When It Comes To Cold Calls—Timing Is Everthing
Cold calling has always played a big role in the sales process, no matter what the business. A new study by Dr. James Oldroyd from the Kellogg School of Management, however, indicates that an individuals success rate may have little to do with their sales skills, and more with the timing of a follow up call, including specific day and time, according to “The Science of Cold Calling,” an article found in the July/August issue of Selling Power magazine.
“The study examined the electronic logs of more than a million cold calls made by thousands of sales professionals and 50 companies.” When the study was concluded, various patterns of success and failure were revealed and some conventional thinking in regards to cold calling was disputed.
Following are some interesting findings from the article and Dr. Oldroyd’s study:
- Thursday is by far the best day to contact a lead, and Friday is the worst.
- Contrary to popular belief, the best time to call and qualify a lead is 8:00 am to 9:00 am, or 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm.
- The best way to contact a lead is still by telephone.
- The worst time to contact and qualify a lead is right after lunch, between 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm.
- The best odds of qualifying a lead is within 20 minutes of a shown interest. In fact, 5 minutes is the most effective.
- Hiring inside sales reps, over outside sales reps has become the new trend.
Thanks for reading!
Barb
Posted in Business, Marketing on August 19th, 2009 by Barb | | 0 Comments
MIA features PGC Work!!
In the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of the Marble Institute of America’s (MIA) StoneDimension Magazine, PGC’s work is featured on pages 10 & 18. A few months ago, the MIA contacted us to send some photos of projects that we fabricated and installed. In turn, we asked our contractors to provide some photos of projects that we had installed for them. We had a great response and we were very happy to open the magazine and find two of Bremen Builders projects featured.
Please check out the above links to see the awesome projects. Check out more projects on our photo gallery that we have fabricated and installed.
If you are interested in having some of your projects featured on our website, in our showroom, or possibly in the StoneDimensions Magazine please contact me.
Feel free to share…
Angie
Posted in Business, Company, Granite, Industry News on May 28th, 2009 by Angie | | 0 Comments
Favorite Things…
We all them…those days that just don’t seem to go right. Unfortunately, when we experience days like these, it is easy to feel down and unmotivated. In sales, this can especially be true. Thankfully, if you keep at it, a sale will come through and instantly lifts the spirits.
Yesterday, I came across an interesting perspective on how to restore your motivation when everything seems to be going wrong from “A Few Of Your Favorite Things,” a Reader Tip, found in the May 2009 issue of Selling Power magazine that I wanted to pass along.
The reader suggested to restore motivation, make a “neat stuff” list of everything that is going right.
- It is a beautiful sunny day.
- I got an appointment with a customer that I’ve been trying to get in contact with for a long time.
- A rebate check came in the mail.
- Etc.
The key is review your list daily, both morning and night, to keep the positive thoughts with you. “Research suggests that after one to two weeks of reviewing your list, you will start feeling more positively focused and energized.
Sounds like a simple way to try and keep positive to me. How about you?
Thanks for reading!
Barb
Posted in Business, Company, Marketing on May 21st, 2009 by Barb | | 0 Comments
Light At The End Of The Tunnel…
Today I came across an article from the publisher of Surface & Panel magazine titled, “Better Times Ahead,” that I found quite refreshing and worthy of passing along. According to the article, “June 30th is the official bottom of the housing market! From that point forward the housing industry will begin climbing, slowly at first, but accelerating in the last half of 2009 and through 2010.”
Builder confidence is on the rise, and according to the latest index from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), March was up five percentage points, which is the highest it has been since October 2008. First time home buyers are eligible to receive an $8000 tax credit, and interests rates are extremely afforable, so if you’ve been on the fence about buying, it is time to act.
While the stock market generally predicts economic conditions, and has in fact risen 25% from its low, we also need the housing and remodeling market to improve to get the economy rolling again. Thankfully, there are finally signs that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Thanks for reading!
Barb
Posted in Business, Industry News on May 12th, 2009 by Barb | | 2 Comments
Have You Jumped On The Social Networking Bandwagon?
Most businesses have used networking to help grow their business, at one time or another. While networking groups, trade shows and word of mouth, have been part of traditional business networking, with the explosion of the Internet, social networking has also become popular and its growing at an incredible rate.
So what exactly is social networking? According to the search engine Technorati, “Today’s social networks are the Internet-powered relationship engines of the twenty first century. Popular sites like Facebook, My Space, and Linked In are all examples. These services specialize in facilitating connections between people who share similar interests or professional pursuits.” While My Space and Facebook originally attracted college and high school students, they now have become mainstream and are attracting large audiences of people and literally millions of users. Linked In is a business oriented social networking site that basically works as a public resume of yourself, or business and allows users to list details and provide trusted contact connections.
So why should I jump on the social networking bandwagon some might ask? I may date myself a bit here, but do you remember that annoying, shampoo commercial of the 1970’s (Faberge Organic Shampoo)? It always ended with, “…and she’ll tell two friends, and so on, and so on and so on.” Well-that is basically how social networking works. The more contacts you make, the better, and the good news is that you can look at other peoples friends, or contacts, and discover that you may know someone they know.
I have to admit, I was a little leary about all of this “social networking stuff” at first. I know from experience with my college kids, that you can spend an incredible amount of time connecting with friends, etc. I also wasn’t sure I wanted to put my personal information “out there” for people to see, but realized quickly I’ve already been posting both personal and business information on the PGC blog site for two years now. I figured it was time to take the next step. I’d received several invitations to join Linked In, and Facebook, and thought…”Why not join this social networking phenomenon and grow our business at the same time?”
For now, you can find me on Linked In, and Facebook, where I’ve already connected to family, some high school and college friends, as well as made some business connections. How about you? Are you building your on-line networking community?
Thanks for reading!
Barb
Posted in Business, Marketing on April 14th, 2009 by Barb | | 0 Comments
