Orum and Nooks Are Monitoring the Titanic While It Sinks

Orum and Nooks have raised $75M+ combined to revolutionize sales calling with AI. They monitor everything—sentiment, energy, objection patterns, coaching opportunities.

They just forgot one small detail: Checking if the phone numbers actually work.

It's like building the world's most advanced heart monitor, then attaching it to corpses.

The AI Dialer Revolution That Isn't

Orum pitches "AI-powered parallel dialing with real-time coaching!" They've built impressive capabilities: sentiment analysis that reads emotional nuance, call transcription capturing every word, objection detection identifying resistance patterns, and manager alerts for coaching moments. They just forgot one tiny detail—knowing if anyone will actually answer the phone.

Nooks promises an "AI-powered sales assistant that helps reps win more deals!" Their feature list is equally impressive: battle cards surfacing relevant information, live coaching guiding conversations, analytics dashboards tracking everything, and performance metrics measuring every aspect of calls. Except they never check if the numbers actually work.

Both companies have built Formula 1 race cars with every conceivable technological advancement. They just forgot to check if there's gas in the tank. The result is sophisticated machines sitting motionless, monitoring their own inability to move forward.

The Monitoring Madness

Orum's tracking reveals the absurdity of monitoring without validation. Their AI detects "negative energy" on calls—which turns out to be disconnected numbers beeping. They measure talk time ratios showing reps talked 73% of the time, because they were leaving voicemails to no one. Their system identifies "high resistance" that's actually wrong numbers saying "you have the wrong number." Energy level analysis shows "low enthusiasm" on calls where literally no one answered.

Nooks' analysis is equally detached from reality. They flag reps for not using competitor comparisons when there's no competitor to compare—just a dial tone. Script adherence metrics penalize reps for going "off-script" when trying to navigate voicemail systems. The AI identifies "missed opportunities to build rapport" with automated disconnection messages. Call outcomes show "no next step scheduled" because obviously, dead numbers don't schedule meetings.

Both platforms generate incredibly detailed analysis of absolutely nothing. It's like having a food critic write detailed reviews of empty plates.

The $149/Month Monitoring Service for Failure

Your Orum dashboard presents a beautifully designed lie about your performance. It shows 247 calls made—impressive activity! Just 14 minutes of talk time—concerning, but the AI will help! Positive sentiment at 12%—needs improvement! 73 coaching alerts generated—so much learning! One meeting booked—well, at least there's something.

What the dashboard should show is the brutal reality. Of those 247 calls, 235 were to dead numbers—complete waste. Only 12 valid numbers were actually called. Those 12 produced 12 actual conversations because valid numbers tend to answer. One meeting from 12 conversations is actually decent. The real coaching alert should be: Stop Calling Dead Numbers.

You're paying $149 monthly for a sophisticated monitoring system that tracks your failure in high resolution without ever identifying the root cause.

The AI Theater of the Absurd

Analyzing actual customer data from AI dialer users reveals the depth of the delusion.

One company using Nooks received 156 AI coaching alerts daily, with 89 "improvement opportunities" identified by the system. The AI suggested better opening lines, improved energy, more strategic question asking. The actual problem? 94% of their numbers were dead. What the AI should have said was simple: "Get better numbers." Instead, it provided 156 ways to optimize calling corpses.

Another company using Orum achieved remarkable metrics by every measure except the one that matters. They made 250 parallel dials per hour—impressive throughput! Their "efficiency score" hit 94 out of 100—nearly perfect! Their connect rate was 2.8%—catastrophic. The reality: they were efficiently failing at scale, perfecting the art of not reaching anyone.

The AI is indeed getting smarter—smarter at analyzing failure, documenting failure, categorizing failure. It's just not preventing failure.

The Industry's Frustration

SDRs using these tools express common frustrations: "The AI keeps telling me to 'increase energy' and 'ask more open-ended questions.' How do I increase energy with a disconnected number? Should I enthusiastically greet the dial tone? Ask the busy signal about its pain points?"

