The Worst Time of Year for Cold Calling in B2B Sales

1:59Dominka: Would you say that this is the worst time for cold calling in the year? Or are there worse timings? Or is there never a bad time for doing cold calls?

2:12Anamarija: There is never a best time to do cold calls, but there are also some periods where things are getting a little bit slower than usual. Now it's the time when things are getting slower, but during summer we can also experience a little bit of a slower pace: people are going on their vacations and so on. So this is the time when things are getting a little bit slower. But it's still fine.

2:42Dominka: Yeah, and it's a time where we can definitely say: hey, let's have a long holiday. I mean, we have practiced it since the beginning of our company that we do not work between Christmas and New Year's, and even the week after it. Because it's a time where you definitely don't want to bother anybody and you don't want to be bothered, and that's fine. You don't need to do cold calls, especially with companies, and we mainly work in B2B. Why would we be calling? Or if somebody really wants to do calls during that time of the year, what can they expect?

Anamarija: Between Christmas and New Year's?

Dominka: Yeah. Or the week after New Year's.

3:25Anamarija: Well, I would say not a lot. That's why we at OB2B have our big holiday for two weeks. Probably you will reach somebody at the front desk, maybe; it depends on the company. Not many decision makers are in the office. Either they are in a home office or they are just taking their time off. So what you can do during that time is maybe clean up your pipeline a little bit and plan your activities for the next year, when everybody is coming back home. Maybe open some opportunities by searching for the right decision maker, talking to gatekeepers and so on. But I don't think you should expect too many calls directly with decision makers, exchanging information or planning other activities with them.

4:23Dominka: I would say cold calling is really hibernating during that season. And that's okay.

4:31Dominka: There is another time in the year, which you already mentioned, where it is not perfect to open new leads and try to get some great opportunities in, because during the summer period a lot of people go on vacation as well. But it's not as hibernating as this. Cold calling is like a big bear, you know. In summer he just feels hot and wants to relax a little bit and take it easy. But during winter, between Christmas and New Year's, we just want to lie down a little bit, forget about everything that happened and start a new year completely fresh, with new ideas and being happy: hey, let's go now, now is the best time to start doing the activities that we are best at again. So what would be the best time of the year, when you would say: okay, this is the peak for cold calling? And why? And how do you prepare for that time of the year?

5:33Anamarija: I just wanted to compare summer vacations first with the vacation that is happening now, between Christmas and New Year's. We are specialized in B2B, especially for the DACH region, and the thing is, in summer not everybody goes on vacation at the same time. There's a little bit more opportunity to speak to somebody. It's not like during the summer you are not going to arrange any meetings or get to any decision makers. So the ratio is a little bit higher than during the winter, during the Christmas holidays. That's the big difference. That's why during the summer we in our house are also taking our vacations, but we are not going on vacation at the same time. But during the winter it's more likely that most of the decision makers are going to take their time off. That's why it's a time that is a bit harder than summer.

6:34Anamarija: When we are speaking about the high season for cold calling during the year, it depends maybe on the industry that you are calling, and also on the type of project that you are on. But I would say that definitely for some projects, when the year starts, it's one peak, because a lot of companies are planning their budgets, they are looking for investments for the upcoming year and so on. But also, and this is what we experience mostly, maybe in September. What I have noticed throughout my projects, and not only there but also at OB2B, is that September is kind of the start of a peak where something is happening.

7:26Dominka: And they're closing their budgets.

7:29Anamarija: Yes, exactly. So at the beginning of the year, and maybe not at the very end of the year, of course, but at the beginning of the last quarter of the year, that's a good peak.

7:38Dominka: I think that's right. Especially the first part of the year, when everybody is kind of relaxed and back and happy to start new business, and they feel: okay, new year, new opportunity. Last year was great, but I want to do better this year. Or last year wasn't that good, so we really need to start doing a little bit more to make it great again.

Anamarija: That's true.

8:07Dominka: And another thing is, you know, after the summer holidays everybody, or the majority, comes back fresh from the holidays. And they want to finish the year. It's like the last run-up till December to close the budgets, to get in some of the opportunities which have been there for the whole year or for a couple of years. And it's always the part of the year where everybody wants to grab everything now.

8:36Dominka: So it can be really exhausting for cold calling as well, because I have the feeling that a lot of fake opportunities come in September and October. Along with the good ones that you really close. But there are a lot of those that go: we have to close the budget, or we want to close some new deals, but we haven't done it this year, so let's quickly find a way to do it.

