How the right timing can twist your cold calls
A collective article written by +10 Sales Experts about the power of timing in sales, with a focus on calling and the best practices to master this technique.
About the authors
- Eimri Bar — Co-founder at Bloom
- Massimiliano (Max) Böhm — Fractional Sales Leader & Consultant, Former Head of Sales at LinkedIn
- Mohamed Chahin — CEO & Founder at Twain
- Dante Fusi — Sales Development Representative at Crono
- Carlos Lopez — Former SDR Manager at Buyapowa
- Marco Marchi — Head of SDR at Foorban
- Noam Nisand —Founder at Leed Services
- Philip Olesch — Senior Sales Unit Building Consultant at Sales Cloud GmbH
- Bill Ortiz – SDRMAX
- Stefano Piombardi — Sales Account Executive at Qonto
- Giulio (Cimenis) Segantini — Outbound Sales Trainer & Coach at Underdog Sales
- Gerardo Teijeira — Outbound Hackers
Why this article
In this guide, we’ve gathered the tips and expertise of +10 salespeople across the globe to explore the power of timing in multichannel strategies with a focus on calls.
In a world full of AI content, phone calls are still one of the most underestimated yet powerful tools for salespeople. Picking up the phone allows you to add your personal touch to the conversation and keep it real with prospects.
Placing your calls at different stages of the funnel or at different times of the day, are factors that change the outcome.
So, once you’ve discovered the best practices on how to handle conversations, you might want to know when you’re supposed to have them.
The best calling habits
Sales is a job of perseverance but it’s also about building strong and healthy habits to make your everyday efforts profitable and effective.
Here are the statistics about the cold calling frequency per week: one thing, is sure, none of these experts is underestimating the role of calling in sales strategies. What about you?
When to place your calls
Planning the calls at the very beginning or towards the end of strategies radically changes the outcome of your conversations. We’ve asked our experts when and how they place their calls:
Click the toggle menu below to learn how and when our sales experts place their calls.
Phone calls serve various purposes in the sales funnel. Initial calls can qualify leads, mid-funnel calls build relationships, and ‘‘closing calls’’ to move and close deals. Can also give you some insights and feedback about the account and the right personas.
Phone calls get you conversations, which means instant feedback. The more feedback you have, the more effective your sales process is.
Whether it is purely to prospect or to follow up after a proposal picking up the phone will never have a negative ROI (apart from a bruised ego every now and again)
A quick call will remain the fastest way of getting a feedback and creating a real human connection. The great callers will get even greater with the upcoming times. As we are entering into an era where AI is everywhere, getting a small human touch at every stage of the funnel is going to be more valuable than ever.
In my opinion, it also depends on the strength of the brand related to the product/service you are trying to propose to the prospect.
I think that it is easier for salespeople of a well-known company to use calls as first contact, but if you are trying to sell a product/service that has only recently been launched, I believe it is preferable to already establish contact with the prospect, for example with a LinkedIn invitation and an e-mail that makes the prospect curious.
Phone calls are effective at every stage. Every call can have a different purpose. Every call is another opportunity to build a relationship and uncover relevant information or create urgency. What I found most effective is to announce the call.
For example when you’re talking to your prospect already agree on a phone call: “Hey, if you don’t find time to get back to me by Monday I’ll ring you on Tuesday morning. Does that work?”. This way they will expect it and likely be happy to hear from you.
Picking up the phone is a huge advantage for any seller. You’d be surprised of how many of them are not using this channel at all. It’s a great way of getting prospects interested in your solution but also for moving them along the sales funnel.
Cold calling can help you get very direct and fast feedback from the market under specific circumstances.
First, you need good data with many direct dials and mobiles to get hold of your prospects and second, your opening needs to be effective on your current target group, so you get the chance for the initial 2-minute conversation. Within these 2min you can either get the prospect to the next stage or get at least some relevant feedback on why this isn’t a match right now.
Also on follow-ups later down the funnel, the phone can be quite effective if you left the previous conversations on good terms. Often you get hold of people this way who did not reply on the last few follow-ups, even if they promised feedback.
