Summary: The best days & times for follow-up calls are Wednesdays & Thursdays between 8–9 am and 4–5 pm. The best day for qualification calls is Thursday.
Lead follow-up isn’t a one-time event: you need to reach out to leads multiple times to get a response – so what’s the best time & day of the week to call your leads?
Most sales professionals time-block a regular window for prospecting – but few give thought to how it may affect their contact & qualification rates. If you’re investing the time in prospecting and coming away empty-handed, the day and time you’re calling may be a factor – and changing it can make a tremendous difference!
According to the Lead Response Management Study:
- Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to call in order to contact (by 49.7% over the worst day) and qualify (by 24.9% over the worst day) leads. Thursday is the best day to contact a lead in order to qualify that lead (by 19.1% better than the worst day).
This data is not entirely shocking. If you think about it, on Mondays, people are usually gearing-up from the weekend into work mode by catching-up with whatever transpired over the weekend and planning their week, and that most likely bleeds into Tuesdays. The middle of the week is ideal because, most likely, a call won’t feel like an interruption as things are more settled. Fridays are not ideal either because people are already transitioning into the weekend.
- 4 to 6 pm is the best time to call to make contact with a lead (by 114% over the worst time block). 8–9 am, and 4–5 pm are the best times to call to qualify a lead (by 164% better 1–2 pm, the worst time of the day). 4–5 pm is the best time to contact a lead to qualify over 11–12 am by 109%).
if you consider the flow of a typical office day, you can surmise that at around 11 am people are typically finishing-up tasks so they can take their lunch. Just as by about 4, they are getting ready to head home. In the morning, they may not feel so rushed and may be more open to a discussion, and before they head home, they may have wrapped-up a lot if not all of their daily tasks and taking a call is easier.
Furthermore, 8–9 am, and 4–5 pm are the best times to call when qualifying a lead. 8–9 am proved to be 164% better than calling at 1–2 pm, right after lunch. That’s a significant difference! (Wherein after 6 pm was not set as a standard work hour.)
Despite all this data, one fact remains, regardless of time or day, the absolute best time is now. Consistency and perseverance in your prospecting and follow-up are the most important factors, more than when; you need to keep asking yourself, how often.
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