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How a power dialer really works
37 straight answers to the questions sales teams ask us most: who gets which lead, what gets called next, how often, and what happens when nobody picks up.
Lead distribution
Who gets which lead: shared queues, owners, round robin, licensed states and skills.
How do leads get distributed to agents in a power dialer?
Leads aren't handed out ahead of time. Every lead in a campaign waits in one shared queue. Whenever an agent's dialer needs another number, it takes the best lead in that queue that this agent is allowed to call. Teams, skills and lead owners decide who may take a lead. Priority rules decide which lead comes next.
Read · 3 min →Shared leads, owner first or owner only: which lead-owner mode should you use?
Shared: any rep takes the next lead, and owners are just a label. Owner first: reps get their own leads before anyone else's, but still help with the rest. Owner only: reps call only their own leads and unowned ones. A release timer can open overdue leads to everyone.
Read · 2 min →Round robin or balanced: how should leads be auto-assigned to reps?
Round robin hands new leads out in turn: rep A, then B, then C, then A again. Balanced gives each lead to the rep who currently holds the fewest open leads in that campaign. Either way, a rep only gets leads they're allowed to take (team, skills, licensed state). The assignment runs every minute.
Read · 2 min →How do I route leads only to agents licensed in the lead's state?
Add each state an agent is licensed in as a state skill (Settings → Routing), then turn on "Only agents licensed in the lead's state" in the campaign. A lead with a state only goes to agents holding that state. Leads with no state go to anyone. Leads in a state nobody is licensed for wait.
Read · 2 min →How do I send Spanish-speaking (or tagged) leads only to the right agents?
Create a language skill (for example Spanish) or a custom skill matched to lead tags (for example medicare). Give it to the agents who qualify, and turn on "Match the lead's language and skills" in the campaign. Leads that need the skill only reach those agents. Everyone else's leads go to anyone.
Read · 2 min →What happens to a lead nobody is eligible to call?
It waits in the queue. DialerDay never hands a lead to an agent who isn't allowed to take it, so a lead in a state nobody is licensed for, or needing a skill nobody has, stays pending without an owner. As soon as an eligible agent exists, it's dialed in normal order.
Read · 2 min →How do teams control who can work a campaign?
Tick one or more teams on a campaign and only their members can dial it. Auto-assignment only picks owners from those teams, and callbacks stay inside them (unless your callback policy lets anyone take them). With no teams ticked, everyone in the company can work the campaign.
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Adding leads
Every way leads get into a campaign, and what happens to leads that are already there.
What are all the ways to add leads to a campaign?
There are nine ways: import a CSV, pick contacts by hand, add DialerDay tags as a campaign source, sync GoHighLevel tags, sync HubSpot or Salesforce lists or ClickFunnels tags, post to the campaign's lead webhook, call the public API, run a workflow action, or book a callback. They all put the lead in the same queue, but they treat leads that are already there differently.
Read · 3 min →Why didn't re-adding a lead put it back in the queue?
A lead can only be in a campaign once. Adding it again by hand, by CSV or by tag leaves its existing entry alone, even if it's finished. That's on purpose, so a re-uploaded list doesn't restart everyone's attempts. To call it again, post it to the lead webhook or API (a fresh opt-in), let a missed call from them re-open it, move it with a workflow, or turn on list recycling.
Read · 2 min →How does a lead webhook or the API "hot inject" a new lead to the top of the queue?
Every campaign has a secret webhook URL, and the public API does the same with a key. A lead posted to either is created or updated, reset to fresh and marked as injected. With the "Newest injected first" priority rule on (it's in the recommended rules), it's ranked above everything else. The boost fades over the rule's window, 30 minutes by default.
Read · 2 min →How do GoHighLevel tags keep a campaign in sync?
Pick a GoHighLevel location and one or more include tags for a campaign. Contacts with any include tag are added, and contacts with an exclude tag or call DND are skipped. GoHighLevel webhooks apply changes in real time, and a full re-sync runs every 15 minutes. A contact that loses its tags leaves the queue, and one that matches again comes back.
Read · 2 min →How do HubSpot and Salesforce lists feed a campaign?
Connect HubSpot, Salesforce or ClickFunnels, then choose source lists for a campaign (HubSpot lists, Salesforce list views or ClickFunnels tags) and optional exclude lists. Members are added and kept in sync with live updates plus a 15-minute re-sync. Contacts that leave every list, join an exclude list or are marked do-not-call are skipped.
Read · 2 min →Can the same contact be in several campaigns, and how are calls counted?
Yes. A contact can be in any number of campaigns, each with its own entry, attempts and history. But it's one person: they're never dialed in two campaigns at the same time, every dial from any campaign (and manual calls) counts toward call-frequency limits, and you can skip leads that have a callback booked in another campaign.
