Love them or loathe them, sales calls remain a hugely effective way to win over prospective clients. The convenient yet personal nature of cold calling has remained a favourite marketing technique for decades, used by everyone from top Fortune 500 companies to independent SMEs. Even with the emergence of new technologies such as e-mail, social media and mobile marketing, sales calls have retained their relevance.
Of course, sales calls aren’t always a piece of cake. They’re accompanied by an underlying stigma that leads to plenty of prospects opting for the cold shoulder before they even know what’s being offered.
So how can you ensure that every dial has its best chance of a conversion? One way is to pinpoint optimum call times that will maximise sales opportunities. Want to know more? We’ve created a guide to creating a cold call calendar that’s guaranteed to increase conversions. Enjoy!
Wednesday and Thursday
Wednesday may be known as the hump day, but, according to the latest statistics from LeadResponseManagement.org, it kicks off the beginning of the week’s most lucrative cold calling days. While Monday sees people planning their weekly schedules and Friday fosters weekend daydreams, Wednesday and Thursday find recipients engaged and responsive.
Limit morning calls to 8 – 9am
Cold calling in the morning generally warrants recipients that are fresh and open to communication, however experts maintain that contact should be limited to an hourly slot between 8 and 9 am. Call any earlier and you’ll likely interrupt their morning rituals. Call any later and they’ll be distracted with prioritising the day ahead.
Let prospects lunch in peace
Looking forward to lunch breaks is what keeps workers going throughout the morning. This means that interrupting coffee and sandwich time is definitely not appreciated. Instead, spend the hours between 11am and 2pm researching potential clients, developing new leads and putting together original sales pitches.
Afternoon 4 – 6pm
When it comes to cold calling in the afternoon, anywhere between 4 – 6pm has been identified as optimum hours. LeadResponseManagement.org back this theory with a three year study that revealed cold calling between 4 – 6pm is 114% more effective than during lunch hours. Talk about afternoon delight!
Get dialling ASAP
Leads that are generated by your website have a gloomily short life span which means it’s critical to action every new prospect, ASAP. Ideally, leads should be followed up within the first five minutes of generation. The latest research from Dr. Oldroyd’s Lead Response Management Survey confirmed that if you call back within 5 to 10 minutes then you are 21x more likely to qualify leads than marketers who wait for half an hour or more.
Can we help?
Ready to warm up your cold call contact list? We can help you arm your business with a white hot business and consumer lists. We’ll also keep your legal obligations in check with a 24/7 online Individual or Corporate Telephone Preference Service (TPS and CTPS) checking service that lets you instantly determine whether or not it’s lawful to make unsolicited direct marketing calls to certain numbers.