Sales managers acknowledge the painful irony: "We have incredible visibility into every call. We can see exactly how our reps are failing in real-time. Every failed dial is captured, analyzed, and reported. We just can't stop it from happening. It's like watching a car crash in slow motion with detailed telemetry."

VPs of Sales who've tried both approaches sum up the experience: "Companies spend $50K on AI monitoring to discover what they already knew—no one answers their calls. The AI just tells us this fact in 47 different ways with beautiful dashboards."

The Features That Don't Matter When No One Answers

Orum's "revolutionary" features become sadly ironic when examined through the lens of connectivity. Automated voicemail detection is impressive technology that tells you faster that no one answered—like a speedometer on a parked car. Smart call routing efficiently distributes calls, but routing to which human when no one's there? Their AI meeting scheduler is ready to book time with ghosts and dial tones. Conversation intelligence analyzes conversations that never happen.

Nooks' "game-changing" capabilities suffer the same fundamental disconnect. Real-time battle cards surface competitive information for battles that never occur because the enemy never shows up. Their objection handling AI is prepared for every possible objection except the only one that matters: no one answered. The personalization engine crafts perfectly tailored messages for delivery to no one. Win/loss analysis consistently returns the same result: Loss reason—number disconnected.

The Venture Capital Delusion

The funding stories reveal how deep the delusion runs. Orum raised $12M in Series A to "revolutionize calling," then $25M in Series B to "scale AI capabilities." In reality, they've funded increasingly sophisticated AI analysis of dial tones and disconnection messages. Investors poured $37M into monitoring failure with unprecedented precision.

Nooks followed a similar path, raising $5M in seed funding for "AI-powered sales," then $22M in Series A for "expansion." They're expanding their ability to monitor failure across more teams, more calls, more non-connections. The technology gets better at documenting what isn't working.

Combined, over $75M has been invested in building sophisticated monitoring systems for a fundamentally broken process. It's like investing millions in advanced medical monitoring equipment for a morgue. The monitoring works perfectly; it's just that everyone being monitored is already dead.

What These Tools Actually Do Well

Let's be fair. When calling VALID numbers, these tools are impressive:

When Someone Actually Answers:

In those rare moments when someone actually picks up the phone, the AI features suddenly have value. Coaching suggestions can genuinely help improve the conversation. Battle cards provide useful context and talking points. Sentiment analysis helps reps adjust their approach in real-time. Call recording creates valuable training material for the team.

But here's the brutal reality: this only matters for the 5% of calls that actually connect. You're paying for sophisticated AI to monitor and improve a tiny fraction of your team's activity while ignoring the 95% that fails before it even begins.

The ConnectRate Integration Solution

We don't compete with Orum or Nooks. We make them actually work.

Before ConnectRate integration, a typical Orum session involves dialing 500 numbers with their parallel dialing technology. Only 25 connect at the standard 5% rate, meaning your expensive AI spends most of its time analyzing 475 failures. You're literally paying for expensive monitoring of nothing—AI-powered analysis of dial tones, disconnected messages, and voicemail greetings.

After ConnectRate integration, the entire dynamic changes. You validate numbers before they enter the dialer, ensuring you're only calling numbers that work. Orum now dials just 100 validated numbers but achieves 18 connections at an 18% connect rate. The AI finally analyzes real conversations with real prospects. Your investment in AI monitoring and coaching suddenly delivers actual value because it's applied to success rather than failure.

The Monitoring vs. Validating Problem

Sales teams have been convinced they need increasingly complex solutions to simple problems. They think they need better scripts, carefully monitored by AI to ensure perfect delivery. They want more coaching, triggered by AI at precisely the right moments. They demand faster dialing, powered by AI to maximize efficiency. They require deeper analytics, generated by AI to find hidden insights.