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Queue order
Which lead is dialed next: priority rules, lead scores, speed to lead and step cadences.
In what order does the dialer call leads?
First, inbound callers waiting in the queue, then callbacks that are due. Within the campaign: leads that jumped the queue, then leads still owed their minimum calls, then the earliest cadence step. After that, the queue priority score, then tag rank, then lead age, mobiles before landlines, and finally the time each lead became due.
Read · 3 min →How do queue priority rules and lead scores work?
Each lead gets a queue score. Priority rules add (or subtract) points when a lead matches, such as never dialed, texted recently, a tag or a lead source. Five weights then add a lead score: fresh (40), in its best hours (30), rested since the last call (20), priority (10) and age (5). Higher scores are dialed first, after queue jumpers, minimums and cadence steps.
Read · 3 min →Speed to lead: how do I make sure new leads get called first?
Do four things. Send leads in live (lead webhook, API, GoHighLevel or a workflow). Set "Dial new leads after" to 0. Turn on the Newest injected first rule so they jump the queue. Use a step cadence such as the Speed to Lead preset, so new leads are worked hardest on their first day.
Read · 2 min →What is a step cadence, and how does the Speed to Lead preset work?
A step cadence splits a lead's life in the campaign into steps by age, such as day 1, days 2–7 and days 8–14. Each step has its own number of dials, gap between dials, dial mode (power or preview) and sort order. Leads in earlier steps are dialed first, and leads move on by age even if they weren't reached. Speed to Lead is a ready-made three-step cadence.
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Call frequency
How often each lead is called per day, week and month, and how to tell if you're keeping up.
Can I set a target number of calls per lead per day, week and month?
Yes. Each campaign has a minimum and a maximum number of calls per lead for the day, the week and the month. Minimums are a promise: leads that are short get dialed before everyone else, spread through the period. Maximums are a hard cap: a lead that reaches one rests until its next day, week or month. Every dial to the number counts, from any campaign.
Read · 2 min →How does the dialer spread calls evenly instead of calling three times at 9am?
Four mechanisms work together. Leads still owed a minimum go ahead of everyone else. The retry delay keeps a minimum gap between calls to the same lead. The "rested" part of the lead score ranks a lead higher the longer it's been since its last call. And among otherwise equal leads, the one furthest behind its pace goes first. The result: three calls a day land morning, midday and afternoon, not all at 9am.
Read · 3 min →Minimums vs maximums: what happens when a lead hits its cap?
Reaching a maximum doesn't remove a lead. It rests and becomes callable again when its next day, week or month starts. Meeting a minimum only ends its priority boost: the lead can still be called up to the maximum in normal queue order. Only max attempts (the lifetime limit) finishes a lead.
Read · 2 min →Why did my call-frequency settings fail to save?
Because the targets can't be met. Minimums are a promise, so DialerDay refuses ones that are mathematically impossible: a minimum above its maximum, a daily minimum your calling window and retry delay can't fit, a weekly or monthly minimum above what the daily limit allows, or minimums above max attempts. The error says which rule breaks and why.
Read · 2 min →How many agents do I need to hit my call targets?
Compare two numbers. Dials needed per day: leads × the daily minimum (or the weekly minimum ÷ working days). Dials possible per day: agents × dialing hours × dials per agent-hour, taken from your own Analytics. If the first is bigger, minimums won't all be met. The dialer spreads the shortfall fairly, but owed leads crowd out everything else.
Read · 2 min →How do I see which leads are behind on calls?
Open Analytics → Call frequency. It shows waiting leads that were never called, had no call this week or month, are behind their minimum, met it, or are resting at a maximum, per campaign. Click any number for the list of leads. Each contact also has a frequency panel with their day, week and month counts against the targets.
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Callbacks
Booked callbacks across campaigns and time zones, and who takes them when the rep can't.
How do scheduled callbacks work across campaigns and time zones?
Agents book a callback at a time in the lead's own time zone. When it's due, it goes to the agent who booked it first, in whatever campaign they're dialing, ahead of normal leads. A callback skips the campaign's own hours, cadence and call limits, because the lead asked for that time. DNC, do-not-disturb and legal state calling hours still apply.
Read · 2 min →Who gets a callback if the agent who booked it is busy or offline?
The agent who booked it gets it first. If they don't take it within the grace period (15 minutes by default), it opens up to other agents, depending on your callback ownership setting: only the booking agent, anyone who can work the campaign, or anyone in the company. Routing rules (licensed state, skills, teams) still apply to whoever takes it.
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Inbound & transfers
Ring groups, ring strategies, overflow, callbacks from leads and handing calls over.
