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If you’ve ever felt like you were smashing your head against the wall making prospecting calls, it might be related to something you hadn’t considered.

According to BNet’s Sales Machine author Geoffrey James, you can make a big difference in how successful you are at cold calling by following some simple rules.

#1: Choosing the day of the week

Some sales reps firmly believe that some business days are clearly more productive for cold calling than others–and they’d be on to something.

For instance Mondays are 20% less effective than Thursdays for making calls to qualify a prospect.

Are we suggesting that you stop calling on other days? Not at all, especially if it’s part of your job expectations. It’s also especially important if you’re getting a constant stream of leads in real time (more to come on this topic). But you can, of course, focus your time on more statistically productive days.

#2: Avoiding Calls in the Middle of the Day = Better Results

BNet states you can reach 3x the potential clients by contacting between the hours of 8 and 9 AM, and 4 and 5 PM. The worst times? Between 11 and 2.

#3: Don’t let new leads go stale

The rule for hot, fresh leads is simple: call now, or go home.

The data is irrefutable: leads you get the instant they come in, typically generated from your Web site, go “cold” in less than an hour.

It’s simple: you have a very short window for getting a hold of those leads when you’re still fresh on their minds. If you don’t get a hold of them within the hour, they’re for all practical purposes no better than a lead you got 8 weeks ago.

There’s a great B2B lead generation outsourcing company called Green Leads that has an interesting “standing policy” for “off peak” holidays (think: Columbus Day and Martin Luther King Day)–work extra hard.

They also expect their reps to sell during the Christmas holidays, and actually get results when they do.

The motivation behind these policies is fairly no-nonsense: doing lead generation on lower-traffic days means more chances getting a decision-maker’s undivided attention.

Companies that want to improve their lead generation practices should try another strategy: Call early and stay late.

Data-driven analysis has consistently demonstrated that you’re 40-80% more likely to get a decision maker on the phone between 8-9 in the morning, and 4-5 in the evening.

Consider: how much would any manager kill to get a 33% improvement in ANY part of the business process?

That’s a stellar change to the ROI on the effectiveness of your work–requiring only a minor strategy adjustment.

“A sale doesn’t happen until there’s a conversation” is an old adage, but it’s true. And the less static you have to deal with, the better chance you have of reaching the right people.

The holiday seasons are generally a bad time for sales organizations. It’s a challenge to maintain focus on the job at hand. Everyone, it seems, is putting off big decisions — hiring, operating budgets, new processes — and anything else that has a big impact on the coming year.

But the problem of motivation isn’t always just a temporary problem–it can occur any time. Sales can be a tough gig. The work, training, and preparation needed to “make it” are often beyond what some people are willing to give.

This isn’t an insult to those who struggle, it just means they either need to develop the requisite attributes, or they need to find a different line of work.

But just as importantly, management teams can exert tremendous influence on employees’ motivation.

Sales performance will always suffer from poor strategy, poor hiring, and poor performance management. Thus, fighting de-motivation begins with developing an atmosphere in which the reps feel that they can, and will have success. Sales people need to feel that their supervisors are on target, that they’re working with men and women who allow them to be successful, and that the expectations placed upon them are fair and attainable.

Having realistic objectives is a part of the formula, but without a grounded process backing it up, sales people aren’t going to respond positively. If you don’t provide the tools and back-end support they need, they’re going to act in their own best interests and do what makes them successful, regardless of what the company’s real needs are.