While there have always been a lot of theories for the best day to call a lead after meeting them at an event or trade show, there is a bit of a science behind it thanks to MIT. According to a study in 2009, Wednesday and Thursday came out as clear winners with Tuesday getting the nickname, “Terrible Tuesdays”
(Source – InsideSales.com)
Hubspot released an article in September of last year that also cited this article and if you do some searching you’ll see that Wednesday and Thursday are at the top of most people’s list. While most people think Friday is terrible it’s actual the third best day to make calls and Tuesday, yes, Terrible Tuesday is when you’re going to get the least bang for your buck with it comes to calls, but that’s okay at least you’ll be expecting it!
As for the time to make calls, everyone seems to agree that 8AM – 9AM is prime followed by 4PM – 5PM, with 9AM – 10AM in third place. A simple rule here, know that when you’re calling people in the middle of their workday, you’ll be less likely to reach them, we’re all busy people and that’s when most of us are the busiest.
Why are mornings the best? Hubspot gives a little deeper insight into this:
Making an early morning sales call gives you a better chance of being first in with your pitch. But even still, timing is everything. Remember that prospects’ mornings are likely to be spent prioritizing for the day ahead. With this in mind, calling at the optimum time in the morning will return better results.
Findings from the same study conducted by LeadResponseManagement.org (and backed-up by Tim Ferriss in The 4-Hour Workweek) found that morning sales calls were most productive between the hours of 8 and 9 a.m.(Source – HubSpot)
Overall, just know that calling people on Monday and Tuesday, mid-day, is going to be a slog. Wednesday and Thursday mornings should be your phone call power hours, and give people a break on Friday afternoon. What do you think? Do these broad-based studies apply to your industry or are you seeing something entirely different?
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