When’s the Best Time to Prospect?
“I’m responsible for generating my own leads. When’s the best time of the day to prospect and make new sales calls?”
Prospecting and making sales calls are two separate activities. Most salespeople make the mistake of viewing them as one activity by searching for a lead, find a lead, call the lead, repeat process.
This is very ineffective for several reasons but namely, because you will almost never get your prospect on the phone during the first attempt. Which means the majority of your day will be filled with “researching” for your next prospect rather than making sales calls.
One of the many best practice sales techniques I learned from one of my sales mentors was to build my list of prospects first before ever making a sales call.
In fact, my very first sales job under his guidance I was told to not make a sales call until I had built a list of 250 to 500 pre-qualified prospects. (I was told to go through the current database of old leads and “tag” those that matched the criteria for being pre-qualified. I was given a week to accomplish this but did it in 2 1/2 days)
The theory (and reality) is this: Once you have your list of pre-qualified prospects, you can spend the majority of your sales day making sales calls. (What a concept)
So while my co-workers were hunting and pecking every day and averaging only 20 to 30 calls, I could easily do 40 to 60 sales calls a day + have more meaningful conversations. My co-workers and I shared the same amount of work hours per day. However, my production was twice what theirs was because I built my list first.
Replenish Your Prospecting List
Even with a stack of pre-qualified leads to call, you will always need to replenish your lead list. I know a lot of sales people like to research for new leads right after their morning sales meeting, but doing it that way is a production killer.
While you’re “researching” for whom to call, the top sales reps at your competitors are already calling the prospects you are looking for.
I found the best success came from hitting the phones right away with a list of pre-qualified leads. Once I hit my goal of the number of first-time sales calls for the day, I would then focus on my non-scheduled follow-up calls.
Once that is done, I would take a 30-minute break late in the afternoon and research for new prospects to add to my list for tomorrow. After that short little break, I would end the day strong (I call it POWER HOUR) where the last hour of the day I would do nothing but make outbound sales calls in order to end the day strong.
– Michael Pedone
Michael Pedone teaches inside sales teams how to pick up the phone and close business. He is the CEO/FOUNDER of SalesBuzz.com – An online sales training company.
HOW TO MAKE SALES CALLS
How to successfully sell by phone – Live Online Sessions from Michael Pedone
Register to Michael Pedone’s next live online 8-Week B2B Inside Sales Program and get your sales team all on the same page using a proven sales script customized to your industry.
Register Now for Our Next 8-Week Phone Skills Improvement Program!
- Eliminate “No, Thanks,” “Not Interested” & “We’re All Set” Responses
- Learn a step-by-step process for Cold Calling and Warm Calling
- Neutralize Gatekeepers & Get Voicemails Returned
- Ask Engaging Questions Instead of Probing
- Improve your Qualifying Skills
- Learn more effective Sales Questions to ask (and ones to avoid)
- Give Stellar Presentations & Handle Objections
- Close Follow-up Calls and Get Targeted Referrals
- How to Set & Achieve Your Toughest Sales Goals
- Improve Your Time Management Skills
- Duration: 1 hour per week for eight weeks
- Where: Online @ your desk, conference room or home
- Presenters: Michael Pedone
Register now to Michael Pedone’s next live online 8-Week B2B Inside Sales Program and get your sales team all on the same page using a proven sales script customized to your industry.
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