Why Is No One Answering The Phone? | #AskJeb

40 Calls In An Hour, But Not One Sales Conversation

This question came in from Brett. He said, “I made 40 calls in about an hour and nobody answered the phone. So what can I do to get people to answer the phone?”

It’s a great question. And I know that it’s something that a lot of salespeople struggle with. There’s a couple of reasons why you made 40 calls and no one would answer the phone.

You’re Calling At The Wrong Time

Number one is that you’re calling at the wrong time of day. Usually that means that you’re calling in the afternoon. A lot of salespeople push prospecting off into the afternoon because they say it’s better. Really, that’s just an excuse— you were procrastinating because you didn’t want to do it in the morning.

Call When You Know They’re Available

Think about most people in business. When they start their day, they’re sitting at their desk, wherever that desk may be, and they’re available. They’re unavailable in the afternoons. They’re in meetings, out in the field, working with their own customers, and doing their projects. That’s why it’s more likely that when you call in the afternoon, your call is going to go straight to voicemail.

Start Your Day With Prospecting

One thing you can do is start making calls early in the morning. If you make your prospecting call block the first thing that you do during the day, I guarantee that you’ll get more people to answer the phone.

You Have a Bad List

The second reason why you may have made 40 calls and no one answered is that you’re calling the wrong people. You’ve just got a bad list.

Better List, Better Outcomes

Maybe you went to a list building company and you just grabbed a list and dove into the list without doing any research. Or it’s completely cold calling and all you’re doing is leaving voicemail messages. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, but that could be causing people to not pick up the phone when you call. Unfortunately, a random list can result in a poor outcome.

The one thing that you can take to the bank when it comes to prospecting is better lists, better outcomes.

You Didn’t Actually Make That Many Calls

The third reason that you may be facing a situation where you’re making 40 calls and no one is answering is because you didn’t actually make 40 calls. And that happens more often than not.

You Can’t Be Delusional And Successful At The Same Time

You’re making calls, and you feel like you’ve made 40 calls, but when you actually go back and take a look at it, you might actually find that you only made twelve calls or thirteen calls or fourteen calls or seven calls. And it took a lot longer to make the calls then than it should have. That is a big issue, and it’s just a delusion.

Unfortunately in sales, it does not pay to be deluded. So that could very well be the issue. So if you’re making that many calls, statistically speaking, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get in contact with someone.

Wrong List, Wrong Time, Wrong Call Count

So in those cases, you’re either calling the wrong list of prospects, you’re calling at the wrong time, or you’re not actually making 40 calls. You just think you made 40 calls and you’re deluding yourself into believing that the phone doesn’t actually work.

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