As I listened to my voice mail yesterday, the first words the caller said were, "Chris, you are a genius." Boy, I wish every message started out like that!
The call was from a salesperson from one of our clients. He was thanking me for some advice I recently gave him. He had been struggling with making contact with prospects (suspects?) that he was cold calling. He did not have a problem engaging the suspect once he got them on the phone, rather, he simply could not get a hold of them. My coaching to him was not ground breaking. I just suggested that he try something "different." In this case, the "different" was the time of day that he called.
Check out the recent article by Geoffrey James in Selling Power. It suggests that the best time to make cold calls are on Thursday between 8:00 - 9:00 and 4:00 - 5:00.
The voice mail continued, "I called between 7:00 and 9:00 and reached 75% of the people I dialed. Thanks for the great advice."
The genius here was not me, but the salesperson. First, even though he has been in sales for over 25 years, he had the courage to reach out and ask for help. Second, he actually took action on the advice.
My return voice mail to him was, "Kevin you are a genius...."
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