Sales training ideas – Spend the right amount of time on sales calls.

Keep track of the time you spend on each sales call. Spending too much time on each call can cut into your total number of calls and/or keep you from other potentially more productive sales calls. Not spending enough time on each call can lead to less qualified leads, less rapport, and less sales. 

Generally, your in-person cold calls should last about 5 to 12 minutes; phone cold calls should last about 3 to 5 minutes. This should be enough time to create some interest, build rapport, and ensure the prospect is qualified and open to doing business with you. In-person sales presentations can vary greatly, but for the most part 20 minutes to an hour is probably the average; on the phone 10 to 20 minutes is more common. Enough time to do your sales presentation, answers questions and objections, and close several times.

In addition to the time you spend speaking, watch other aspects of your calls. For example, how much time do you spend waiting for prospects? This may be unavoidable in your industry. Talk to the top salespeople and your manager and find out what is standard and how they deal with this. What tasks, other than selling, do you spend time on during the day? 

Overall your objective is a good quantity of sales calls without sacrificing quality. You need to find a happy medium here. You want to put your best effort in, but you don’t want to be wasting your time either. This sense will be developed the longer you’re in sales and the more sales calls you make.