The best time to cold call is an age-old question. What time is too early? What time is too late? Should we bother calling during a holiday week? Does it make any sense to cold call on Monday mornings, or wait until Tuesday? Does the weather factor into our decision to call, or not? I say call them early, late, and often, but I still find myself asking when is the best time to call a sales prospect. So I went in search of an answer...
Since starting my own sales prospecting business, I have made a regular practice of dialing the phone at 8:00 AM every morning. Yes, including Mondays. My thinking is that chief executives get in early, and I can usually get around their admin. screen if I call before they get it. Simply put, the earlier the better...
Late calls work great too. I stick around the office until 6:30-7:00 PM on most days, and try to reach top-line executives in their office. Most chief executives work half days, (12 hours), so it was no surprise that I would catch them in their office after 6:00 PM. The best sales appointments I've ever closed were a result of my calling a prospect before 8:30 AM, or after 6:00 PM in the evening.
As for the best day of the week to make a cold call, I say Fridays! Specifically, Friday mornings between 8-8:30 AM. From personal experience, I have had the most success getting through over the phone to prospects most anytime on Friday.
And on a final note, I've found find that calling anytime between Wednesday and Friday afternoon has produced the most closed appointments.
The best advice I can give is to keep calling at all times. What's the big deal about the time? Don't pay much attention to what day it is, or the time. Otherwise you'll become prejudiced, and find a million excuses not to make the calls at all.