Nooks vs Orum: How To Pick The Best AI Parallel Dialer

What’s the Best AI Parallel Dialer?

If you’re reading this, you’re probably not asking “what is an AI dialer?” or “what is a parallel dialer?” anymore. You already know that more pipeline comes from more high-quality live conversations. You’re likely just trying to decide whether Nooks or Orum is the better fit for your teams.

Both companies are in the same general market. They both aim to deliver:

• More conversations via power and parallel dialing
• More meetings converted from those conversations per rep
• Enterprise-grade call quality, security, and compliance
  
  

But the question is: what is your experience, from the sales process through roll-out and beyond? How helpful are the sales teams? How well can you trial and compare performance? How fast do calls connect? How much do reps like using it? And how much of your sales motion can live in one workspace?

This guide walks you through how Nooks and Orum compare on those points. Plus, you’ll get some suggested questions you can use in any evaluation.

The Short Version

Here’s a quick summary of what we hear from customers who have tried both.

Orum

• Helped popularize parallel dialing
• Focuses on dial volume as a differentiator
• Concentrates on a “dialer first” strategy
  

Nooks

• AI-native platform for having high-quality conversations
• Dialer, Salesfloor, Coaching, Reporting, Enrichment, and Prospecting all tightly coupled in a single platform
• Fastest connect speeds and rates, and best platform stability that our customers have seen
• Total rep experience that is truly loved by users, including  global enterprises like HubSpot and Deel

When teams run side-by-side trials, they choose Nooks overwhelmingly. Across head-to-head evaluations, Nooks is chosen 86% of the time.

That’s the high level summary. Let’s dig into the details.

AI Platform versus Dialer

Orum is a dialer first. Nooks is the next generation, outbound workspace for sales teams. Nooks took the approach of being AI-native from the start. That means that our dialer is not only hyper-effective, but we’re able to deliver innovation to our users at a stunning rate. That pace of development allowed us to build the sales data and execution capabilities that customers need to make dialing and outbound more effective.

With Nooks you get:

• AI Dialer for parallel and power dialing with quick, clean connects
• Salesfloor for live call visibility and instant coaching
• AI Coach to score and improve all calls and give reps hyper-tuned bots to practice on
• Data enrichment to get better phone numbers, including mobile, across multiple data sources
• Analytics and reporting designed for improving sales teams, not just telephony stats
  
  

The platform completely changes how teams operate and succeed. Teams are not just making more calls, they are consistently turning those calls into more meetings, more opportunities, and better pipeline coverage.

Case study: Greenhouse

‍Greenhouse uses Nooks as the foundation for their global SDR team. After moving onto Nooks AI Dialer they saw roughly a 4x increase in dials, a 7x jump in connect rate within the first four days of the trial, and over time a 933% increase in pipeline and a 550% increase in revenue influenced by phone sourced opportunities. That kind of lift comes from having one platform where reps can prospect, dial, and get coached, instead of a standalone dialer stitched together with a lot of point tools.

With Orum, buyers often bolt on additional, unintegrated tools for prospecting, enrichment, and coaching. With Nooks, those functions already exist with the platform. Reps and managers are not toggling between systems. They are simply having more quality conversations.

Connect Speed, Connect Rates, and Call Quality

Parallel dialing is meant to deliver more live conversations. That only matters if those conversations start smoothly. No prospect wants to hear a long pause before a connection is made.

Nooks from the very start has been AI-native. A key element of that AI capability is the power to bridge calls exceptionally fast. In fact, 95% of calls connect to the rep in less than half a second. On top of that, Nooks provides instant access to call notes, live transcriptions, LinkedIn profiles, and more so sellers can jump right into high value conversations instead of scrambling for context.

Customers coming from other dialers often report a noticeable pause at the start of calls. That lag leads to more awkward intros and more “is anyone there?!” moments. Not good.

Faster connects show up in:

• Higher connect to conversation rates
• More confident reps
• Better experiences for the prospect and rep
• Less fatigue from bad calls
  
  

If you’re evaluating both Nooks and Orum, here’s an easy test:

Run a trial. Have your reps do a calling block in both tools and just listen to the first two seconds of every conversation. Your team will notice the difference instantly, and you will see it in the connect to conversation and connect to meeting rates.

These are the kinds of details that make a difference on live calls. Things like FCR registration and caller ID monitoring protect connect rates. Battle cards and AI summaries help reps land better intros once that connection happens.

Case study: Global data company

One global data company moved from Orum to Nooks and ran the exact same outbound program: same reps, same target accounts, same sequences. With Nooks in place, their connect-to-meeting rate climbed from about 20% to 35%. That is roughly a 75% improvement in conversion from live conversations to meetings without increasing headcount. The lift came from cleaner connects, better data, and higher-quality conversations on each call.

Rep Experience and Adoption

A dialer only delivers value if users actually love using it every day.

