It’s Friday Afternoon, do you know where your salespeople are?
A Rant with a Message
When I was growing up in rural Illinois, the local TV station always started off the 10:00 News with this public service message:
Not to bore you with the sob story of my pre-internet childhood, but we only had two TV stations and my parental units always seemed to watch the station featuring this message. Sadly, at the time, if not present and accounted for at the appointed hour, I had to provide a report. My parents were that way, and at the time, I found the little reminder to be profoundly annoying.
Now on with my rant
The common wisdom, Urban Legend if you will, among salespeople is this: Friday Afternoon is not a good time for making sales calls. Like many legends, there may be just a bit of truth buried deep in the story. Some, let me repeat, a small number of customers prefer not to be approached on Friday afternoon; especially if the meeting is a drop by without a preset appointment.
Unfortunately, many salespeople use this legend as justification for turning Friday afternoon into an extension of their weekend. What’s worse, the growing practice of working from a home office has exacerbated the practice.
Thinking of just the past few months, I have personally witnessed salespeople mowing their lawns, remodeling their homes and detailing their vintage Ford – all during work time on a Friday afternoon. I don’t play golf, so I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, but stories abound of groups of sales types taking Friday off for a trip around the links. And before you interrupt, customers were NOT part of the equation.
Some justify the practice of skipping out early by listing off
It goes without saying, we all need a bit of time to handle personal stuff. Getting to the doctor’s office, the post office or even making it in to get a haircut sometimes requires taking an hour out of the day. I get it. My point is Friday afternoons are too important to blow off.
Why Friday Afternoons are Important
Rather than just toss out my own personal views on the topic, I contacted a half dozen salespeople to gather outside thoughts. Here is some background on the group. All are experienced sellers, totaling near 190 years of experience. They have a proven track record for sales growth. All have outperformed their peers and the market in general year over year throughout their careers. I believe it is important to air their thoughts.
Friday afternoons are an important time for serving customers. Many are busy trying to clean up loose ends for the week. They are at their desks – and trying to get issues handled for the week. Often this translates to getting something ordered for the following week. A timely call allows them to offload a task to a salesperson willing to accept the task. When you reach them, you get the order.
Friday afternoons are a great time to finish your customer to-do list. During the course of weekly sales calls, salespeople make promises. Many times, this involves a quick email with product data. Sometimes, it’s a delivery date, confirmation of next week’s meeting or another bit of administrative follow-up. Sending the email on Friday afternoon versus Monday morning differentiates you as a professional with a sense of customer urgency.
Friday afternoons are great for making or confirming next week's appointments. These experts confirm my personal observation that people are easier to reach on Friday afternoon than most other times of the week. Finally connecting with the customer after several voicemail attempts is a thing of beauty.
Weekends are like a Mini Vacation
One of our mentors (who has a track record of producing over 20 percent growth year over year for 15 plus years) shared a view which needs telling. But, before we go into his thoughts, let’s pause a moment and think what even ten years of 20 percent growth could mean.
Twenty percent annual growth means you double your territory in a little over three years, triple it in six and by the end of ten years find your sales dollars six times their current size. Even a “starter” territory of a half-million in sales could be a $3M dollar territory in less than a decade. For our friend, the growth continued. He is a legend with both his company and his suppliers.
The point is: You can be a legend too!
Now back to his comment: Each weekend is a mini vacation.
No conscientious person goes on vacation without handling or at least planning for “loose ends”. Most of us work extra hard the few days before vacation to make sure quotations are completed, customer information is properly logged, phone calls are returned and administrative work complete. Yet, it is common to walk away on Friday with miscellaneous tasks unfinished. Simply stated, these tasks spill over into the next week. Procrastination? Well, maybe. Starting the week with a clean slate allows for maximum concentration on new business issues.
Our successful friend wants his weeks to start off with a bang, not a pile of leftovers from the week before. How can one argue with the kind of success he has experienced?
One more parting thought on Friday
Each of these veterans of the sales force shared the same view. Friday afternoon is an important time. Before we go, I want to share one astute comment from a sales professional working in one of the toughest distributor territories in the country. He said this:
“Being a distributor salesperson is tough mentally and sometimes physically. If you let it, the work will beat you down. I value my weekends and want them to start on a positive note. When I have a great Friday, my weekend is better. Whenever possible, I try to arrange a visit to or phone call with one of my favorite customers on Fridays. Sometimes I end up with an order, but every time I walk into my home office on a Friday afternoon, it’s with a smile.”
Make the most of your Friday afternoons. Leave the week on a high note. If you want to exchange emails with a person who always feels positive on Friday, feel free to email me.
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