Written By: John Houy
Anyone who has made cold calls before can tell you the amount of work it can take just to get one decision maker on the phone. You dial and dial and dial some more, getting tossed around from Human Resources to Accounting just to land back on the other end of that stubborn gate keeper. It can take hours before you have a real conversation with someone, and then only 1 in 5 times are you going to effectively set up next steps, if you’re lucky.
This is why it is so important to always be testing. The most miniscule changes can have a huge impact on your contact and appointment ratios. We recently ran a 90 day test on the best time of day to reach decision makers. 45,000 calls were made on behalf of a variety of companies in the Insurance, Manufacturing, and B2B Education industries. These calls were placed into organizations of all size and across a number of territories.
Through this test, we found that we are more effective in the morning versus the afternoon. Our best hour to call is at 11:00am in the prospects’ time zone and the worst hour to call is at 3:00pm in the prospects’ time zone. We had our best results when calling on the East Coast with the rest of the US coming in as a tie.
Below are three best practices for prospecting across the nation.
Know your time zones
We had the most success in the East Coast simply because we are also located on the East Coast. We start calling at 8am, take lunch at noon and end our day around five, just like the rest of the East Coast.
However, operating on this same schedule but calling into CST is not as effective. You start out calling at 7am, when virtually no one is in the office. You take lunch at one of the peak hours to be calling (11am) and you cut your day short by nearly 2 hours.
Know what time it is where you are calling. This may be an obvious practice, but is one that so many companies get wrong.
Put yourself in the Decision Maker’s Shoes
If you pay attention to what time it is, you can really get in the mind of the buyer. Say you are on the West Coast and it’s 2:15pm. You reach the VP of HR that you have been trying to get on the phone and she sounds in a hurry. Try starting with “I know you are probably on your way out of the office, do you have a spare minute for a quick idea related to your business”. Throw a quick impact statement and set up a time to talk in more detail. By understanding what the person on the other end of the phone is doing, you can better relate and drive more appointments.
Know Your Numbers
If your inside sales team is more effective in the morning than the afternoon, try scheduling internal meetings during those lousy hours. If you call all across the nation, break up your day so you are calling at peak times in the location of the buyer. By knowing when you have your most success, you can work smarter instead of harder, freeing up time to focus on current clients, or to duck out early for your closest happy hour.
Learn More About the Author
John is the Database Marketing Strategist at ProspeX. He is responsible for every aspect of the ProspeXTM CRM as well as overseeing the direct marketing tools and analytical tools that aid in business decisions and marketing efforts both internally and externally. John uses endless streams of data to develop internal lead generation initiatives. As if that weren’t enough, John is also a point of contact for clients and partners in assisting with all things data related.