On G2, Nooks and Orum both have a lot of reviews. But Nooks clearly takes the lead in areas that matter to frontline teams and their management:

• Overall rating
• Ease of use
• Quality of support
• Partnership scores, reflecting being a good long term vendor
  
  

We hear the same things again and again from reps who have used both systems:

• Nooks feels more modern and intuitive
• It’s easier to get real work done
• The call quality is better, the focus on conversation quality is better
• The service and support are leaps and bounds better
• The completeness of the solution is night and day
  
  

The rep and manager experience is a big part of why teams who run side-by-side trials land on Nooks most of the time. It’s simply easier to make a platform that users love part of their daily process versus something mandated by management.

Case study: HubSpot

HubSpot’s sales team uses Nooks to drive a high volume, high quality outbound motion. After rolling out Nooks AI Dialer, they saw a 95% increase in dials and a 50% increase in connect rate. Quality also increased: they added a 35% increase in meetings booked from outbound. Those numbers only show up because reps are actually in the tool, day after day, and enjoy using it. 

Data, Enrichment, and Integrations

Phone connect rates are heavily influenced by data. The best dialer on earth will not perform if the numbers are bad. Your reps are going to struggle.

Nooks:

• Uses waterfall enrichment across multiple data providers to find and update the best possible numbers for each prospect
• Helps teams filter out bad or dead numbers at scale so lists get better all the time
• Integrates with the core sales stack: CRM, SEP, and leading data vendors
• Includes a LinkedIn embed and pushes call notes back to other systems so your data is reusable
  
  

Because enrichment and dialing sit in the same platform, call outcomes and bad-number feedback automatically improve the next list. Over time, that means higher connect rates on the same target universe, not just “more dials.”

Orum does also integrate into major sales tools, but its product focus is largely on the dialer itself. Nooks is built on a rich platform approach. We recognize that the effectiveness of the phone depends on great data, feedback loops to and from your other tools, and more. That holistic approach is why Nooks customers see their conversation and pipeline results climb.

When you evaluate, ask each vendor to walk you through:

• How they enrich numbers
• How quickly they show improved connect and conversation rates
• How call notes and other outcomes sync back to your systems, and how that data gets mined for call prioritization, call scripting, coaching, training, and more
  

Case study: Drata

Drata’s outbound team sells into security and compliance leaders who are hard to reach. After moving to Nooks AI Dialer running on top of waterfall enrichment, they saw a 2.5x increase in meetings booked from outbound. Better data meant more connects with the right people. The platform’s feedback loops meant those lists kept improving, instead of reps repeatedly dialing into the same dead numbers.

Coaching, Enablement, and Ramp Time

Coaching used to mean managers randomly opening a handful of call recordings and hoping they could get some insight from them.

Nooks AI Coach changed that:

• Every call is automatically recorded, transcribed, and scored
• Managers can see patterns across talk tracks, objections, and results
• Reps can practice with training bots that are built on real customer conversations, not generic scripts
• Global teams can practice in their native language
  
  

On top of that, the virtual Salesfloor gives managers a live view into calls in progress and a way to support their teams. They can listen in, jump in, quietly coach, and turn great moments into coaching assets almost immediately.

Orum has coaching features as well, but its core product DNA is rooted in the dialer they developed early on. Nooks treats coaching and enablement as a key strategy for increasing conversation quality and rep performance, not an afterthought.

Nooks focuses analytics on what actually drives pipeline: which objections convert, how deeply you are penetrating accounts, which sequences and talk tracks are producing meetings. These are the tools that make a salesfloor feel alive. Managers can jump into live conversations, coach over chat, and celebrate meetings in Slack in real time.

Case study: Seismic

Seismic uses AI Coach as a core part of their onboarding and ongoing coaching process. They have seen about a 40% reduction in ramp time for new reps and a 3x increase in meetings booked from outbound calls. Because every call is scored and searchable, managers spend less time hunting for examples and more time coaching on what actually drives meetings.

What Customers See in Head-to-Head Trials

Buyers do not make their decision based on blog posts like this. They put vendors through real trials. And across direct evaluations where teams run Nooks and Orum side by side, Nooks is preferred 86% of the time.

We hear these common patterns across buyers:

• Connect speeds are noticeably better in Nooks
• Reps prefer the Nooks UI, reporting, coaching, and Salesfloor
• Users prefer having a unified platform that doesn’t require jumping from tab to tab
• Reporting gives more insight into what actually drives meetings and pipeline generation
  
  

That is what you should expect from a platform that is built to drive conversations and pipeline, not just raw dial volume.

Case study: Greenhouse

Greenhouse wanted to turn cold calling into a predictable source of pipeline. Within four days of trialing Nooks, they saw their connect rate jump 7x compared to their previous approach. Over the next quarter, opportunities booked via the phone increased by about 70%, and they went on to see a 933% increase in pipeline and a 550% increase in revenue influenced by outbound calling. More connects per rep and a better engine for turning those connects into qualified opportunities made the decision clear.