What they actually need is embarrassingly simple: working phone numbers. That's it. Seriously. Everything else—the scripts, coaching, speed, analytics—only matters if someone answers the phone. You can have the world's best script delivered with perfect energy and timing, but if the number is disconnected, you're just performing Shakespeare to an empty theater.

The Executive Conversation

CEO: "We invested $50K in Orum/Nooks. Why aren't sales up?"

VP Sales: "The AI says our reps need better energy."

CEO: "What's our connect rate?"

VP Sales: "3.2%, but the AI is coaching them!"

CEO: "So we're using AI to coach people on how to fail?"

VP Sales: "...yes."

Your AI Dialer Rescue Plan

If you're already trapped in the AI dialer monitoring maze, here's your escape route.

Week 1 requires facing reality without the AI sugar-coating. Check your actual connect rate, not your dial rate or efficiency score. Calculate cost per real conversation, not per dial or per minute. Count how many AI alerts are generated on calls to dead numbers—prepare to be horrified.

Week 2 introduces validation to your process. Integrate ConnectRate to identify which numbers actually work. Validate your entire database before your next dialing session. Feed only validated numbers to your AI dialer—stop asking it to monitor failure.

Week 3 reveals the transformation. Your connect rate jumps from 3% to 15-20% because you're calling real numbers. The AI finally analyzes real conversations instead of dial tones. Coaching alerts become relevant because they're about actual sales interactions, not voicemail performances.

Week 4 brings the financial vindication. ROI turns positive for the first time since implementation. Your AI investment is finally justified because it's monitoring success, not failure. Your team is actually improving because they're practicing on real prospects, not automated messages.

The Questions to Ask AI Dialer Vendors

When evaluating or re-evaluating your AI dialer investment, five questions cut through the marketing hype.

First, ask about their average customer's connect rate. Watch them squirm as they realize they track everything—dial rates, talk time, sentiment scores—except the one metric that actually matters. They monitor everything but measure nothing meaningful.

Second, inquire whether they can validate numbers before dialing. They'll admit they can't, but they'll quickly pivot to explaining how their AI can analyze the failure patterns. As if understanding why you're failing somehow makes the failure acceptable.

Third, question what percentage of their AI coaching alerts are triggered on calls that never connected. They've never measured this because the answer would destroy their value proposition. Most of their sophisticated coaching is about how to leave better voicemails.

Fourth, ask why their customers churn. They'll cite "various reasons"—budget changes, strategy shifts, personnel changes. The real reason they won't admit: customers leave because monitoring failure, no matter how sophisticated, doesn't build pipeline.

Finally, pose the obvious question: shouldn't you validate numbers before monitoring calls? The uncomfortable silence that follows tells you everything about their priorities.

The Simple Math

The economics of AI dialers change dramatically when you add validation.

Without validation, you pay $149 per user monthly to monitor 5,000 calls. With a 5% connect rate, that's 250 actual conversations buried in 4,750 failures. Your cost per monitored conversation is $2.38, but the value is questionable since most "coaching" is about improving voicemail delivery.

With ConnectRate validation, you pay $198 total ($149 for the AI dialer plus $49 for validation). You make fewer calls—just 1,000 monthly—but to validated numbers. With an 18% connect rate on validated numbers, you get 180 actual conversations. Cost per monitored conversation drops to $1.10, and the value is significant because every coaching moment addresses real sales situations.

The paradox is clear: more conversations, less cost, actual improvement. You're not working harder or spending more. You're just calling numbers that work.

The Bottom Line

Orum and Nooks are brilliant solutions to the wrong problem.

They've built AI that can detect the slightest hesitation in a rep's voice, analyze objection patterns, and provide real-time coaching on tone and energy.

They just can't tell you if anyone's on the other end of the line.

It's like hiring the world's best swimming coach for your team, then practicing in an empty pool.

The future of sales isn't better monitoring of failure. It's preventing failure in the first place.

Stop monitoring dead calls with AI. Start validating numbers with ConnectRate and make your AI dialers actually intelligent.