Prospecting – The unwritten rules

‘The age of cold calling is dead’.

This is the latest claim appearing on social media, but is this really the case? Or are poor cold callers just struggling to convert their calls?

Do you call at the right time of day? Are you choosing the correct day? And most importantly, are you calling the right person?  Here are some interesting facts that might make you think twice about how you cold call your prospects:

• Wednesday and Thursday are the best days to cold call a prospect.^[1] Employees have had chance to get over their Monday blues but the weekend isn’t quite in everyone’s minds just yet!
• The best time to make a sales call is between 8am and 9am. ^[1] The early bird catches the worm! People are more productive and are less bogged down at this time of day.
• The worst time is between 11am and 2pm ^[1] – when they’re eating lunch!
• Nearly 2/3 of B2B marketers identified engaging key decision makers as their top challenge^[2]. Sites such as LinkedIn offer unique opportunities to find out about more about an employee’s role, so do a bit of digging before making your call- the extra effort will pay off.
• In a typical firm with 100-500 employees, an average of 7 people are involved in most buying decisions. ^[3] 
• 80% of sales require 5 follow-up phone calls after the initial meeting. ^[4] How many times do you usually follow up after a meeting?
• However, 44% of salespeople give up after one follow-up. ^[5] Persistence pays off!

Each year, you’ll lose 14% of your customers (BusinessBrief.com) so you need to ensure you are regularly making contact with prospects and gaining new business.

Persistence is the key to gaining new customers. Remember, however, that the average customer isn’t going to want a call every day for five days! Time your calls correctly and speak to the right person to see success.

[1] LeadResponseManagement.org

[2] Forrester Research

[3] Gartner Group

[4] The Marketing Donut

[5] Scripted