3 Sacred Sales Hours You Need to Reserve for Outbound Prospecting

In sales, it’s absolutely essential to get your priorities straight. And yet, salespeople are often asked to multi-task.  There are always inbound leads to follow up with, lists to build, demos to give, emails to reply to and new prospects to dial. I even had a job once where I managed paid search campaigns in-between making sales calls, but that’s another story.

Flexibility is important to sales. But each day, there are key windows that should be fully devoted to outbound sales. That’s because if you reach out at the right times of day, odds are that you’ll get a decision maker on the phone who’s ready to talk. Call at the wrong times, and you’ll have far lower results.

The Three Sacred Hours

I’m going to make it easy on you and focus on just three hours a day. Every day of the week, there are three sacred hours that you should devote to outbound sales. Why? Because an MIT study shows that you’ll be 114% more likely to get a hold of a sales-ready lead than calling at the wrong time of day.

So if you’re a multi-tasker like me, then reserve these sacred windows for your outbound efforts. And if you’re a sales development rep that’s fully dedicated to prospecting, then reserve these windows for high priority leads.

Ready? Here they are:

• 8am-9am
• 4pm-5pm
• 5pm-6pm

Note that these hours are local for your prospects. So if you’re on the west coast of the U.S., try to catch people on the east coast between 8-9 a.m. their time. If you’re trying to reach someone in London, or Sydney, adjust accordingly.

If you’re like most reps, you’re doing a fair amount of hunting within your own time zone. That means that if you are rolling into the office after 8, or leaving before 6, you may be leaving some valuable revenue on the table. Being ready to dial at 8am just might make the difference between hitting your numbers and having those numbers hit you.

Why are THESE hours sacred?

So maybe you’re wondering why these hours are sacred. It’s simple, really. During most of the day, key decision makers like managers, directors and C-level executives are too busy doing their job to imagine the brighter future you want to sell them. However, decision makers tend to work long hours (how they became decision makers). And if you can get them before the daily grind or after it comes to a halt, they’re going to be much more open to hearing a few good ideas.

The Two Sacred Days

Just like there are three hours a day that are best for reaching out to prospects, there are also two days each week that are best for prospecting: Wednesdays and Thursdays. That means you should plan ahead. Build a list of really hot accounts that you want to prospect into. And then, plan a call blitz each Wednesday and Thursday during the sacred hours. Using tools like Revenue.io’s click-to-call and Local Presence dialer can help you connect with even more sales-ready leads during these crucial call windows.

So even if you don’t want to get in early or stay late every day, at least do it on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Then, head off a little early on Friday, since MIT revealed that Fridays are the worst days to contact leads. Go grab a round with your co-workers and reward yourself for closing more revenue than ever before.

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