Guide
How to choose a cold calling company: the 12 questions to ask
Most cold calling vendors sound identical on a sales call. These twelve questions find the difference in ten minutes. We answer each one for ourselves so you can hold us to the same standard.
People
1. Do I interview and approve my caller?
Valtiera: yes, every hire.
2. Is the caller dedicated to my account or shared?
Valtiera: dedicated, never rotated.
3. Where are callers based and how is English screened?
Valtiera: overseas, screened for clear neutral-accent English before you meet them.
4. What happens when a caller underperforms?
Valtiera: coaching from recorded calls first, then replacement at our cost.
Data and tools
5. Who provides the list, and do I get a copy?
Valtiera: included on tiers above Starter, pulled and skip-traced to your buy box; you get the file.
6. Which dialer, and who pays for it?
Valtiera: ReadyMode IQ with assisted spam remediation (about $370 a month if you bought it yourself), included and managed by us.
7. How are caller-ID spam flags handled?
Valtiera: rotation across the campaign, flagged numbers remediated or replaced before answer rates drop.
8. Who writes the script?
Valtiera: we do, for your market; you can change it at any time.
Management and terms
9. What does QA look like?
Valtiera: daily review of recorded calls against a scorecard, weekly coaching.
10. What reporting do I get?
Valtiera: daily, weekly and monthly on dials, contacts, conversations and appointments, plus a weekly checkpoint with the founders.
11. What is the contract?
Valtiera: monthly, no setup fee, no cancellation fee.
12. How fast do we go live?
Valtiera: three business days.
The question behind the questions
Ask for a call recording from a current campaign and a weekly report with the client's name removed. A company that runs a real operation can produce both in an hour. One that resells freelancers cannot.
Questions people ask
Should I trust guaranteed lead counts?
Be careful. A guarantee is only as good as the definition of "lead". Ask what counts, who decides, and what happens when the count is missed.
Is a cheaper hourly rate a red flag?
Not by itself. A rate that excludes the dialer, data, QA and management is a different product, not a cheaper version of the same one.
How many callers should I start with?
One. Prove the list and the script, then scale. Most clients add the second caller in month two or three.
Talk it through with the founders
One 30-minute call. Bring your market and your numbers; leave with a plan.