What is the maximum amount of time you should wait for your prospect past the scheduled appointment time?

By Indeed Editorial Team

Updated February 22, 2021 | Published October 27, 2020

Updated February 22, 2021

Published October 27, 2020

You could increase your cold-calling success rate if you try reaching your prospects at certain times and on specific days. Potential clients may be more willing to hear your pitch based on where they are in their workday and workweek. Learning about these dates and times can help you become a more efficient salesperson long term. In this article, we discuss some of the best dates and times to cold call prospects and provide tips to connect with customers.

What are the best times to cold call?

Generally, cold calls are most effective right before lunch or toward the end of the workday on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Though these times and days have higher success rates, it's still helpful to make calls throughout the day and week to reach more customers. Many factors contribute to the likelihood of converting a lead into a customer, so it's best to perform some research to find the best times to contact individual prospects.

Related: What Is Cold Calling?

Types of sales calls

Some of the sales call that you could make include:

Cold call

A cold call is your first contact with a prospect. At this point, you likely know little or nothing about the potential customer, and they don't know anything about you or your company. Cold calls are usually the least effective type of sales call, so it's important to prepare for each cold call you make to increase your chances of making a sale.

Warm call

When you reach out to a potential customer after they express interest in your product or service, you're making a warm call. In these cases, the client probably filled out an online form with some basic information about themselves and what they need. You could also make a warm call if you make a connection at a networking event or through a mutual contact. Warm calls are usually more successful because the potential client is interested in your product and you have more information about their needs.

Appointment call

You usually schedule an appointment with a prospect to finalize sales details. An appointment can happen after either a cold or warm call.

Traditional call

This type of call is when you contact an existing customer to renew a contract or upsell a product or service. Traditional calls are very effective since you already have a relationship with the client.

Follow-up call

Once you make a sale, it's customary to make a follow-up call to ensure the customer is satisfied. A follow-up call is a simple way to turn a one-time customer into a long-term client.

Related: 9 Ways to Provide Excellent Customer Service

Best days to cold call

Here are the best days to cold-call customers in order:

• Wednesday and Thursday: Prospects are often more open to making deals on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The middle of the week usually gives them enough time to consider your offer and make a deal. These days are often slowest in terms of work responsibilities, so customers may be more likely to answer your call.
  

• Monday and Tuesday: Many professionals spend Monday and Tuesday finishing work left from the week before or completing tasks that came in over the weekend. Since they're usually busy, they may not have much time to listen to your pitch.
  

• Friday: Most people are getting ready for the weekend on Fridays. They may not be willing to commit to a sale on Friday when they won't have as much time to review the details.

Best times to cold call

Just as there are good times during the week to cold call, you can increase your success rate if you call during certain times of the day:

• Right before lunch: People try to finish any tasks they're working on before they go to lunch. Calling between 11 a.m. and noon means you could have more time to speak with your prospect with fewer distractions.
  

• Right before the end of the day: Most people are also more likely to complete any work toward the end of the day instead of leaving it unfinished. They're also less likely to begin new tasks, so try calling between 4 and 5 p.m.

Though it may seem like a good idea to make cold calls in the morning before your prospects fully begin working, many people spend this time organizing their day or working on tasks that came in the night before. It might be helpful to spend this time completing any administrative work you have.

Related: 17 Tips for Effective Cold Calling (With Scripts)

Sales call tips

You can increase your success rate when making cold calls by following these tips:

Do your research

Learning more about prospects can help you make stronger connections quickly. When you can, perform thorough research about the potential customer and their business to seem more personable and interested when you speak with them. A strong initial connection serves as a foundation for a long-lasting sales relationship. Spend your mornings doing your research while you wait for optimal calling times later in the day.

Be persistent

You may find more success if you continue to follow up with a prospect if they don't respond to your first contact attempt. Continue calling or sending emails to try to make a connection with the customer. Being persistent and calling at different times and days increases your likelihood of making contact.

Respond quickly

Speed to lead measures the time between receiving a qualified lead and contacting them. The quicker you reach out to a prospect after they express interest in your business, the more likely you are to close a sale. As soon as you get a lead, begin performing research. Take a little bit of time to learn more about the prospect and the challenges they face, then contact them to describe how your product can solve those challenges.

Craft a script

Writing a script with general talking points can help you communicate your main talking points when you do make contact. Scripts also keep your pitch straightforward, making it easier for the prospect to learn about the value of your product. Incorporate your research on the customer, which can help you remember the details and keep the customer's interest.

Encourage action

Whether you can close the sale in one call or you need to schedule an appointment call, encourage the prospect to take action. A call to action gets the customer involved in the process and excited to try your product. End your script by asking the customer if they would be interested in trying your product or if you can schedule a time to talk about contract details.

