Call Reluctance Doesn’t End When You Pick Up The Phone

How many times do you let the phone ring when you make a cold call? 

Salespeople should let the phone ring

Photo by ArenaCreative

I’ve made a lot of outbound sales calls in my career, and have no idea what my answer to that question would be. Here’s why it’s a metric to follow:

Mark Smith, VP of Sales at the English CRM company Womply, recently conducted an experiment involving 60 outbound sales reps and 8,000 calls.

52 of the reps followed their usual phone sales routine. The others got this instruction: they were to let the phone ring at least 8 times before hanging up.

8,000 calls later, here’s what the data showed:

  • The group that let the phone ring 8 times reached a live human 59.3% more often than the “control group.”
  • The “8 times” group reached a decision-maker 30.9% more often than the control group.

In his email newsletter, phone sales expert Art Sobczak had the same initial thought I did:

My first reaction was, what voice mail system allows the phone to ring eight times?

Apparently, enough voice mails systems do this that it made a a 59.3% difference in response. 

My take on this:

  • Call reluctance doesn’t end when the AE picks up the phone. A substantial number of salespeople may be hanging up quickly to avoid an uncomfortable conversation.
  • If voice mail picks up, you might as well leave a message. Some salespeople prefer to hang up and call back… but your target may be sitting right next to the phone, looking at your name on Caller ID. It may take seven rings for them to decide what to do with your call.
  • In his book High Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results, Mark Hunter said there are three possible outcomes to your call if you stick around long enough: your target answers, you get a gatekeeper, or voice mail picks up. You can prepare in advance for all three. Don’t wing it.

I wrote a post last year about how to beat call reluctance. My advice focused on how to get yourself to pick up the phone and dial it. Here’s Part 2:

Give it 8 rings before you hang up.

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Categories: Cold Calling, Sales
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