Cold calling, email sending, Internet marketing, and advertising – these are just a few ways to generate leads for your startup. They may or may not be effective depending on your strategy. For your efforts not to be worthless, you must formulate a plan that will maximize the potential of finding a number of sales lead in the shortest period of time.
And speaking of time, a well-publicized study by Dr. James Oldroyd of the Kellogg School of Management revealed that timing is one important player in this game. Continue reading to learn when the perfect timing is to draw in leads for your business. These are implications from the aforementioned study which were cited by Margaret Spencer, a marketing analyst, in her article. You can view her complete article here.
The perfect timing
1. Wednesdays and Fridays are better days
From the massive data gathered by the study, “…findings indicate [that] Wednesdays and Thursdays give as much as a 50% improvement in reaching leads by phone compared to calling them up on other days,” says Spencer.
This information does not necessarily mean that you do not have to make calls on the remaining days. It just means that you have to give a little more time finding sales leads during the days mentioned.
2. Avoid reaching prospects right after lunchtime
The study found out that the most unfavorable time of the day to contact a prospect during lunchtime. However, it also reveals that there are certain periods of the day when it is ideal for cold calling.
Coming from Spencer:“…you’ll be able to improve your chances of connecting with leads by as much as 114% if you call them up some time between 4 in the afternoon and 6 in the evening.”
3. Qualifying leads could be best done at the start or end of the working day
Once the lead has expressed interest, then it is time to qualify. Taking from the words of Tim Donnelly in his article (read full story here). So choose who to qualify and when to qualify them. Spencer notes:
“If you’re calling leads to qualify or set an appointment with them, your best bet at landing a meeting would be to place your calls between 8 and 9 in the morning or 4 to 5 in the afternoon. Dr. Oldroyd’s data reveal that these times increase your success rates by approximately 164% compared to what you might derive from calls made some time during 1 to 2 in the afternoon.”
4. Be very persistent and do not just give up easily
Try to do this in a way that you will not be too “spammy” or irritating. Otherwise, a study suggests some interesting facts about contacting and re-contacting prospects:
“… [The research determined] the optimal number of dials it would take to reach a prospect and [they] analyzed data related to contact ratios… [They found out that the ratios] lie between 10% and 11%. This means that you have to make at least 9 dial attempts before you can expect a prospect to listen to you over the phone,” says Spencer.
Sales lead is a vital part of the sales process. Thus, you must ensure that you do it at the right time and in the right way.
Do you think that cold calling is still an effective sales leading strategy? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
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