It’s always a matter of the right timing so if you call a person 1 week later can make the difference.
The call is probably the most powerful tool SDRs have in their box. That’s why it has to be used wisely to maximise its impact. There is no standard recipe on when to use it – different products, different markets, different cultures…
It’s where the secret sauce of each SDR really makes the difference!
Using phone calls at different stages of the sales funnel can produce different results.
By using a strategic, value-driven pitch, you can pique the prospect’s interest and start the conversation about how your product or service can address their needs and once that lead is qualified, you can nurture the lead, build rapport, and provide additional information or resources that can help move the prospect through the sales funnel.
As the prospect moves closer to a decision, phone calls can be crucial for negotiating terms, addressing final objections, and ultimately closing the deal.
The personal interaction and the ability to have real-time discussions can be instrumental in overcoming any remaining barriers and securing the sale.
*** DON’T FORGET Even after the sale is complete, phone calls can be valuable for maintaining a strong relationship with the customer, addressing any post-sale needs, and identifying opportunities for upselling or cross-selling.
Finding the best time to prospect: statistics vs instinct
Now, let’s get more into details: at what time and days of the week is it better to pick up the phone and call your prospects? Some rely on statistics and studies while others prefer following their own method and instincts…
I used to rely on a combination of statistics (via our dialer tool) and my own method which is to identify general trends, but I also adapted based on industry, target audience, and personal experience.
Flexibility is key for maximizing outreach effectiveness. Since I managed a global team the best results for EMEA were Tuesday and Thursday between 4-5pm, LATAM was Thursday 10am and 4pm and US from Tuesday to Thursday 10am and 3pm-5pm.
These results may vary depending on the industry, personas and region you are targeting!
Statistics are not so easy to rely on; once a statistic is out that Tuesday is the best day to call, prospects will get more calls, therefore reducing effectiveness.
I personally find Friday PM to be amazing for pick up rates.
From a few friends of mine who have been top cold callers for years the best time is the end of the afternoon on Fridays.
Prospects will be more likely to say yes to anything as they are in a good mood because they are done with their day.
Although, be careful about No-shows with this trick. You want to make sure your prospects show up on the next meeting.
Using statistics to decide when to call prospects is very important. Often, however, when exploring new markets or new ICPs/Buyer Persona it is difficult to have ready-made statistics to rely on, so when I have to decide what time to call prospects I usually think about when I would prefer to receive a phone call.
That’s why I avoid making calls in the early hours of the morning, when I make calls in the morning I usually try to make them after 11:30 am, but what I prefer is to make calls in the afternoon usually from 4 to 6 pm, that’s the time of day when I get the most responses.
Then of course this is also influenced by the time of the year we are in, close to the end of the quarter for example it is very difficult to find prospects who are ready to dedicate time to a call from a salesperson.
As a founder, I’m the first person doing sales so I’m building up everything from scratch. The founder should figure this out and understand your prospect’s daily workflow.
Based on your ICP, I would create “good timing” to reach out.
The thing with cold calls is that you are always interrupting, by default.
We usually have two calling blocks per day (one in the morning and another one in the afternoon). We see less pick-ups on Mondays and Fridays, but nothing too relevant.
So we pretty much call every day at different times of the day.
For any call attempts, it’s best to try to do this outside of classic meeting time windows. According to different sources these are mostly Monday to Wednesday from 10 am to 2 pm.
I have seen great connectivity with decision-makers early in the morning and late afternoons, especially for bottom-up approaches.
Additionally asking the prospects’ colleagues for their availability can be a great lever to get hold of them. Although make sure to track your call times and call results to set blocks according to your own data on when to be most successful!
I rely on statistics.
Generally, I’d say the best days are from Tuesday to Thursday and the best hours are 10-12.30 and 14.30-17.30.
Statistics can definitely help and should be followed when no other info is available.
Midweek is preferred, although some Friday calls can prove themselves good, in particular when the target is at a rather high level in the company.
