them with calls all day.

If a ConnectionBoost phone number gets flagged as spam, Kixie automatically detects the drop off in connection rate on that number and replaces it with a fresh number.

For all of these reasons, plus the built-in suite of inbound and outbound calling tools, Kixie is one of the best cold calling dialers on the market.

Get Started Calling With Local Numbers

We’d love to answer your questions about local presence, and offer our expertise and advice on building your sales tech stack. Please feel free to reach out to our team for a demo, or use the chat feature in the bottom right corner of this page.