When is the Best Time to Make Calls?

On Monday mornings prospects are too busy… On Friday afte
oons prospects are gone… Don’t want to bother the prospect by calling too early… They’ve probably left the office by mid-afte
oon… Middle of the week they’re very busy… What to do?

One of the questions I am frequently asked is, “When is the best time to make calls?” I’m always hesitant to answer this question, simply because I never want to give prospectors and new business development pros a reason not to make calls. I’m always afraid that if I mention times that are better than others people could interpret that to mean they should not make calls at those other times.

It’s true that good times to reach high-level corporate decision-makers and/or business owners can be before or after business hours. Many times high-level decision-makers or business owners are in early or they stay late. If you track your calls (which you should be doing) you may also notice trends about when you are able to reach prospects directly.

The bottom line is that you really never know when you might be able to reach a given prospect so it’s always worth trying. To prove my point, here is an email I recently received from a client. As you’ll see, his conclusions and results go against what passes for the common wisdom about when one can reach a prospect:

“Friday afte
oons after 2:00 p.m. have been the best times for me to reach people in their offices. I managed to get through to half a dozen people this afte
oon…. Every one of them either agreed to meet with me, or referred me down a level to someone else in their organization. The person who referred me down a level is the person who runs the entire home loan division for Bank of America – a very big fish. People may be tempted to take Friday afte
oon off, I know I always am, but it’s a spectacularly good time to call people.”

Ray Parrish
I
Sight Consulting Partners

So there you go. People say Monday mornings are bad. Friday afte
oons are bad. Too early is bad. Too late is bad. All excuses not to make calls. Go forth and prospect!