Assuming you’re calling into your same time zone (if not, then adjust accordingly) the best times to dial are between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. or 4:00 to 5:00 p.m.
If you call during these times, you’re going to have much higher contact ratios than if you’re calling around lunchtime!
In addition to the best time of day to call, the study also revealed the best days of the week. Tuesday is the worst day to be calling. Thursday is the best.
Why???? Most people go to work on Monday and then get slammed from everything that came in over the weekend, only to spend all of Tuesday digging themselves out.
By Wednesday, they’re ready to talk to people again.
Handling the first 5 seconds
Science says that, to fall in love, humans only need 7 seconds but for a salesperson, that is reduced to 5 seconds. Grabbing the prospect’s attention is crucial and we’ve asked our PRO how they manage the very first part of each call.
Since we use a multichannel tool we send a 1st email and then we cold call and depending on the situation we went two routes Reference or Permission based openers :
-For the ones who opened our email multiple times: We use the reference as
Hi First Name, it’s {YOUR NAME} from {YOUR COMPANY}, you may have received an email about YOUR COMPANY SHORT VALUE PROPOSITION to PROSPECT’s COMPANY…
then you just have to use the ‘‘excuse method’’ and tell them the ‘‘reason for cold calling’’ is to ‘‘complement’’ what you sent in that email. The engagement with the prospect will be easier as they know a bit about your company/proposal thanks to your previous email.
In case they said they never received it: talk briefly about your proposal and at the end, also confirm with them if this email landed in their Spam folder.
– Permission-based: Hi {FIRST NAME}, it’s {YOUR NAME} from {YOUR COMPANY}, do you have 20 seconds to tell you why I’m calling?
When the prospect picks up the phone, their brain will be in a state of confusion and high alert.
You want to defuse that, typically addressing the fact that they’re not expecting your call and gaining their permission to continue the conversation. At that point, the prospect will be ready to listen and have a conversation
“Hey, I would like to speak to Mr/Ms. {surname}. I am {name}, calling from {company}.”
That’s a go-to.
First of all, it is crucial to collect as much useful information as possible before contacting a prospect, then starting the call in the right way is certainly crucial to get the prospect’s attention and to prevent them from interrupting the call immediately.
What I do is first of all identify myself, then I try to make the prospect feel important by explaining why I called (‘I enquired about your company, based on [certain characteristics] you are a potential customer of our service’).
From here on, I usually ask the prospect if he has a few seconds to spare, to see if what I’m offering can be interesting. At this point, I just ask the right questions and listen.
Relevancy over everything.
I would avoid starting with “I’ve messaged you” or “We connected on LinkedIn”. Be sincere and open with what’s relevant.
If you manage to mention one thing they’re familiar with (competitor using your solution) within the first 5 seconds, that might buy you the next 30 seconds.
Hi, this is [NAME] from [COMPANY] – I’m calling you because [Observation/trigger].
Nothing more is required, no fancy openers or anything like that.
My tips are to smile, even with your voice; Be honest about the reason for the outreach and make it about the customer.
Explaining why I’m calling and trying to personalise the start as much as possible → ex. I’m calling you because I saw your article on…
My rules are: (i) speak their language, (ii) trigger their attention, (iii) stand out from the crowd.
Also, avoid words setting a negative mood; for example: if you say “Apologies if I disturb you” you are setting the tone as “I am disturbing you”.
Tonality is key, is not just what you say but how you say it!
You must be confident and position yourself as an expert, even if you’re not, act as if you are the VP of sales of your firm talking to another C-Level executive!
You develop confidence by practising role-playing: so practice, practice a lot!
If you really want to get confident, I use an empathy map that helps me understand the emotions, thoughts, and behaviours of my ICP personas, and then I tailor my communication and offerings to better meet their needs and address their pain points.
I usually study the characteristics of the industry, what motivates the C-levels and their challenges. But also what they see, feel, think, say and do. And of course pain points and gains.
That’s all for now, if you’ve found this content useful, don’t forget to share it!
