Wondering what is the best times to make sales calls? Find out the answer and more guidelines to build an effective sales call process.
Timing is everything! Choosing the best times to make sales calls can mean the difference between hitting your monthly insurance sales goal and coming up short. By finding the right time of day for your sales calls as well as the correct volume and duration, you can create a winning formula that can earn repeatable success. Whether you focus on home or auto insurance (or both), the general sales call guidelines remain the same.
We’ve put together some guidelines to help you come up with a call schedule that works best for you and your prospects. Take these into consideration along with what you know works best for your region and product(s).
Follow General Best Times
One of the best times to make sales calls, according to numerous studies and statistics, is between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. Your lead is winding down for the day, beginning to relax from work mode to home mode. This can be especially fluid for people who work from home, so there’s a little more wiggle room these days. The next best time slot is the 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. span in the morning. Like the 4-6 window, the 10-12 timeframe can be transitional and people are wrapping up their morning tasks in preparation for a lunch break or lunch meeting.
The morning hour between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. has traditionally been a successful call time for many insurance agents in the past, because it was a typical commute time and prospects were either in their cars or walking into their offices. But with many people working from home these days, commutes are a thing of the past and that morning hour has now become a catchall for domestic chores, breakfast, getting kids ready for school or virtual lessons, and for some lucky folks, an extra hour of sleep!
Target Your Call Times
Having a hard time reaching a warm lead? The next time you call, try to call five minutes before the hour. Someone with a typical office job has meetings scheduled throughout their day, likely scheduled at the top of each hour. Not all business meetings last for the whole hour, so you have a better chance of catching someone between meetings if you target your call for 50-55 minutes into the hour.
The Faster You Follow Up, the Better
Getting back to your lead as fast as possible ensures you are striking while the iron is hot. The longer you wait to call back, the more you risk that a hot lead grows cold, or worse – they go with another insurance company. The best times to make sales calls if you are following up is within one hour of the original call. If you can’t make that work, try to follow up on the same business day. If you need to wait a day, make it a priority for your next morning.
Make Time for Conversations and Follow Up Calls
There are some schools of thought that believe that 100 sales calls a day will put you heads and shoulders above the rest. Even if you’re working ten hour days, that means you’re averaging 10 calls per hour. Sure, it’s a feat to be able to manage that kind of pace and volume, but what is the quality of those conversations? Do you have enough time to build relationships with your leads? What about the follow up calls?
Making around 60 calls a day is a better goal since it allows you to keep call volume high while also giving you time to build connections and have meaningful conversations. The focus shouldn’t be on the number of calls, but rather your talk time. Great insurance agents will have 3 hours of talk-time each day.
Track Your Call Times
Once you’ve figured out the best times to make sales calls, be sure to build a system to track your call schedule. Track variables like call time, call duration, type of call (follow-up, warm call, cold call), and success rate. It may feel like an added step, but tracking this data over the course of a month will give you insight into what times work best for you and your leads. There are even some great sales call softwares available that will do this work for you, so you can spend more time on the phone closing deals.
Looking for ways to build a bigger sales funnel so you can spend more time making warm sales calls? Let HBW Leads provide you with double-verified home and auto insurance leads. Connect with their technology and insurance sales experts today and learn more.