When it comes to sales prospecting, there are many mediums to use. Phone, even in 2017, is still an incredibly powerful way of connecting with a company. There is one critical part of the phone formula that sometimes gets overlooked. That is the day of the week and time of day you call someone.
For prospecting into the executive level at a company, I've found the best day of the week and the best time is Friday afternoon. There are of course plenty of reasons for this. For example, the executive is at their phone and not in a meeting; executives are happy that it’s the weekend the following day and therefore are more relaxed; the executive assistant may have left early, so the executive picks up the phone her/himself.; they respect the effort from a sales rep working late on a Friday and wish that their sales team did the same.
The last reason, in my opinion, carries incredible weight in 2017. This is because it has become increasingly difficult to reach an executive through the dial-by-name directory. The good news is that companies like Zoominfo and DiscoverOrg sell lists that have the cell phone numbers of many executives. However, this avenue is a little surreptitious and calling an executive during certain business hours [e.g., Monday at 2pm on their cell phone] is a quick way to get burned. That said, I’ve found that if you call the cell phone number you acquired from a company like the aforementioned and call that executive late on a Friday, the likelihood of getting a positive response is much higher.
One of my most memorable examples of this was calling the COO of a well known SF-based company. I called him at 6:37pm, and he was at out at what sounded like a bar. He stepped outside of the bar to take my call, and after I had done my pitch, he briskly “how did you get my number?” I told him:” ZoomInfo.” He then said “I’m out of the office right now, but I appreciate your tenacity. Send me an email referencing this call and I’ll refer you to someone on Monday.” I never spoke with that executive again, but sure enough I was kicked down to his engineering lead the following Monday.
The phone is a powerful tool in sales. The important part is to understand when to pull it out and put it into action.