9:03Anamarija: Yeah. They are somehow excited about something, rushing into things, but they are not quite ready to close their wishes or what they have in mind. So it's a mixture, I would say. And this is not only in our internal sales; it also happens a lot in our projects. Because when we are, let's say, hunting decision makers for the right time, and this is what it's all about, this right time usually comes in the last quarter of the year. And sometimes they're like: oh yeah, this is the right time, but I am now filled with, I don't know, other projects, investments and so on. So it's a short time span where you have the opportunity to grab them and say: hey, let's do it right now. Now or never. Or, I don't know, later in the year.

10:01Dominka: Another thing which is really important to mention is the summer period, where a lot of people go on holiday and vacation, but it's still a good time for doing calls and cold calling activities. Because we have seen in the past years that it's a really good way to get phone numbers, to get direct emails, to get some inside information about when they're getting back. Everything is a little bit slower and everybody is like: okay, the bosses are not here, maybe I can give the people who are calling us a bit more information, because I will not put them through, obviously, because they are not there. They kind of feel bad for not giving us the opportunity to talk to the person we ask for.

10:55Anamarija: Actually, summertime, I would say, is quite interesting, because the truth is things are getting slower, but it depends on what you are going to do with that time. You can still talk to the gatekeepers, obviously. But also, a really, really cool trick that we figured out a few years ago already is sending out emails to decision makers that might be on vacation, as you said. That's one way of finding out their contact information. Because usually, not 100%, of course, but usually they will have an automatic answer saying: hey, I am on vacation between this and this date. And underneath you can usually find their name, job title, phone number, maybe the emails of other people too, of other decision makers. And these can be really, really helpful for your cold calling activities. Not only that, it's really helpful for us to plan our activities. You know when your decision maker is going to be back: either a gatekeeper told you, or you received an automatic answer and you know by the date when they are coming back, and you can plan your activities around that information. So it's like a little play between doing your job, doing cold calls and really reaching decision makers. And since it's a slower time of the year, sometimes they do have time to think about new things and so on. With the others, you can just plan your activities and go on with your life.

12:33Dominka: Yeah. And I think especially if you are in a business where you do a lot of sales, you know that you've worked the whole year long, and of course you've had individual vacations during the year. But I think it's such a big deal for us to have those two weeks off as a company, and just not have anybody there who will call you, who will ask you anything. We can just charge our batteries and come back doing the best we can in another season, with full batteries and feeling like: okay, good, maybe this was my best year, maybe I can do another good one. Or maybe this was not the best year, but let's start from the beginning, when we can actually make a difference. I'm sure that everybody who is in sales, in B2B, can take off those two weeks during Christmas and New Year's. Because that's kind of the point of it: you don't have to do anything, to be clear. There is nothing that's going to happen. There is no opportunity that's really waiting for you to call them in between. So I feel we're really blessed that we have this time of the year where we can just shut down and say: okay.

14:04Anamarija: That's actually a really good time to completely shut down all your professional thoughts, business thoughts, and just enjoy your family and friends and your time off, even if you are alone, if you prefer to be alone, it doesn't matter. But I also noticed with my partners that they are also taking time off between Christmas and New Year's. And it's really important for us to all be in sync. At that time it's not the high season for anybody. They are not going to expect that I'm going to bother them during that time, but also my partners are not going to send me emails and so on. So it's really time for just chilling.

14:59Dominka: Yeah. If anybody sends you an email between Christmas and New Year's, you just delete it.

Anamarija: It doesn't exist.

Dominka: No, we won't do that. But that's not going to happen anyway.

15:08Dominka: Would you rather always have those complete shutdowns, even during summer? Or is it fine for you to just have individual holidays? What do you prefer?

15:25Anamarija: Well, for me the best thing is to have the flexibility to choose my own vacation during summer. I do not have kids, so I do not depend on, I don't know, the school holidays. So I like to plan my time a little bit more spontaneously. For me it's better to have summer individually, not a collective vacation like the one we take during winter. During winter it makes more sense to be on vacation with everybody, because, you know, it's that time of the year. It has to be like that. But during summer I prefer to make my own individual decisions. Because I never take a vacation that is too long. I take one week here, one week there, maybe a few days here, a few days there. So it's never the same. It's not like I'm going to be away from the company for a month or something like that.

16:30Dominka: Okay. What would you recommend people do during those low-activity dates, if they feel like it's not the time for them to take a vacation? We are talking about the summer months now. If they are in the sales business, what activities could they do instead of cold calling or doing meetings, if everybody is unavailable? What would you do during those days?

