Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

It's Only Common Sense: You Can’t Make Sales Calls on Mondays!

Everybody knows you can’t visit customers on Monday. The customers hate it; they are just getting started into the week and they want time to get settled, so that last thing they want to do is see a salesperson.

And forget Friday. The week is winding down and the customers are wrapping things up, so they surely don’t want to have any meetings on Friday. That’s a terrible time to visit customers.

Then, if you know anything at all, you know that Wednesday is never ever a good day to visit customers. Their week is in full swing and this is the traditional meeting day, so they have meetings all day long and sure as hell don’t have time to see customers.

They really hate it when you show up on Tuesday. By then they are just getting settled and start doing all of the work that they need to get done during the week. So that leaves Thursday. Yes, Thursday is the very best day to see customers. But make sure that you don’t see them too early in the day; that’s when they’re having their coffee and planning their day, so don’t hit them in the morning. And forget lunch. Customers do not want to go to lunch anymore, so don’t even bother with that. And most of them go home early on Thursday afternoon, so don’t visit them too late in the day.

So, truth be known, the only time to visit a customer is between 1:30 and 3:00 on Thursday afternoon. That’s if they’ll even see you because…

You are not going to get in without an appointment. Potential customers hate it when you just show up; in fact, in many cases they will go negative on you if you show up unannounced, so make sure you never do that. Call them in advance and set up an appointment.

Now you have to think about when the best time is to make that phone call. Because you know they hate taking phone calls. In fact many of the new young buyers and engineers don’t even use the phone. Everything is done by e-mail, so you’d better e-mail them before you call them. And by the way, don’t be disappointed if you don’t get an answer to your e-mail, because they get hundreds of e-mails, mostly from salespeople just like us, so in many cases they just delete them.

So, you might try texting if you know how to do that. That could work. But some people resent being texted; they find it kind of invasive. So it might turn on you, and the person you texted will never want to see you. So I’m not sure that texting is a good idea either.

Oh, and there are the holidays…nobody wants to see you on the holidays.

And one guy told me that in New England they don’t like seeing vendors in the summer, so there is no reason to even try to visit customers in the summer in New England.

And of course everybody in New York takes August off, so that’s out. There is just no reason to try to visit your New York customers in August.

And, and, and...

And forget it. Obviously, if you have ever said any of these things, you do not really want to be a salesperson. And I have heard a lot of you say things like this. But if you want to be a great salesperson, you have to forget all of this nonsense and run your own race. You have to make your own way; you have to figure out how to get to your customers and potential customers on a regular basis and do whatever it takes to make that sale.

Great salespeople figure it out. They find a way, and they certainly do not listen to these nattering nabobs of negativism who come up with their own sales version of 50 reasons why there is never a good time to reach out to prospective customers.

These are the same people who will always tell you that this is the worst possible time to try to make a sale, whether they’re living in 1950, 1980, or 2015.

Well, let me tell you a little secret. Get closer so I can whisper this in your ear. IT’S ALWAYS A GREAT TIME TO MAKE SALES IF YOU ARE A GREAT SALESPERSON! Great salespeople always find a way. Its only common sense.