Overview
Call purposes and call dispositions help you track the intent and outcome of your calls. Once you've set up the dialer, and you're ready to make and receive phone calls, use call purposes and dispositions on Apollo to understand your strategy so you can improve over time.
What are purposes and dispositions?
- Call purposes help you track and categorize the types of calls you're making, like prospecting, demos, follow-ups, outbound, and inbound calls. Learn more about call purposes, the default purposes created by Apollo, and how to create your own.
- Call dispositions let you log the outcome of each call, enabling you to track your outreach progress in reports, refine your strategy, and improve follow-up efficiency. Learn more about call dispositions, the default dispositions created by Apollo, and how to create your own.
Check out the following sections to learn more about call purposes and dispositions and how to use them in Apollo.
Create and Use a Call Purpose
When you understand call purposes, you can finetune your outreach strategy to increase meetings booked and drive sales forward more effectively. Use purposes for a holistic view of your dialer usage.
You can filter your calls by purpose to report on specific outreach efforts.
By default, Apollo offers the following call purposes:
| Purpose | Description |
|---|---|
| Prospecting call | Best for prospect generation or to introduce your product or service, with the goal of moving the prospect forward in the sales pipeline. |
| Opportunity call | Best for qualified leads or warm prospects who have expressed interest or are top-of-funnel in your outreach campaign. |
| Support call | Best for calls initiated by customers seeking help with product or billing issues. |
| Other call | Best for miscellaneous calls that don't neatly fit into any existing category, like admin, internal calls, or non-sales outreach. |
You can also create your own call purpose. You can use call purposes when you make calls on Apollo.
Create a call purpose
To create a call purpose:
- Launch Apollo and click Settings > Team Dialer > Purposes.
- Click Call purposes.
- Apollo lists your existing call purposes. Click ... to edit or delete a purpose.
- Click Add Purpose.
- Enter a descriptive name for the call purpose, then click Save.
You have now created a call purpose, and you're ready to use the call purpose when dialing.
Use a Call Purpose
Before you can use call purposes, get an Apollo phone number and set up the dialer. Then you're ready to make and receive calls.
To use a call purpose:
- Launch Apollo and click People.
- Use search filters or a saved search to refine your results.
- Click Call beside the person you want to dial.
- After you complete the call, select the call purpose and call disposition.
- Enter any notes for the call and click Save.
You have now used a call purpose. You can also set a call purpose later from Calls.
- Launch Apollo and navigate to Calls.
- Click ... beside the call, and click Edit.
- Select a call purpose.
You have now used a call purpose. To report on call purposes, use the call purpose filter when you access and manage calls.
Create and Use a Call Disposition
Call dispositions let you log the outcome of each call, enabling you to track your outreach progress in reports, refine your strategy, and improve follow-up efficiency. Use call dispositions to understand call outcomes.
You can filter your calls by disposition to find specific interactions, or use analytics reports to deep dive on your call history and performance.
By default, Apollo offers the following call dispositions:
| Disposition | Description |
|---|---|
| No answer | Call not connected, and unable to leave a voicemail. |
| Left voicemail | Call not connected, but left a voicemail. |
| Busy | Call not connected, and unable to leave a voicemail. |
| Gatekeeper | Call not connected due to a gatekeeper, such as an assistant or receptionist. |
| Bad/wrong number | Call not connected due to wrong or bad number. Access another phone number for the contact. |
| Not in service | Call not connected due to a phone number not in service. Access another phone number for the contact. |
| Connected - Positive | Call connected with a positive call outcome. |
| Connected - Neutral | Call connected with a neutral call outcome. |
| Connected - Negative | Call connected with a negative call outcome. |
When a call is connected, the contact won't advance to any subsequent steps in a sequence. Not connected means you didn't reach the intended contact, including if the call went through to another person, and so the contact will continue to the next step in the sequence.
You can also create a call disposition to track unique outcomes. You can use call dispositions when you make calls on Apollo.
Create a call disposition
To create a call disposition:
- Launch Apollo and click Settings > Team Dialer > Dispositions.
- Apollo lists your existing call dispositions. Click ... to edit or delete a disposition.
- Click Add Disposition.
- Give the call disposition a descriptive name, and set the result to connected or not connected. When a call is connected, the contact won't advance to any subsequent steps in a sequence. When a call is not connected, the contact will continue to the next step in the sequence.
- Select a call sentiment like positive, neutral, or negative.
- When finished, click Save.
You have now created a call disposition, and you're ready to use the disposition when dialing.
Use a call disposition
Before you can use call dispositions, get an Apollo phone number and set up the dialer. Then you're ready to make and receive calls.
To use a call disposition:
- Launch Apollo and click People.
- Use search filters or a saved search to refine your results.
- Click Call beside the person you want to dial.
- After you complete the call, select a call purpose and call disposition.
- Enter any notes for the call and click Save.
You have now used a call disposition. You can also set a call disposition later from Calls.
- Launch Apollo and navigate to Calls.
- Click ... beside the call, and click Edit.
- Select a call disposition.
You have now used a call disposition.
To find specific calls by disposition, filter by disposition when you access and manage your calls. To report on call outcomes overall, use analytics reports with call disposition filters.
Next Steps
Now that you understand call purposes and dispositions, track your outcomes and refine your strategy over time. Follow cold call best practices to protect your number from being marked as spam, and filter your calls by purpose or disposition to find specific interactions. Or use analytics reports for a holistic approach to optimize your outreach strategy.
Looking to amp up the number of connected positive interactions? Check out Apollo's book Outbound Sales for tips to conquer cold calls.