Put two proposals side by side. One says 6,000 dials a month. The other says 4 percent contact rate and does not mention dials at all. For someone coming to this from the notes and paper side of the business, it is hard to tell whether the second shop is being more honest or hiding something. Is contact rate a standard measure, or does each shop calculate it its own way?
Contact rate is the only one of those two numbers that touches your outcome. Run 6,000 dials at 2 percent and you get 120 owner conversations. Run 4,000 dials at 5 percent and you get 200. Dials are an input the vendor controls and can inflate by dialing garbage numbers twice. And yes, the definition drifts. Some shops count any answered call, including the wrong person entirely, or the spouse or tenant picking up. Ask specifically for conversations with a verified owner divided by unique numbers dialed. Then ask contacts per lead and leads per contract, and price the whole chain backward from what you can pay for a deal. If your cost per contract lands over your assignment spread, the campaign does not work no matter how good the dial count looks.
