Cold Calling Best Practices

When it comes to sales, cold calling is, more often than not, the first step in sealing the deal with a new customer. In practices such as these, the amount of calls you make and the timing of which you make those calls is incredibly important in reaching a contact. For instance, the best times to call are Wednesdays and Thursdays from 6:45-9am and 4-6pm. The worst times to call are Monday mornings and Friday afternoons. Calling once or twice during the peak times will not guarantee you will connect with a prospect; furthermore, studies show that it can take approximately 7-13 calls to generate a B2b qualified sales lead.

Unfortunately, many reps often unproductively spend from 10-20 hours a week attempting to find and manage data. This time spent on non-selling activities is sometimes detrimental when it comes time to have conversations with prospects. The majority of executive buyers claim salespeople are not prepared with relevant examples or cases to help prospects understand their problems and productive options for their businesses. If sales reps could spend their time researching prospects and the ways in which their products could improve prospects’ business, it would be more valuable for all parties involved.

For those sales reps that do make contact with and create positive dialogues, following up can ultimately make or break the deal. Personalizing emails can improve click-through rates and responding to a prospect’s email within 5 minutes can increase the likelihood 9x of converting that person into a lead. Just as is the case in making preliminary contact, 80% of sales require 5 follow-up calls after a meeting. If you want to improve your conversion rates and become a top sales rep, then you need a tool that can fill these voids and allow you to spend your time as productively as possible.