Is this a good time to talk? No, it never is.
This is good etiquette, for sure. But is it useful?
Hey Jay,
This is Alex from XYZ. Is this a good time to talk?
We all get calls like this. And sure, they are polite and show good phone etiquette. But most often they result in this:
Not surprising. In today’s professional setting, when people are busy between zoom calls, meetings, office commute, family commitments, running chores, they just don’t have time for an unscheduled phone call.
And yet, we, in sales/customer success/support/product management, often need to make unscheduled calls.
In our experience, 6/10 times, when we begin like this, we get a request to call back later. And when you call them back again, it’s the same circle. After all, when everyone is so busy - there is never a good time to talk.
This can hurt you as well as your customer.
Time is the #1 enemy of deals.
Depending on your product category, time delays like this could have a huge impact on your success rate. In categories that have time sensitive purchase decisions (such as insurance, electronic goods, etc) every delay can hurt big time. The customer also loses since their needs remain unmet since they are not able to prioritize their time to solve the problem your product solves.
So, how to be polite and be also effective?
We use this simple way to open our calls:
Hey Jay,
I’m Noel from Cutshort. I know you might be busy. Actually, I just wanted to quickly inform you of something important. Okay?
This is polite and effective. Unless the other person is really busy, we mostly are heard.
Try it, if you don’t do this. But of course, don’t take 15 mins to wrap up your call when you promised to be quick. Else next time, they won’t have time for you again. :)
Know a simple tip like this that you found effective? Let us know!