The Full Platform in More Detail

Feedback loops: why the platform matters

Most dialers stop at “get more connects.” Nooks excels at connects for sure. But Nooks goes further by treating every call as a data point that makes the next call better.

Calls feed transcripts. Transcripts feed AI Coach and reporting. Those insights tell AI Prospector which accounts and contacts to prioritize next. Enrichment fills in better numbers and context. Then the cycle repeats.

The result is a tight feedback loop:

• Each call makes your lists smarter
• Each objection makes your talk tracks sharper
• Each outcome makes your next outreach block more focused
  
  

That is the platform advantage. You are not running prospecting, dialing, coaching, and enrichment as separate tools. You are running one system where everything feeds everything else.

Now, let’s zoom in a little more on two platform elements that further set Nooks apart from Orum.

AI Prospector

AI Prospector sits upstream from dialing. With AI Prospector, teams can:

• Use buying signals and AI scoring to decide which accounts to focus on now
• Automate account research and push insights and scripting into the dialer view so reps have context that improves conversation quality
• Generate prioritized lists of prospects, including numbers, by combining CRM data, SEP data, and data from external sources
• Turn call transcripts and notes, like “call me back in February” or “budget is definitely a concern” into managed follow-ups
  
  

The important element is that prospecting and calling are unified through feedback loops. Teams make calls, gather unique first party data on the account, and then use Nooks to remind them when and how to reconnect.

Case study: Modern Health

Modern Health uses AI Prospector to decide where to focus and Nooks AI Dialer to execute. After rolling both out together, they saw 5x more dials, a 50% increase in meetings booked, and now source roughly 60% of their outbound pipeline through Nooks. Buying signals, call outcomes, and enrichment all flow into one place, so reps are not guessing who to call next. They are guided by real activity and real conversations.

AI Coach

AI Coach starts downstream from the dialer, and feeds input back to make the next calls even better.

With AI Coach, teams can:

• Practice talk tracks with realistic bots before reps make calls
• Score every call and highlight where reps are strong or struggling
• Learn how top performers execute on the phone, and roll these best practices out across the team
• Cut ramp time by removing the “listen to every call” manual work for managers
  
  

When teams roll AI Coach out, they routinely see ramp time cut by 40% or more and a clear lift in conversion from conversation to meeting, because talk tracks and objection handling are now tested, measured, and coached instead of left to chance.

When you compare, ask each vendor how they handle both of these questions:

• Who should be called next (prioritization, signals, research, and so on)
• How to make every rep better on those calls (training, practice, scoring, insights, and so on)
  
  

Nooks is a single system that answers both questions.

Both Nooks and Orum check the key compliance boxes that Enterprise buyers care about. That is important, but it is also table stakes at this point. The real differences show up in how quickly your team can connect, how much they like using the tool, and how much of your outbound motion can live in a single platform.

Questions to Ask Any Dialer Vendor

Whether you are leaning toward Nooks, Orum, or another option, here are questions to bring to your evaluation.

Connect Rates, Speed, and Reliability

• How fast do calls typically connect, and can you show us that live?
• What does your uptime look like over the last year?
• How do you monitor call quality and fix issues before reps see them?
  

Rep Experience

• What do SDRs who have used both systems say about your UI?
• How long before a rep feels comfortable in your tool?
• What adoption rates do your customers see? How is ramp time affected?
  

Platform Depth

• Beyond dialing, what coaching and enablement capabilities help support conversation quality?
• How do managers see what is happening live and turn calls into coaching moments?
• How do you support global enterprises?
  

Data and Enrichment

• How do you enrich phone numbers, and which providers do you integrate with?
• How does your system learn from bad numbers and update lists over time?
• How do calls, notes, and outcomes push back into CRM and sequences?
  

Outcomes

For customers who have switched from another dialer, what changes do you see in:

• Connect to conversation rate
• Connect to meeting rate
• Ramp time for new reps
  

Good vendors should be able to answer all of these with real examples, not just feature checklists.

FAQ

What is an AI powered parallel dialer, and why does it matter?

AI powered parallel dialers let reps work multiple numbers at once while the system handles detection, handoff, and logging. Teams usually see 2 to 5x more live conversations per rep once they move off manual dialing or basic click to call tools.

Why have teams like ZoomInfo, HubSpot, Airbase, Modern Health, and Fivetran chosen Nooks?

These teams care about more than just volume. They want faster connects, a better rep experience, and a single platform for prospecting, dialing, and coaching. Nooks gives them that full workspace and backs it up with measurable changes in meetings, pipeline, and ramp time.

What should I look at first when comparing Nooks and Orum?

Start with live connect speed, rep feedback after a week in each tool, and how much of your workflow you can keep in one platform. Those three areas usually tell you more than long feature lists. Run a trial, and your team will see.

Where can I see what other users say about Nooks and Orum?

G2 is a good starting point. You can read side by side reviews for Nooks and Orum and filter by company size, segment, and role to see how teams similar to yours are using each product.

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