Stuck in a Rut?

According to last moth's poll, 77% of you believe that the best time of day to make prospecting calls is between 8:30-11:00am. While some afternoons I'm inclined to agree with you, I really do believe that the best time of day to make a prospecting call is whenever your customer is at their desk! If that's 9:00 in the morning, great! If it's between 2:00-5:00pm... make your calls then.

But short of having ESP, how can you tell when your customers are likely to be at their desk?

That's the catch - you can't, at least not with 100% accuracy. What you can do is experiment with the times you're calling to see if there is a right or wrong time of day - and don't fall into the trap of treating all your customers the same!

If you're in a cold calling rut, here are a few ideas you can try:

1. Systematically block off time in your calendar to make prospecting calls, and then stick to it, no matter what else comes up.
2. If you really hate making those calls, make them first thing in the morning to get them over with! If there's one thing you can count on, it's that if you start putting off something you don't want to do, odds are you'll never get to it (much like how I put off going to the gym…).
3. If you're stuck in a rut and not getting any positive results, experiment with different calling times.
4. Most importantly, make calls every day - and don't use time as an excuse. Remember: no matter how good a sales person you are, I guarantee that you'll lose 100% of the sales calls you don't make.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen