Call outcomes in Salesforce: fields and dispositions that work

A Salesforce call disposition is the outcome of a call, stored on the call’s Task in the Call Result field (API name CallDisposition). Keep the list to about 9 outcomes that every rep reads the same way, write them from one fixed list, and map each to the reports managers use. Free-text outcomes split one result into many spellings and break every report grouped by outcome.

Where a call disposition lives in Salesforce

Salesforce logs a call as a Task. The Task object reference describes CallDisposition as the result of a call, with examples such as “we’ll call back”, stored as text of up to 255 characters. The reference marks it as a field you can filter, group and sort on, available to any user in an org with Salesforce CRM Call Center and not subject to field-level security.

The field is text, not a picklist. “Left voicemail”, “Left VM” and “voicemail left” are three different outcomes to a report. That is why the list has to be fixed before the first call, and why it is better written by the phone system than typed by the rep.

Orgs with Sales Engagement get a second layer:

• Call result values (CallDisposition object): the values reps pick when they log a call, such as whether the call connected or the rep left a voicemail.
• Call outcomes (CallDispositionCategory object): the groups those values roll up to, used in reports and in cadence branching.

An admin groups the values in Setup, under Sales Engagement Settings › Call › Define Call Results for Branching (Salesforce Help). Sales Engagement is included in Performance, Einstein 1 and Unlimited Editions and costs extra in Professional and Enterprise. When a cadence ends on a call, Salesforce maps the call outcome to the target’s disposition: Meaningful Connect becomes Customer Engaged, Left Voicemail and Call Back Later become Contact Later, and Not Interested and Disqualified keep their names.

A short disposition list that works

Each outcome answers two questions a manager needs: did a person answer (a connect), and was it the right person in a real conversation? Those two columns are what turn outcomes into the rates in SDR call metrics.

Outcome	Use it when	Connect	Conversation	Next step
No answer	It rang out or was busy	No	No	Retry at another time of day
Left voicemail	The rep left a message	No	No	Retry; send the follow-up email
Phone menu or screener	A phone menu or call screener answered and the rep did not get through	No	No	Try a direct line or another time
Wrong number	The number is not the contact’s	Yes	No	Fix or remove the number
Gatekeeper	Someone else answered and did not put the rep through	Yes	No	Ask for the best time or a direct line
Call back later	The right person asked for another time	Yes	Yes	A Task on the date they gave
Not interested	The right person declined	Yes	Yes	Stop the sequence, or nurture
Meeting booked	The right person agreed to a meeting	Yes	Yes	The meeting on the calendar
Do not call	The person asked not to be called again	Yes	Yes	Add the number to your do-not-call list now

Keep Do not call separate from Not interested. Under the FCC’s rule for telemarketing calls to residential subscribers, a do-not-call request must be recorded when it is made, honored within a reasonable time of no more than 10 business days, and honored for 5 years (47 CFR 64.1200(d), as of October 2026). Check with your counsel how this applies to your calls.

Machine answers belong in their own outcomes, not in No answer, so a rise in call screening shows up in reports. See answering machine detection for how dialers tell them apart.

How to map outcomes to Task fields

Task field	API name	What to write
Subject	Subject	“Call: “ and the outcome, for example “Call: Left voicemail”
Call Result	CallDisposition	The outcome, exactly as it appears in your list
Status	Status	Completed
Call Type	CallType	Outbound
Call Duration	CallDurationInSeconds	The length of the call in seconds
Comments	Description	The rep’s notes and the next step
Task Subtype	TaskSubtype	Call, set when the Task is created; it cannot be changed later

If reps log some calls by hand, give them a picklist instead of a blank text box. Tasks and Events share the Activity object, so a custom field for Tasks is created on Activity, in Object Manager › Activity › Fields & Relationships, and then added to the Task page layouts (Salesforce Help). Use the same values as Call Result. For the full logging rules, see how to log calls in Salesforce automatically.

Reports managers use

Build these on completed Tasks with Call Type Outbound, for last week:

1. Outcomes by rep. Group by Assigned To, then Call Result. A rep with many Gatekeeper and few Call back later outcomes needs better contact data or a better opener.
2. Connects and conversations. Count each rep’s rows in the Connect and Conversation columns of your list, and divide by their calls. This works only if every attempt is a Task; if your dialer logs only conversations, take dial counts from the dialer. Compare each rep with their own 4-week average.
3. Meetings by list. Group Meeting booked outcomes by the report or campaign each list came from, so the best lists get called first. See how to dial from a Salesforce report.
4. Do not call check. Filter Call Result to Do not call, and confirm every number is on your do-not-call list.
5. Bad data. Group Wrong number by lead source. A source with many wrong numbers costs every rep time.

If you use cadences, add the Disposition field to the Cadence Completion Reason report to see how targets left each cadence.

How DialSavvy handles this

AI answer detection labels every answer as a person, voicemail, a phone menu or a call screener, so machine answers are not left to the rep. Your do-not-call list is checked before every call. DialSavvy for Salesforce, in early access, logs each conversation as a completed Task with the outcome in the subject and the call result, the duration, the rep’s notes and a link to the call. The Task is written when the rep picks an outcome, or 2 minutes after the call if they don’t. Calls no one answered are not logged. See the DialSavvy dialer.

Pull last week’s call Tasks grouped by Call Result. If you find more distinct values than your list has outcomes, write the fixed list first, then fix the reports.