“What is the ideal daily talk time for an inside salesperson?”

I’ve answered this question before however, it was a while ago and since we have a lot of new subscribers, many of you may not have seen my previous reply, so here’s my response:

Talk Time Metric For Sales

Talk time is a great metric if used properly.

Meaning, if you have a proven sales process to follow and are tracking real sales calls (not calls to your mom, girlfriend, etc as well as not making bogus sales calls to the same few prospects over and over again that are known or should be known as dead-ends)

One employer, who quickly became a mentor of mine, said to me:

“Make 60 (legitimate) dials and or 3 hours of sales talk time per day and I won’t care what you do with the other 5 hours of the day.”

I was the only salesperson that took his request seriously and I outsold everyone else… and I was the new guy working old leads.

Since learning that goal/metric, I’ve used it everywhere I went, including a couple of businesses that I’ve started and it has proven to be one of the cornerstones to success time and time again for myself, my employees and now for those that I help in the sales world.

Talk Time Nay-Sayers

Of course, there will always be someone who will respond with “I focus on “quality over quantity”.

For the most part, it’s a lame excuse and usually given by someone who isn’t making quota and is blaming everyone and anything he/she can but themselves on why they aren’t hitting their numbers. A little harsh I know but sometimes there’s no easy way to wake someone up other than to be blunt.

The Bottom Line

Common sense tells us that there can be too little activity, too much activity and then there’s the just-right amount of activity.

To me, 30 dials a day is too light for outbound cold-calling.

If you’re making 80 to 100+ dials a day (unless you have an autodialer) you are making too many calls and aren’t engaging prospects enough (which means your sales process is off and needs fixing)

But the goal of a total number of 60-dials per day (including 2nd, 3rd, 4th attempts, etc, and call-backs) and or 3 hours of talk time per day has never failed me when I’m consistent with the plan.

How Do You Make 60-Dials a Day?

One way is to use Call Blocks.

Call blocks are specific times scheduled in your day that focuses on specific types of sales calls. Let me give you an example:

9:00 AM to 10:00 AM: First-time calls

First-time calls are brand new prospects that have NOT been called yet.

10:00 AM to 11:00 AM: First-time calls 2nd Attempts. “First-time calls 2nd Attempts” are calls you make to prospects that have NOT responded to your first attempt.

Some leads you will want to try again sooner and other leads you may want to let “breath” for a little bit before attempting to reach them again. By having a call block and having your FTC #2 calls (First-time Calls Attempt #2) to always be scheduled at a specific time of the day, it won’t matter if the original call (FTC #1) was yesterday, last week or last month.

11:00 AM to Noon: First-time calls 3rd Attempts.

1:00 PM to 3:00 PM: Follow-up Calls

3:00 PM to 4:00 PM: OPEN – MIXED (Salesperson handles/decides what calls they need to make)

The above call block is just an example – it’s designed to get your creative juices turning. There is no right or wrong call block strategy or cadence. Just pick or create one that works best for you and your team and implement it.

Following a process like this will ensure your team is doing the work that needs to be done to increase their chances of getting the prospects on the phone.

– Michael Pedone

Founder of SalesBuzz.com. Online Sales Training Programs that Engage – Live and On-demand Online Workshops for B2B Inside Sales Teams.

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