Timing Your Prospecting Calls
Jeb Blount offers advice on finding the right time to make prospecting calls.
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Timing Your Prospecting Calls
We received this question from a listener named Jay from Houston who asks, “Jeb is it better to contact a prospect during the morning than the end of business day? Do you think they will be more likely to be chipper and more receptive to my call in the morning?”
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Is there a best time to make prospecting calls? This is one of the most common questions I get relative to telephone prospecting. I get this question from salespeople across all industries and all experience levels. There are several reasons salespeople ask this question:
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A) They are truly interested in timing their calls.
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B) They are frustrated and just venting in which case my answer falls on deaf ears.
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C) They are seeking validation for not making their prospecting calls and the question is being used as a cop-out. In this case they do not like my answer.
A great analogy for timing your calls is investing. The investor who attempts to time the market has historically failed to beat the investor who uses a dollar-cost-averaging strategy which is essentially making incremental investments on a regular schedule over time. Of course professional traders who use sophisticated and complex software to discover and exploit trends do have an edge, but these folks are a small minority.
If you think about prospecting in the same vein, salespeople who prospect daily on a regular schedule are always more successful over time than those who make the attempt to time their prospects. Like investing, statistics are always in the favor of the sales pro who does a little bit of prospecting every day.
There are of course some industry norms that must be taken into consideration. For instance, if you call on industrial or manufacturing buyers you will find them in the office much earlier in the morning than buyers in the banking and financial services industries. With that in mind it is reasonable that you time your calls so that the people you are calling are actually in the office.
Outside of that my recommendation is that you forget about timing and focus instead on calling – every day. Though it may not seem like it when you first get started, when you make a regular number of out bound dials each day, over time, you will make more calls, reach more prospects, and keep your pipeline overflowing.
Prospecting is the most important activity in sales. It is also frustrating and uncomfortable. No matter how much you wish it to be different, the vast majority of your calls will go to voice mail, you will deal with rude gatekeepers, and you will often catch prospects at the worst possible time in their day. That is life in the sales world. And despite the ongoing fantasy that there is some magical time when prospects will welcome your call with a kind voice and an open mind, nothing will change this fact.
It is because prospecting is so difficult that I recommend making your prospecting calls first thing in the morning; not because the prospect is in a better mood, but because you are. You will feel better, sound more enthusiastic, and weather the inevitable rejection much better. Most importantly if you tackle prospecting first thing in the morning it is more likely to get done than of put off. Prospecting procrastination is the number one reason salespeople lose their jobs. It usually goes something like this. Johnny , the sales rep, says to himself:
“I shouldn’t call these prospects at 8am because they are just getting in the office. I’ll give them some time to settle in.”
“I shouldn’t call these prospects at 10am because they’ll be in meetings.”
“I can’t call now because it is lunch time.”
“I shouldn’t call now because they are probably returning phone calls after lunch.”
“It’s 3pm and calling now is a bad idea because the prospect is probably not in the mood to talk to a salesperson this late in the afternoon.”
“I can’t call now because it is 5pm and it is time to go home. I guess I’ll try again tomorrow.”
Johnny, who has repeated these same lines day after day and by now is failing, approaches me after a speech or sales training and asks, “What is the best time to call prospects?”, secretly hoping that my answer will help back up his lack of activity. I see right through the smoke screen. My advice is and always will be the same. Forget about timing. Focus instead on consistent, daily prospecting and I promise you will never worry about where your next sale is going to come from.
This is Jeb Blount, the Sales Guy. If you have a sales question please send it to salesguy@quickanddirtytips.comcreate new email.
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