Cold calling is alive and kicking. If it's not working for you, the issue might be when you call.
If you want cold calls to turn into deals, you've got to reach your prospects at the right time of the day and week to ensure your calls don’t go to voicemail (which has a meager 4.2 percent response rate.) 👎
So, what is the best time of the day to reach your prospects as a sales rep? Which day of the week works best for closing deals? Let’s find out what research has to say.
Best Time of the Day to Cold Call
Based on the data we analyzed, the best time to cold call is late morning, between 9:30 and 11 a.m.
Of course, the answer isn't perfectly cut and dry, so let's look at the data.
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Note that these findings are from a limited study by Revenue.io and are valid in the B2B context, especially for SaaS organizations. These companies may be likely to work longer hours or be on the US's West Coast, which could impact when they tend to work.
A prior 2019 study by the same company above (based on millions of sales calls) found that late mornings worked best.
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The best times to cold call are when people are less likely to be busy. People are wrapping up for the day in the evenings and are reluctant to start new tasks. Similarly, just before lunch, they might have tackled some tasks and be willing to chat.
So, at both times of the day, people are more receptive to phone calls than others. Essentially, you don’t want to reach out to a prospect when they are busy with their work or might have other professional meetings. There are ways to handle the "I don't have time to talk with you" objection, but if you can simply call at a better time, do that.
That said, remember that this is all dependent on the people you’re talking to. So, get to know your ideal customer and buyer persona. Learn about their role and daily activities, and you’ll have a better chance of catching them at the right time.
Are Late Mornings or Early Mornings Better for Cold Calling?
Late mornings are the best time during the mornings to make cold sales calls. At this time, most working professionals are done with their meetings. And they are finishing their morning tasks before they head out for lunch.
Early morning cold calls could also work as a prospect wouldn’t have begun attacking their to-do lists. 2019 research from Revenue.io (referred to in the last section) claims that the call connection rates are highest between 8 to 11 am in the time zone of the call’s recipient.
However, depending on the target market, your prospects could reserve early mornings for deep work. Or they might be sleeping in! (No 5 am cold calls, please.)
If you are curious, you can also experiment with early morning calls – say 7 or 8 am. But if you get unfavorable feedback from your initial sales prospecting methods, shift those calls to late mornings. Also, pay attention to time zones. If you're in the Eastern US time zone, calling at 8 am is will be 5 am for those on the West Coast.
Late afternoon still typically works. A 2009 study (on three years of data from six companies in the InsideSales.com system) found that 4 to 5 pm is 109% better than 11 am to 12 pm for qualifying a lead. (Likely due to lunch breaks!)
Elevate your B2B cold email strategy by checking out our article on 12 B2B Cold Email Templates. Discover how a well-optimized B2B cold email template can improve your results.
Best Days of the Week for Cold Calling
Generally, Wednesday is the best day of the week to make a cold call. Most people have enough time in their workweek to get some work done and have time to spare for a conversation. So, they are more likely to be available and pay attention to salespeople.
Let's look at what the data says about the best day of the week to cold call:
- Tuesdays and Thursdays are the best days of the week to make cold calls: According to a Yesware analysis of 25,000 sales calls made through their dialer, calls over five minutes typically occurred between 3 and 5 p.m. on these two days.
- Wednesday is the best day to make calls: Another study by CallHippo found that Wednesday is the best day to have more conversations on the first attempt. Indeed, there’s a 50 percent difference between Monday and Wednesday.
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Once you’ve chosen the right day and time, you need a compelling sales script to persuade your prospects. Specifically, try to discuss pricing on the first call, but only after you've established the value of your offering. Our good friends at Gong found that win rates could improve by 10 percent if you discuss pricing on the first call.
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What are the Worst Days and Worst Times for Cold Calling?
For higher success rates, refrain from calling prospects on the following days and times:
- Monday Mornings: A prospect would be busy planning their workweek, battling Monday blues, and pursuing tasks accumulated over the weekend. So you do not want to overwhelm them further.
- Friday: While you should try to avoid the whole day, especially do not call during the second half of the day. People are already looking forward to the weekend on Friday and are less inclined to start a relationship with a salesperson.
The 2009 study by InsideSales.com (which we referred to earlier) found that Friday is the worst day to call to qualify leads.
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This may be old data, but it still rings true. Nobody wants to answer the phone on a Friday.
When it comes to the worst times of the day, avoid cold calling:
- Outside of work hours: It would invade a prospect’s time and wouldn’t help your rapport as a sales rep. The connection rates tend to be lower during these times anyway.
- During lunch hours (around 1 pm): Mid-workday hours could be counterproductive for your sales team as people will likely head out for lunch breaks.
Indeed, some people feel a slump in their afternoons immediately after lunch. So avoid making sales calls during such periods of energy dip either.
To improve your sales success, you need to reduce the number of call attempts that go to voicemail. As we discussed above, when planning your workweek, avoid the worst weekdays and times of the day to cold call.