What is a ring group, and why is it inbound only?
A ring group is a named set of agents who ring when a call comes in, plus how they ring (all at once, in order, round robin, longest idle, fewest calls or best skill) and what happens if nobody answers. It's inbound only because it answers "whose phone should ring?", and on an outbound call nobody needs to ring: your agent places the call. Outbound uses the lead queue with teams, skills and owners.
Read · 2 min →Ring strategies explained: simultaneous, sequential, round robin, longest idle, fewest calls, skills
Simultaneous rings every free member at once, and the first to answer gets the call. The other five ring one agent at a time, in different orders: sequential uses a fixed order; round robin picks up after whoever got the last call; longest idle starts with whoever has been free longest; fewest calls starts with whoever answered the fewest today; skills starts with the best skill match for the caller.
Read · 2 min →What happens when nobody in a ring group answers?
The group's overflow takes over. It can send the caller to voicemail (the default), the waiting queue, another ring group, a forward number, or hang up. Groups can chain up to five hops, such as Sales, then Support, then the after-hours line, and loops are refused when you save. Overflow also kicks in straight away when nobody in the group is free.
Read · 2 min →What happens when a lead calls back the number they were dialed from?
DialerDay recognizes the caller as a lead and finds the campaign that dialed them last. That campaign's inbound route decides: follow the dialed number's own routing (the default), ring chosen agents, ring a ring group, or forward. Business hours and IVRs on the number still come first. If nobody answers, the lead can get a text back and jump the dial queue.
Read · 2 min →What happens when a lead answers but their agent is already on another call?
With parallel or predictive dialing, two people sometimes answer at once. By default, the second hears your abandon message. Turn on "Pass them to a free teammate" and they're handed to another agent on the same campaign who's waiting for a line and allowed to take that lead: the longest waiting, in turn, or the best skill match.
Read · 2 min →How do warm and blind transfers work?
In a warm transfer, the customer waits on hold while you talk to the person you're handing them to, then you connect them and drop off, or cancel and take the customer back. In a blind (cold) transfer, you leave straight away and the customer hears music until the target answers. Either way, the target is one teammate or an outside phone number.
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Time zones & compliance
Local calling hours, DNC lists, do-not-disturb and opt-outs.
How does the dialer respect each lead's local calling hours?
Before every dial, DialerDay works out the lead's time zone: their own, else their area code's, else their GoHighLevel location's, else the campaign default. The lead is only dialed if it's inside the campaign's calling window in that zone, on an operating day, not a holiday, inside any state calling rules, inside GoHighLevel work hours, and in a time zone the campaign calls.
Read · 2 min →How do DNC lists, do-not-disturb and STOP opt-outs stop calls and texts?
Several layers stop unwanted contact. Your company's DNC list blocks calls to a number everywhere. Do-not-disturb is per contact and per channel (calls, texts), and syncs with GoHighLevel. A STOP reply is the carrier-level text opt-out, and only the contact can undo it by texting START. Optional scrubbing checks the national and state registries and known litigators before dialing.
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How dialers compare
How other dialers handle the same problems, and what the dialing modes mean.
How do other dialers (VICIdial, Five9, Convoso, RingCentral) handle groups and lead distribution?
Almost every platform splits inbound from outbound. Phone systems (RingCentral, Dialpad, Aircall) route inbound calls with ring groups or call queues, and leave outbound to reps. Contact-center dialers (VICIdial, Five9, Convoso, Genesys) send inbound calls to queues or skills, and run outbound through campaigns, where agents pull leads from lists. Sales dialers (Nooks, Orum, PhoneBurner) mostly give reps their own lists to dial.
Read · 2 min →Power dialer vs parallel dialer vs predictive dialer: what's the difference?
Preview: the agent sees the lead and the call starts on their click or after a countdown. Power: the next lead rings automatically when the agent is free. Parallel: power dialing with several lines per agent at once, and the first person to answer is connected. Predictive: the dialer sets the number of lines from the live answer rate, and backs off when abandoned calls rise.
Read · 3 min →
Team & motivation
Keeping remote reps motivated and connected: rewards, recognition, contests and leaderboards.
How do you keep remote cold callers motivated?
Make progress visible and shared. Reward outcomes (conversations, appointments, shows) more than raw dials, let every rep compete with their own best days, put wins where the whole team can cheer them, and give remote reps moments to work together, like power hours and kudos. DialerDay does all of this from the calls reps already make.
Read · 2 min →Should agents see the whole leaderboard?
It depends on your team. A full board suits competitive, experienced floors; new or struggling reps often do better seeing the leaders and their own place without a public bottom of the list. DialerDay gives you three settings: own numbers only, top N plus their own place, or everyone.
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