Sales Question: "I’m responsible for generating my own leads. When’s the best time of the day to prospect and make new sales calls?"

SalesBuzz Answer: By Michael Pedone
Prospecting and making sales calls are two separate activities. Most sales people make the mistake of viewing them as one activity by searching for a lead, find a lead, call the lead, repeat process.
This is very ineffective for several reasons but namely because you will almost never get your prospect on the phone during the first attempt. Which means the majority of your day will be filled with “researching” for your next prospect rather than making sales calls.
One of the many best practice sales techniques I learned from one of my sales mentors was to build my list of prospects first before ever making a sales call. 
In fact, my very first sales job under his guidance I was told to not make a sales call until I had built a list of 250 to 500 pre-qualified prospects. (I was told to go through the current database of old leads and "tag" those that matched the criteria for being pre-qualified. I was given a week to accomplish this but did it in 2 1/2 days)
The theory (and reality) is this: Once you have your list of pre-qualified prospects, you can spend the majority of your sales day making sales calls. (What a concept)
So while my co-workers were hunting and pecking every day and averaging only 20 to 30 calls, I could easily do 40 to 60 sales calls a day + have more meaningful conversations. My co-workers and I shared the same amount of work hours per day. However, my production was twice what theirs was because I built my list first. 
Replenish Your Prospecting List
Even with a stack of pre-qualified leads to call, you will always need to replenish your lead list. I know a lot of sales people like to research for new leads right after their morning sales meeting, but doing it that way is a production killer. 
While you’re “researching” for whom to call, the top sales reps at your competitors are already calling the prospects you are looking for.
I found the best success came from hitting the phones right away with a list of pre-qualified leads. Once I hit my goal of the number of first time sales calls for the day, I would then focus on my non-scheduled follow-up calls. 
Once that is done, I would take a 30-minute break late in the afternoon and research for new prospects to add to my list for tomorrow. After that short little break, I would end the day strong (I call it POWER HOUR) where the last hour of the day I would do nothing but make outbound sales calls in order to end the day strong.
- Michael Pedone
Michael Pedone is the CEO/FOUNDER of SalesBuzz.com. An online sales training company that shows inside sales teams how to: avoid being rejected by gatekeepers, leave voicemail messages that get callbacks and overcome tough pricing objections. Request a proposal here to have Michael teach your sales team his techniques!

Sales Question: "I’m responsible for generating my own leads. When’s the best time of the day to prospect and make new sales calls?"
SalesBuzz Answer: 
Prospecting and making sales calls are two separate activities. Most sales people make the mistake of viewing them as one activity by searching for a lead, find a lead, call the lead, repeat process.
This is very ineffective for several reasons but namely because you will almost never get your prospect on the phone during the first attempt. Which means the majority of your day will be filled with “researching” for your next prospect rather than making sales calls.
One of the many best practice sales techniques I learned from one of my sales mentors was to build my list of prospects first before ever making a sales call. 
In fact, my very first sales job under his guidance I was told to not make a sales call until I had built a list of 250 to 500 pre-qualified prospects. (I was told to go through the current database of old leads and "tag" those that matched the criteria for being pre-qualified. I was given a week to accomplish this but did it in 2 1/2 days)
The theory (and reality) is this: Once you have your list of pre-qualified prospects, you can spend the majority of your sales day making sales calls. (What a concept)
So while my co-workers were hunting and pecking every day and averaging only 20 to 30 calls, I could easily do 40 to 60 sales calls a day + have more meaningful conversations. My co-workers and I shared the same amount of work hours per day. However, my production was twice what theirs was because I built my list first. 
Replenish Your Prospecting List
Even with a stack of pre-qualified leads to call, you will always need to replenish your lead list. I know a lot of sales people like to research for new leads right after their morning sales meeting, but doing it that way is a production killer. 
While you’re “researching” for whom to call, the top sales reps at your competitors are already calling the prospects you are looking for.
I found the best success came from hitting the phones right away with a list of pre-qualified leads. Once I hit my goal of the number of first time sales calls for the day, I would then focus on my non-scheduled follow-up calls. 
Once that is done, I would take a 30-minute break late in the afternoon and research for new prospects to add to my list for tomorrow. After that short little break, I would end the day strong (I call it POWER HOUR) where the last hour of the day I would do nothing but make outbound sales calls in order to end the day strong.