What is the best time for making business phone calls?
For making a successful business call you have to make it on a right time. If you call your partner or client at the time he/she is busy then typically two cases can happen. In the first case the person you are calling cannot be reached, which means that you have to call him later. If that happens then you have to make a phone call during a time period, which you have not initially planned for doing it as you hoped to have made the call at once. In the second case the person you are calling will answer the phone, but his/he focus is on other urgent tasks, which affects the quality of your conversation.
The best time for making business phone calls is right after lunch. During the lunch people usually chat with other people, which helps them to relax and makes them open to new ideas. Communicating to other people during lunch makes the prepared to receive your phone call. Call them before they will dig in to their work again.
The second best time to make a phone call is during the middle-morning around 10 AM. By that time people have usually finished the most urgent work tasks. Still they have not become tired yet nor their are about to leave the office for lunch.
You should not make an outgoing call during the first working hour, which is normally before 9 AM. Think how you start your day in the office. What are the things that you do during the first hour? Probably you are reviewing you schedule, checking your email, preparing for the rest of the day. A phone call will interrupt you, which could give a negative effect on your whole day. Many people are very productive during the early morning hours like I am, therefore they work on the most demanding tasks during these hours. If they have good time management practices then they may not even answer the phone.
It is not a good idea to make a call right before lunch time of in the end of the work day. In the first case, the person you are calling may hurry with his work as he wants to keep up with his/her schedule by the lunchtime. Many people do not want to be late for lunch, they may have a habit of meeting colleagues at a certain time for going out to lunch together. If you call someone who is heading for lunch, then he/she may not be too much willing to talk to you. If you make a call at 4.45 PM then you are likely to disturb a person from completing the last tasks of the day and you will not let him to go home with your call.
If possible then make your phone calls in blocks. It means that you will do all your phone calls in a row. For example, if you have to call 10 clients then you will make these calls in a sequence. This will help you to get into a good rhythm and you will be more efficient. But if you scatter your calls at different times throughout your work day, then every time you will spend some time when preparing to make the call (thinking about what you will say, building confidence, procrastinating etc.)
As you can see there exist certain times during a day when you should make your outgoing phone calls. It just takes a little bit a planning, but I is worth doing it as making the calls at right time, will both help you to save time and get better results from your calls.
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My name is Kristjan-Olari Leping. I am a speed reading trainer. I have an associated professor position at the University of Tartu, am a policy analyst in a policy research center, I am a trainer and I am involved in many other business projects. 