It is crucial to make sales calls at the right time of the day to get the best results. 

If you make cold calls at the best time, there is a higher chance of conversions that will increase your business revenues!

( Source: giphy )

We, at CallHippo, were looking for ways to establish communication with our audiences. Therefore, we decided to conduct a study where we gathered data from over 1200 clients operating their businesses across 15+ countries. The research contains data observed over 30 weeks with 15,800 call attempts. So read on to know the best day and time to make calls to customers and prospects.

( Source: callcentrehelper )

Best Days Of The Week To Make Sales Calls

People in most countries, including the USA, India, and the UK, usually have their official week offs on Saturday and Sunday. However, Mondays are known to be the busiest days worldwide, so you can safely rule out making calls on a Monday unless you wish to be speaking with frazzled workers with too much on their minds.

( Source: giphy )

The best time of the workday to make sales calls to prospects is between 4.00 to 5.00 pm because these are high connection times. Research shows the second-best time period to get strong results from cold calls is around lunchtime, or 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM when most businesses and industries break for lunch and have extra time to meet.

Did you know: the difference in the number of conversations between 4:00 to 5:00 PM and the number of conversations between 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM is a staggering 71%!

The worst time to connect with your prospects is the second half of Friday because people have usually entered the weekend mode by this time.  So avoid cold calls post-lunch on Friday and wait for the best time to call someone to get the best results!

Best Time to Make Your Calls

As per research, the best time of the day to cold call is between 4:00 to 5:00 PM. The second best time to call prospects would be 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM.  The difference in the number of conversations between 4:00 to 5:00 PM and the number of conversations between 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM is a staggering 71%!

Internationally, working hours are usually between 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. The initial hours of the day are when most employees plan their entire day and focus on the day’s major issues.

Between 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM is when most people take lunch. They are known to be least productive in these hours. Therefore, connecting with them during these hours is less likely to get you the response you are looking for.

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Summary:

Let’s summarize the various observations made by the team at CallHippo, that we have discussed at various points in the article:

1. The best day to call your prospects is Wednesday.
2. The best time to call prospects or customers is between 4:00-5:00 PM.
3. The second best time to call prospects is between 11:00 AM -12:00 PM.
4. You must make at least 6 attempts to call your prospects.
5. The best time to make sales calls is within an hour of receiving their initial inquiry.
6. Do not call your prospects on Mondays and the second half of Fridays.
   

Additional Information To Help You Close Leads:

Key Inputs For Converting Inbound Leads: 

All businesses love inbound leads. This is because since the customer has reached out to you on their own, it shows that they are already interested in your product. The big question here is how long does this interest generally last?

We found that 38% to 52% of the time, the sales go to the first responder. This makes it imperative to understand the best time to make sales calls. We suggest that you strike when the iron is hot and respond within an hour of receiving an inquiry.

Whether it is social media, e-mail, or a phone call, the golden rule of responding within an hour can be applied universally. Unfortunately, the response rate has been seen to drop dramatically by almost 8 times after the first hour. The difference between the number of responses in the first hour and the number of responses in the second hour was a whopping 400%.

The best way to revert is one that has stood the test of time, talking to the lead on the phone. Even in the age of texting and emailing, calling prospects over the phone yields the highest conversion rate when you try to set up an appointment with such leads. 

( Source: giphy )

Important Tips For Cold Calling Outbound Leads:

Cold calls are an exhausting business and it is important to know the best time to call someone to yield better results. Not only that, there are many tips and tricks that can help you get better conversions. 

Only 7% of such calls turn into actual appointments. Persistence and perseverance are extremely important when trying to strike a deal with your outbound leads. 

It is also very important to keep tabs on customer behaviour all the time and make prophecies about their possible decisions. Doing this is easier with purpose-built automatic software. Of course, some programs are rather resource-demanding, which means you’ll have to invest in the best desktop computer under 1000 bucks or a laptop in a similar price range to make all processes run smoothly.

Did you know that over 35% of the leads were never followed up on after the initial connection failure? 40% of agents give up on a lead after the first call. Statistics say that it may take up to 6 call attempts before a prospect becomes a customer. 

By making a few more attempts, sales representatives can increase the conversation rate by up to 70%. The key isn’t just about the best time to call but also persistence with your efforts.

By making around 5 more attempts, chances of having a conversation with your prospects can increase, which increases the chances of sales. 

Some sales could take up to several months to finally come to fruition. You owe it to yourself to keep trying until a customer says, “No!”

Conclusion:

We know that the current times have brought a significant change in how we used to connect and communicate. However, this survey was designed to offer you the best insights and empower you to connect better with your audiences. 

With this, we sign off! However, we promise to be back with more interesting tips and tricks. In the meantime, feel free to leave your comments in the comments section. We’d love to hear from you!