16:59Anamarija: Well, it depends on the data that you are handling. You can always spend your time on a little bit of research: research for good decision makers, maybe their contact information, maybe information about the company, some news, some signals from the company. It's always a good idea to invest your time in some kind of deeper research, because throughout the year you never have too much time for that. You can also plan your activities for the next period of time. You can also use your time to get into your CRM a little bit, to analyze your KPIs, to analyze your data, to see if something is missing, to do a little bit of a clean-up maybe, and to keep your pipeline clean. So invest your time in lead hygiene. There are a lot of things you can do. You can also focus a little bit more on sending out emails: talking to gatekeepers, for example, asking for an email address to contact them via email, and seeing how things are working, how the market is vibing and so on.

18:11Dominka: I think it's a really important thing to reflect on what you've done and what is to be done, and just prepare yourself for the upcoming season, when everybody is getting back to normal and getting stressed again. I think it's very important. But sometimes people just don't do it, or forget to do it, or think: oh, maybe it's not the best time to do it now. But it obviously is, if there are not a lot of calls or sales activities to do. Just find something new to do. Find some educational stuff, maybe. Learn something more about, I don't know, something connected to what you're doing. There are a lot of webinars, there are a lot of online courses that you could do. Or just tell your colleagues: hey, could we do something new? Or: I know that you've done this before, maybe you can show me that, I have some time now. Maybe that will be interesting. Maybe we can do a workshop on something like this. Use those days for things like this, to connect with your colleagues and see whether you can learn something from them.

Anamarija: Of course. No, definitely.

19:20Dominka: And that's something that we practice now. We had a workshop last week and we will have another one next week, because it's a slow season now. It's not that we are shutting down. But to be honest, the calls we're making now are not going to bring us any very big success this year anymore. A lot of people are not answering their phones so quickly, or not answering their phones at all. Especially not the people that you want to talk to.

Anamarija: Yep, that's true.

19:49Dominka: So I think it's about channeling this into something: hey, let's find out whether we can learn something together, talk a little bit more and see what could improve our business.

20:03Anamarija: It's also the perfect time for brainstorming. For example, for projects that have been with us for a long time, it's maybe a good time to not only reflect on KPIs. Of course, you can always check your KPIs: in five minutes you are done and you can see what is happening. But it's a good time to brainstorm, maybe to think of some new strategies. Maybe you have had the same strategy for such a long time and you are just there all the time: everything is the same, everything is flowing the same. Maybe some fresh perspective helps. Maybe other colleagues have some other ideas or, I don't know, just a spark of some new things. And things can change. So it's definitely a good time for longer projects to reflect on those things too.

20:57Dominka: Yeah. We're now talking about a continuous thing, which is a year: the beginning of the year, the middle of the year and the end of the year. But this is what we actually do: we think in the cycle of a project. If you have a project that's been going on for several years, I think at some point it's really important to say: hey, we really need to change the person doing this. This is really important, because a fresh breeze needs to come in. And that never means that the person who was initially involved in the project shouldn't still be involved somewhere in the background. It's just to have somebody new. Maybe somebody new who will do the project management, maybe somebody new who will do the BDR job, just to get a little bit of new excitement into it. Which is something you can always compare to having a break and then starting fresh. So I think sometimes we always think in terms of the year, but we should also think in individual terms: a person doing something for a long time, a project going on for a long time.

22:16Anamarija: That's true. You know, when you're working on some projects for a long time, either as a BDR or as a project manager, I think for a BDR it's a little bit harder, because you are engaging in the same activities each day. So doing the switch between people is at some point really important, because it's a fresh start for everybody. It's not only good for the project to have a new set of eyes, it's also good for everybody involved, because you are not in a process that is so boring, where every day is the same and you know every day what to expect. It brings excitement for everybody, because everybody is actually engaging in something new.

23:02Dominka: Yeah. I think it's really important to emphasize that when you're doing cold calling, you have to know that the beginning of the year, let's say from January till May, and I'd say May is still a really strong month, is where you should really focus on doing good preparation: being prepared for that period of time, having good contacts, having a good pipeline, building it up. Because if you miss building up a pipeline through that month, it's going to be very difficult to have good contacts which you can call in the low-season months.

Anamarija: Exactly.

23:46Dominka: If you do not prepare for another peak, then you actually missed a year.

23:52Anamarija: A whole year is gone. Yeah, that's true.

23:55Anamarija: It's also hard when you have a project that starts perhaps in May or June, because it takes time for a project to …

Dominka: Evolve a little bit.

