As once a sales pro and sales coach, I know what a difference having good data can have on sales results. Whenever I looked at things like the amount of deals added, or the number of sales activities completed, there was almost always something that jumped out as an area of improvement. For example that “Fred should make more calls”.
There’s no agreement about the best day to sell or prospect. In an article for Forbes, the sales writer Christine Crandell argues that Wednesday is the best day for prospecting while noting that customers don’t convert well on Mondays or Fridays. Jake Atwood from BuzzBuilder lead generation software has found that the best day for prospecting is Tuesday in their Slideshare. Finally, the sales company Vendere Partners’ statistics say that the best time to call is either on Wednesdays on Thursdays.
Now, having co-founded a sales management app, we wanted to see what the sales data suggests for everyone around the world. We anonymized and aggregated all the metadata that’s generated, when people mark sales activities completed and deals won or lost. And here’s what the computer says: don’t take the foot off the gas on Fridays.
And here’s why: Wednesday is the day of results. That’s when salespeople complete the biggest number of calls, emails and meetings (let’s call them activities). But actually the day with highest conversion in most countries is Friday, while it’s also the day when salespeople have the biggest drop in their level of activities. So when you find yourself or someone in your team thinking “Days just before or after the weekend are not good for selling, I’d better get myself a latte before making calls”, you’ll know it’s a mistake you shouldn’t make as it may cost you dearly in sales and commissions.
Not all countries follow the same model, but almost everyone can improve
While the “Most activities on Wednesdays and best conversion on Fridays” rule stands overall globally, there are exceptions. Monday, which has the reputation for being a “bad” day for closing is the best converting day in some countries, such as Spain, Mexico and Netherlands.
Only 3 countries – Spain, France, Australia – had the day with most activities completed coinciding with the best converting day.
Our conclusion? If salespeople want to be smart, they should work hard on Fridays, but if they want to beat the market, they’re going to have to work hard every day. So as the gym-saying goes – never skip a day.
This article was previously posted on the Pipedrive Blog and is being republished with their permission.*
