The Ring.io Power Dialer takes a list of contacts and works through it for you: it dials, you talk, it dials the next one. No copy-pasting, no squinting at a spreadsheet, no "wait, did I already call this guy?" You just talk to people, which is the part you're actually good at.
This walks through a full session, start to finish: build your list, set your pace, make the calls, tidy up.
Part 1 — Build your calling list
Step 1. Get your contacts into Ring.io
Pick whichever route matches where your contacts live today.
From your CRM
Sort or filter your list view in the CRM so the right people are on screen, then right-click the list and choose Add contacts to Power Dialer. Only what's visible on screen gets added, so widen your page size if you want more in one go.
Grab your flavor:
HubSpot — Company, Contacts, Deal, Task
Salesforce — Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity, Task
Zoho — Accounts, Contacts, Deals, Leads
Pipedrive — Deal, Organization, Person, Task
💡 Ring.io pro tip: the phone number field has to be an actual Phone type field in your CRM. If a number lives in a text field, the dialer can't see it.
Upload a CSV or Excel file
No CRM? No problem.
If your Power Dialer is empty, you'll see a card asking "Which contact list do you want to upload?" Click Pick Excel or CSV File and follow the import steps. If you've already got contacts loaded and want to add more, use Upload Contacts in the top ribbon — same thing, different door.
From the Lists Library
The Lists Library is where your contact lists live between sessions. Get there with the Manage List link next to the list drop-down.
You can create a new list with Add new, upload contacts straight into any existing list, and preview what's in one with the eye icon. Anything you build there shows up in the Power Dialer's drop-down.
From any web page
If your numbers are sitting on some random internal page, you can right-click and send them straight to the dialer.
How many contacts can you load?
Short version: more than you're going to call today.
How you add them | Practical limit |
From your CRM | Whatever's on screen — no meaningful cap beyond that |
Quick CSV / Excel upload | 5,000 contacts |
Advanced upload | We've loaded 150,000. Stick to 80,000–100,000 to be safe |
Very large advanced uploads lean on your internet connection, so on a slow link they can time out. If you're loading tens of thousands of rows, split the file rather than pushing your luck.
Step 2. Pick the list you're calling
The drop-down at the top of the Power Dialer is how you switch between lists, so "Cold outbound — August" stays well away from "Second-round contacts."
Click it and you'll see:
A search box — start typing to find a list by name. Handy once you've got a dozen.
Your lists, each with a count badge showing how many contacts are in it.
A checkmark on whichever list is loaded right now.
Sequences show up here too, so the same drop-down covers both.
Pick a list and the table below reloads with its contacts. Switching lists doesn't delete anything — your other lists sit there patiently waiting.
You'll see your own; admins can see everyone's.
Need to add, rename or tidy up your lists? Manage List, right next to the drop-down, takes you to the Lists Library.
Step 3. Filter it to the people you actually want
You can narrow your list right here, without a trip back to the CRM.
Click Filter, then + Add Condition. Each condition has three parts: a property (Name, Company, Title, and so on), an operator (is equal to, and friends), and a value.
Stack up as many conditions as you need, hit Apply, and the table narrows to matching contacts. Clear filters puts everything back.
In a hurry? ✨ Generate with AI lets you describe what you want in plain English and builds the conditions for you.
Your filters show up in the counters above the table, so you can always see how many contacts you've let through — more on that in Step 9.
⚠️ Filters stick around. They stay on after you stop the session and they'll still be there tomorrow morning. If a list ever looks emptier than it should, this is the first place to check.
Step 4. Sort it into the order you want to call
Click Sort, then choose a property under Sort by Property:
Name · Email · ID · Phone · Company Name · Title · Last Note · Last Disposition
Last Disposition is the sneaky-useful one — sort by it to group all your voicemails or callbacks together and work through them in one focused run.
Like filters, your sort order sticks around between sessions.
Step 5. Show the columns you need
Customize columns controls which fields appear in the table, custom CRM fields included.
Put the two or three things you actually reference mid-call on screen — last note, deal stage, job title — and leave the rest out of your way. You'll be reading this table while someone's talking to you.
Part 2 — Set up your session
Step 6. Set your pace
Two controls in the top ribbon decide how fast this goes.
Autoprogress is the toggle that makes this a power dialer: when it's on, the next call fires automatically as soon as the last one wraps. Off, and you control every dial yourself.
Snooze time is the breather in between — anywhere from 0 to 60 seconds:
0s for pure speed on a warm list.
10–20s if you log notes between calls. Enough to type a line without breaking rhythm.
Longer while you're still getting comfortable. You can always speed up later.
Step 7. Turn on your automations
This is the part that does your follow-up while you're already talking to the next person. Decide before you dial, not halfway through.
Click ⚡ Power Automations and a panel opens under the ribbon with three automations. Tick the ones you want live for this run, choose what each should send, then close the panel with the ✕. The badge on the button counts how many are switched on, so you can check at a glance without opening it.
🎙 On Voicemail Detection
When Ring.io works out it's reached a voicemail box, this decides what happens next. Tick it, then pick one of two behaviors:
Leave the selected voicemail drop after detection — choose a recording from the drop-down and Ring.io plays it for you. You never have to hear that beep again.
Skip leaving voicemail and move to the next call — for the lists where a message isn't worth it.
✉️ Auto-Email contacts if no conversation
Didn't get through? Tick this and Ring.io sends the email template you pick from the drop-down. Manage Email templates is where you write and edit them.
💬 Auto-SMS contacts if no conversation
Same idea, over text. Choose an SMS template from the drop-down; Manage SMS templates takes you off to edit them.
Turn on all three and a single no-answer quietly becomes a voicemail, an email and a text — without you touching your keyboard once.
Part 3 — Make the calls
Step 8. Hit Start Calling
Check your mic and headset, then click ▶ Start Calling. The dialer places the first call and you're away.
Two things to sort out before your first ever session:
Your caller ID. Here's which numbers you can use →
Prefer your cell? That works too — here's how.
Step 9. Read your counters
Three pills above the table tell you exactly where you stand:
Pill | What it means |
Total | Every contact in the loaded list |
Called | How many you've dialed this session |
To Call | What's still ahead of you |
To Call breaks down further — 20 Meet Criteria · 0 Filtered — so you can see how many contacts your filters are letting through versus holding back.
Which is also your first debugging step: if To Call looks suspiciously low, you've probably got a filter on from Step 3.
Step 10. Steer the session
Four controls, and none of them will lose your list:
Pause — stops after the current call. Coffee, notes, or a suddenly-urgent Slack message.
Resume — picks up right where you left off.
Stop — ends the session. Your list stays intact.
Next Call — skips the contact in front of you and moves on. No judgement.
Step 11. Check who you've already reached
The table has two tabs:
Upcoming Calls — your queue. Who's next, in order.
Past Calls — who you've already reached this session, so you can double-check a name or a disposition without leaving the dialer.
No more wondering whether you already talked to Bill.
Step 12. Log every call
End each call with a disposition. It keeps your list clean, feeds your reporting, and it's what makes Sort by Last Disposition useful tomorrow morning.
Part 4 — Clean up
Step 13. Clear out what you're done with
One contact: use the delete option on that contact's row.
The whole list: the flush control is a small paper-shredder icon in the top ribbon, sitting between Upload Contacts and Power Automations. Hover it and you'll see the Flush list tooltip.
It does what a shredder does — it empties the list. Contacts are removed from the Power Dialer, not from your CRM, but there's no undo, so aim carefully.
Still stuck?
Our support team genuinely likes talking to people too.
📞 800-805-7753 · ✉️ support@ring.io