Be Mindful of Time Zones

This morning, I received a phone call at 1:30 am. I didn’t recognize the phone number, but after doing a bit of research this morning, I saw that it was from a domain registrant in India. There was no voicemail, but I can assume the person was trying to sell me a domain name.

When you are trying to do business with people in various time zones around the world, you need to be mindful of the local time of the prospects you are trying to reach. While domain investing isn’t a typical 9-5 business, you need to realize that a person on the other end of the phone call will probably not be happy to speak with you off hours, especially in the middle of the night. In fact, you could have a great deal to offer, but a disrespectful phone call (even if it’s unintentional) could kill a possible deal.

Being mindful of time zones isn’t simply for phone calls. On occasion, I will send emails to people I don’t know, or I will send an email to more than one recipient at a company. When addressing these emails, I sometimes use opening introductions such as “good morning” or “good afternoon.” I do my best to see what timezone the recipients are in so that this type of email doesn’t look strange.

If you call me at 1:30 am, there is a very good chance you won’t get in touch with me. I probably won’t even wake up. However, it shows that you don’t respect boundaries, and it is very likely I won’t want to do business with you.

If you are making phone calls to people in other countries, you should use a website like TimeAndDate.com to see what time it is in the city your recipient lives. Not only is it the respectful thing to do, but it will also make it more likely that the other person will actually be able to answer the phone and speak with you.