What Are Some Surprisingly Good Times To Prospect? | #AskJeb

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What Are Some Surprisingly Good Times To Prospect? | #AskJeb

 

Odd Times That Are Great For Prospecting

Jennifer, a sales representative in Salt Lake City, Utah asked: “What are some of the odd times during the day or week that can be surprisingly good for prospecting? For example, is it early morning or after hours or Friday afternoon?”

This is a great question.

The Best Time To Call Is In The Morning — Eat the Frog

First, my answer is really you shouldn’t try to time your calls. The best time to call is first thing in the morning. You want to eat the frog early, as I say. In other words, you want to get prospecting out of the way and do it as soon as possible because you’re in a better mood early in the morning, your prospect is in a better mood, and you’re going to have more energy.

Never Put Off Prospecting

Prospecting is something that you typically don’t want to do. So getting it over early means it’s going to get done versus putting it off till later in the day. And that’s what a lot of salespeople do is they make the excuse that there’s a better time to prospect, so they don’t prospect, because they put it off for too long and lose the motivation to make their calls.

However, there are some times that can be surprisingly good for prospecting.

Call Early Morning Industries When The Decision Maker Is At Their Desk

Let’s say you’re selling into an early morning industry like manufacturing. So you’ll want to call around six thirty or seven o’clock in the morning because in a lot of cases, the boss is sitting in their office. There’s no gatekeeper. And if you wait till later in the day with manufacturing, most of the people that you want to talk to are out on the floor.

And that would be the same thing for logistics and transportation. Not so much for banking, for example.

Catch Executives on Saturday Mornings

You can also catch people on Saturday mornings and a lot of executives are working on Saturday mornings.

In fact, it’s a pretty good time to prospect with me because I’m typically in the office. I’m happy. So around mid morning on a weekend, you’re going to catch people and you’re actually going to impress people because you’re persistent and resourceful and you’re willing to do whatever it takes to get in front of them.

The Gatekeepers Are Gone On Friday Afternoons

I found that in my career, prospecting on Friday afternoons really worked well. And I used to do a prospecting block every Friday afternoon. I’d start sometime around three thirty or four and run until about five.

What I found on Friday afternoons was, in a lot of cases, the gatekeepers were gone. They were out of the office because the boss had sent them home, and the boss felt pretty good because they were sitting in the office.

Make A Great First Impression

And again, it was impressive because when I’m calling on a Friday afternoon, a lot of times the person would say, what do you mean you’re in sales and you’re calling me on your Friday afternoon? Shouldn’t you be out on the golf course or doing something else?

Show You’re Willing To Put In The Work

That was telling me that no other salespeople were calling on Friday afternoons. So I was standing out. It was impressive that I was willing to work that late on a Friday afternoon. I called people in a relatively good mood because it was Friday afternoon. And in a lot of cases, the gatekeepers were gone.

Get Your Calls in Early and Catch People When They’re Available

So just to summarize: your best method is prospecting every single day, first thing in the morning. There are some specific times that you want to catch people, particularly for industries where it’s best to get them really early in the morning, and maybe in some cases late at night.

And then think about Friday mornings, Friday afternoons, and Saturday mornings. All of those times are pretty good for catching people when you’re prospecting, plus you’ll stand out from your competitors.

 

In his bestselling book, Fanatical Prospecting, Jeb Blount outlines his innovative approach to prospecting that works for real people, in the real world, with real prospects. Download your FREE chapters of Fanatical Prospecting here.

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