“Hello from the other side...
I must've called a thousand times…”
Is Adele humming in your head every time you start dialling...trying to reach a lead for the 100th time?
But when you call, they never seem to be on “the other side”?!!?
Good lord! Adele really nailed the problem of every cold caller ever with that one song, am I right?
Jokes aside, the hard industry truth is that 97% of sales calls go unanswered and/or straight to voicemail.
While one solution could be to master the art of leaving a voice message, stats show that only 11% of those will get returned. And that’s not very promising.
This leads us to our real solution – know when to call and your prayers shall be answered!
If only Adele had the right research data and tools to know the best time and day to call, we bet those lyrics would go quite differently…
But guess what? You do!
In this article:
Hint: Friday is not a good day to call a prospect (not even for a warm lead).
For a minute, put yourself in the prospect’s shoes. It’s Friday evening and your headspace has already drifted into the weekend you’ve been waiting for all week long. You’re wrapping up your week’s work and the phone rings...
Does that sound like a nice time to talk shop with a stranger on the phone? No, right?
Research backs up your feelings as Fridays are officially the worst day to make sales call (not even it’s a warm lead).
Mondays are no good either. In fact, they are the second-worst day of the week. And understandably so. It’s the first day of the week and you’re taking a tally for what lies ahead –– readying your to-do, scheduling meetings, setting targets. You don’t have time for a 55-minute long conversation with a person who MIGHT have a solution to ONE of your problems.
Based on that (and you’ve guessed it right) the middle of the week is your sweet spot.
In fact, even between Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, Wednesdays tend to get you the best results.
The difference between calling on the best and worst day of the week? A massive drop of almost 54% in conversion rates!
Again, think of this logically. What are most professionals doing between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m.? Most likely, commuting to work. And when they reach office, the first two hours are spent resolving the most urgent matters on that to-do list.
Not a very nice window to knock with your sales pitch!
Same goes for those who come in super early (before 7 a.m) or are burning the midnight oil (past 6 p.m). Most probably they have too much on their plate and are trying to get work done without distraction.
Now, think when would be the ideal hour to catch a busy executive?
Probably when they are wrapping up stuff and more relaxed. Bingo!
Many surveys show that 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. (when your lead is winding down for the day) is the best hour to catch them.
Or, the next best slot is between 10 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., when they’re wrapping up tasks before taking a lunch break.
Expert tip: According to Steve Richard of Harvard Business Review, the best times to cold call are “five minutes before the top of the hour, catching the executives before their next conference call meetings, and holidays like President’s Day, when executives are likely to be in the office and other business may be slow.”
Won’t it be just perfect if the person called when you are thinking about them?
Track your prospects’ other channel activities –– exploring the product on the website, submitting an inquiry, trying to research a solution using your chatbot and such.
Your lead is already thinking about you (or your solution) and that’s when you hit – when the iron is already hot!
Also, make that follow-up call as fast as you can. A study found that just an hours delay in response time could mean a gigantic 450% drop in call conversions.
Research shows 90% success rate on making contact with their lead on the sixth call.
However, don’t drive them nuts with back-to-back follow-ups where you seem to start looking “needy”. Spread out your follow-up calendar. Stats found scheduling these six calls over a period of 15 days improved contact rates by 110%.
In short, follow-up regularly but know the difference between persistence and annoyance!
All the above boils down to one thing – the key to turning a lead into a sale is knowing when to sell your product or service.
The stalwarts know this and thus swear by tracking prospects and finding trigger events.
What are trigger events?
Anything that can trigger warm leads towards making the purchase. Basically, any significant industry, company or even personnel changes – new funding rounds, mergers and acquisitions, hiring C-level staff, new strategy reveal, restructuring personnel, change in competition landscape, etc. etc.
By identifying and tracking trigger events, you’ll be able to react to potential sales opportunities more quickly.
You don’t have to be Sherlock to identify these triggers. Just keep a broad eye on the industry news and you’ll know when it's time.
The above are the generic rules of the game. So, what fits others might not suit you!
Every industry is different. To find your best call days and time(s) you need to track your calls and analyse your own data. Start by:
1. Automate your sales call reporting. Generate sales reports on your activity-based metrics with call details, conversion rate, etc. Easily and accurately measure the efficiency of your call activities.
2. Track all your call performance metrics and see when and how many times your calls went unanswered and logically find out when is the best day and time to call your specific customers.
c3. Know your best call-response time. With our call analytics solution, measure the time it takes a salesperson to call a lead. See when your success rate is highest - make it a rule!
Try it out: Want to test-drive the solution? No worries! Just sign-up for a free 14-day trial to see how Salestrail can be your gamechanger.
Learn more: If you’d like to master the art of sales call, head to Salestrail blogs for in-depth guides, free templates, researched articles and more.
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