A big part of sales is making contact with prospective buyers, or with others needed to push the ball forward. In most opportunities, there’s going to be at least one phone conversation before the PO arrives or the credit card is swiped.
So how do you figure out when someone is available to talk? So much of a salesperson’s time is spent just trying to gauge availability.
Here are five ways to increase the odds that you’ll actually reach your prospect by phone:
1) Find out their schedule. You can ask in your first email exchange: “what is the best time to reach you?” Or try something like this: “is the best time to reach you early morning, or late in your day?
2) Use your CRM tool. When you (timely) log your call attempts in a tool like Salesforce, it will record the time of your call. Maybe your prospect is never there because you keep calling them at the same (bad) time.
3) Try odd hours. If you read enough Dilbert, you know that most corporate employees are in meetings most of the day, particularly between 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm.
4) Mobile phones. Many people use their office phone as a voicemail box, and won’t ever pick it up. But when their mobile rings, they’ll at least give it a glance. You can also send a text message asking about their availability for a conversation.
5) Travel. One of my reseller partners regularly told me when he’d be on the road, because it was easier for him to talk then (hands-free, of course). An IT Director at a large cosmetics company asked me to call after 5pm, when he’d be commuting home. People will also have downtime while at airports.
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