When is the best time to make a cold call?

It’s the “holy grail” and most traditional sales people want to know… when is the best time to cold call a prospective customer. If only we knew that magic witching hour that all of our unknown prospects were waiting to pick up the phone, accept our call and want to be sold our products… ah, the utopia of selling.

Unfortunately for traditional salespeople, this approach doesn’t work anymore. There’s a study that was done by the Keller Research Center at Baylor University that indicates that only 1% of cold calls ultimately generate appointments… there are lotteries that publish better chances than that!

My conclusion… there is no best time to make a cold call!

Warm calls… a different story! If you’ve done your due diligence, you know your prospect is a good fit. Now, knowing when to reach out can mean the difference between a voicemail and an appointment.

The Best Day for a Warm Call

LeadResponseManagement.org’s study shows that Wednesdays and Thursdays are the most effective days to connect with your prospects via phone.

Is this surprising? No, just think about how you work… Mondays are used to gear up and plan for the upcoming week, and Fridays are about tying up activities from the past week and winding down for the weekend. The middle of the week is in the flow, and a call feels like less of an interruption.

The Best Time in the Morning

The same study from LeadResponseManagement.org found that calls between 8am and 9am were the most effective.

Makes sense, doesn’t it? An early morning call lets you connect before to-do lists get too long. And when you think about when decision makers arrive at the office, it’s often earlier than their team.

Worst Time for a Call

Although I have seen some success between 11am and 2pm, most professionals are eating lunch or in meetings during this time.

Since this period usually produces the lowest contact rates, it becomes a great time for research and preparation.

Best time in the Afternoon

Does it make sense to you that the best time to call in the afternoon is between 4pm and 5pm? Most prospective customers are tying up their projects for the day. It is less of an interruption to their day to answer your call. And call even later, between 5pm and 7pm could get you through directly to the decision maker, as the rest of the team has probably left for the day.

Best time to call an Inbound Lead

Looking back at the study produced by LeadResponseManagement.org, their findings indicate within 5 minutes. Their data indicates dramatic drop off as time progresses. Personally, I think audience and solution play a huge role in this metric. I do know that the more top of mind we are in the buyer’s mind we are, the more likely we are to get the appointment. So, the sooner the better. Leads are gold (Au), that quickly turn to lead (Pb), that’s the simple alchemy of demand generation.

Does this align to what you’ve witnessed? I welcome your feedback in the comments or at info@mycxo.ca.