24:08Anamarija: Yeah, exactly. You just did your first steps, something has happened, everything is just settling in the project, and then, bam, you have summer vacations. And then you have a partner who might not be so satisfied. But it's not up to you, because it's the low season. It's also up to our expertise, just before the project even starts, to say: hey, this is something we expect for every project, so you know that during the summer season, especially August, it's a little bit harder for us to reach decision makers and so on. So transparency at this moment is also crucial, so your partner always knows what to expect. And they will know: okay, this is the low season maybe, but maybe in September things are going to change. And usually it is like that.

25:00Dominka: Yeah. And when I think back, I think that most of our longest, longest-living clients, how do we say that, the partners that we have a really long-term relationship with, started their projects at the beginning of the year, right? I know of two who have been with us for over four years now. They both started in February.

25:36Anamarija: Oh, okay. I have one that started on October 23.

Dominka: Oh, okay. Was it a client that we acquired, though? Or was it somebody who enquired with us about a cooperation?

Anamarija: They enquired with us.

Dominka: That's due to the reference.

25:54Anamarija: That's true. You're completely right. Even though it came as a reference, it's a different perspective: if you come as a reference, then there is a little bit more trust. You're completely right. However, we started the project on October 23. And, you know, November is coming and then December, and it's the low season and it's really hard. The industries that we are calling are not that easy to acquire, so we need time to build our pipeline and to reach the decision makers. And it's December. So it was hard, but the thing was that our partner is a smart man. He knows what to expect and he has both feet on the ground.

26:56Dominka: Because he was experienced. That's one thing. But if you have somebody who is inexperienced and they really just want to get as many leads and opportunities as possible, and they're just number-focused, then, you know …

27:12Dominka: That's why I always try to push new cooperations and setups: let's do the setup in December, but please let's not start this year.

27:21Anamarija: No, that makes no sense. It really makes no sense. From our side and our perspective, it would be really unprofessional to say to somebody: hey, let's start a project in December. We are going to waste our time, they are going to waste their time, because there isn't much happening. And the beginning of the project is really important. It's the time when the push is the biggest, the strongest. You have to create the first opportunities. You have to reach somebody. You have to have a number of decision makers reached. And who are you going to reach? Nobody. Because there's no chance. So for projects that would start at the end of the year, or maybe during the summer, if they're expecting a lot of meetings scheduled, results in general, they are not going to have a good time.

28:20Dominka: Okay, then let's summarize. Cold calling can be done throughout the whole year?

Anamarija: Exactly. Most definitely.

28:33Dominka: You can feel relaxed and fine with doing no sales activities at the end of the year and the very beginning of the year. If you start in the middle of January and end in the middle of December, with your calling and sales activities in the B2B market, you're fine. You're not going to waste any opportunities. You're going to come back fresh to a fresh new start. During the summer months, still be there, be present, focus on what's going to come next, because those months are still very valuable. If you can, take a vacation, but not too long. Don't be gone for three months.

29:31Anamarija: Yeah, that's true. I think that's sales if you are working in B2B. If you look at the year visually, it's looking pretty nice: it's ups and downs. And it's just a matter of what you're going to do with those downs. During the summer, reflect, think about your strategy, maybe add some new things, maybe just think of something new, a fresh perspective that can bring you high results in the upcoming season, which starts basically in September. Then it's another high, and during the winter it's another low. So this is the time to take a break, to recharge your batteries. It's perfectly fine to do nothing. Just take your time, be with your family, chill, and then be ready for Q1 of another year.

30:27Dominka: I've got nothing more to add.

Anamarija: We are so smart.

Dominka: And synced. Ready for our vacation and team building this Friday. Let's rock it. Thank you so much, Anamarija, for being here again.

Anamarija: As always.

30:44Dominka: For giving your perspective, which is completely right, and I fully agree with it this time. Everybody, if you were wondering: oh my god, what am I going to do during the summer season, because it's a low season, do calls? Yeah, you can still do it. Or just reflect, build a new pipeline, build up something new, and then start calling again. Don't stop doing calls for like a month or so. You're going to end up very disappointed when the high season comes again. But at the end of the year, feel free to relax. Don't call anybody. Sit down.

31:26Anamarija: You know what everybody should do during the winter season, when nobody is working?

Dominka: Go snowboarding and skiing.

31:34Anamarija: Not only that, but you should watch our podcast. Binge our podcast. That's right, everybody.

31:42Dominka: Binge our podcast. Subscribe. Comment. Add us on LinkedIn. Do whatever you want. Or don't. But if you need some backup plan during the vacation, watch it. Just watch it and learn a bit about cold calling and sales, because I'm sure you don't know as much as we do. That's it. Thank you so much. This was another episode of Dialing Out, the OB2B podcast, the forty-second. Tune in again this year; there will be a couple more. Bye.