Want to know the latest in real estate prospecting? Our article is a must-read.
Remember: The Best Response Time Wins!
Barring the above suggestions on the best time to cold call, you can increase your conversion rate if you call a prospect when they are considering your products.
A fast response time to form submissions on your website is critical to closing more deals. For more than ten years, we've been advising sales teams to call new trial signups within five minutes, and we've consistently seen that those who adhere to this advice fare better.
Even if the lead rolls in your CRM at 4.45 p.m. on a Friday, don’t hesitate to call them immediately. Just be sure you're using one of the best small business CRMs that syncs data in real-time and allows you to call a lead with just one click.
A much-cited study by Dr. James Oldroyd showed that the odds of connecting with a lead if called within 5 minutes are 100 times higher than if called within 30 minutes.
A more recent study of 433 companies by Drift found a 10x decrease in odds of making contact with a lead after the first five minutes. If you take more than five minutes to respond, your chances of qualifying leads decrease by 80%.
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Think about it this way:
When potential clients are contemplating buying a product like yours, they are in the ideal headspace to talk to you.
You can be the first salesperson they talk to about their requirements and address their objections. You can also walk them through how your product's features best fit their tech stack and solve their problems.
Now, leads may also roll in outside your work hours or when you’re focused on other tasks. All the leads may also not be of the highest quality. Yet, you need to maintain a quick lead time to improve your response rates.
Here are quick tips for the same:
1. Set up a dedicated team to handle queries: If the number of leads outside your office hours seems large, hiring a dedicated person (or a team) may be worthwhile. They could even manage your queries on a commission basis.
2. Implement live chat on your site: Conversational AI can answer routine questions and qualify leads instead of your team. After your prospects get a dose of instant gratification via chat, a salesperson from your company could take over.
3. Set up automated email workflows: You can run them through a personalized email workflow depending on where a prospect has the first touchpoint with your company. Close even offers multi-channel sales outreach workflows that can increase your reach rate.
Don’t forget one of the most essential ingredients to improve response rates.
Psst... Want to avoid headset headaches? Dive into our article dissecting the top 8 sales headsets for cold calling success.
Follow-up Calls are Invaluable for Keeping Leads Hot
Beyond the initial contact, you can’t let the excitement of prospects excellent off. Since 23 percent of leads were never contacted (per an audit of 2241 US companies from 2011), most sales reps probably give up too soon.
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But while following up regularly, don’t come across as needy. Spread out those six calls you make across fifteen days or so.
Psst... Want more help honing your follow-up game? Steli Efti, CEO of Close, wrote the book on it (literally!):
Tips for Cold Calling Success
Tirelessly dialing prospects every day is an unsexy outbound lead generation tactic. It’s old school, so you may feel like prioritizing text messages or email outreach over it. However, 50 percent of buyers still prefer being called on the phone.
As we conclude the article, here are some quick tips for cold calling success:
Create a daily cold calling action plan: Facing a sales slump or tend to get distracted during your day? Then, structured deep work sessions alongside planned blocks of time for call prospecting will help.
Follow cold calling timing best practices (but...): In this article, we established the following times work best for higher response rates:
- The best cold calling times are late mornings around 11 a.m. (right before lunch) and late afternoons between 4 and 5 p.m. (before the end of the workday).
- The middle of the week (Wednesdays and Thursdays) are the best days to reach prospects.
Also, these days and times are not suitable.
- Monday mornings (or early mornings in general) could be already stressful for your prospects. So they won’t have the patience to take your calls.
- Fridays may work against you as people gear up for the weekend (and may not commit to a sale).
However, the larger context of your industry and an individual lead is essential. If a prospect is out on a company get-together on Wednesday and Thursday, you can consider reaching out on Friday.
Disobey best practices if they help reduce your response times: Call a lead right away, even if it comes at 4:30 p.m. on a Friday. A delay in responding can drastically drop your contact and qualification rates.
Record your calls: Instead of those expensive sales workshops and coaching sessions, you can simply perform a simple exercise:
- Make a lot of cold calls and record them
- Listen back to identify and learn from your mistakes
This is sufficient to become a cold calling pro.
Keep tabs on your sales performance: Granularly tracking your cold calling conversion funnel with KPIs is important. It can help you understand how you’re faring in the different stages of your sales process.
Religiously follow up: Aim for at least six call attempts spread over 15 days before giving up on a lead. Or maybe keep following up until you hear a no—that’s the mantra I followed by following up with an investor 48 times to book a meeting with them.
Leverage automation in cold calling: The Close CRM has a built-in predictive dialer. So you no longer need to sit back and wait for people to pick up your calls—just hear that "hello" and start talking. Close also offers sales Workflow automation, with phone call steps included as part of your outreach. Your team will be automatically notified when it's time to make a call.
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Close lets you call lead lists without switching apps, dial multiple numbers at once, and route available sales reps to a call only when a real human answer. Watch a quick, on-demand 10-minute Close demo, or start your 14-day free trial.
