In one of the Dirty Harry movies, Clint Eastwood quietly says, A man must know his limitations.

Very true, and this definitely applies to phone work, whether youre prospecting, appointment setting, or closing deals.

Its not a topic I think about all that much, but it coursed through my mind tonight, as I was developing a prospecting campaign that I intend to execute, myself.

I think people have different fatigue settings, but theyre unaware of them.

For me, doing outbound calling for an hour, and I mean a solid one, without breaks, is no big deal. In fact, I just start warming up, getting my phone voice strapped on at the half-hour point.

Two hours, with a quick break in there, is also comfortable.

And thats it; my current sweet spot, and no more.

So, my campaign will entail two hours of outbound for a month, and I expect it will yield optimal results for me.

I realize its not practical to have two hour shifts at my clients sites, so at minimum, we schedule four hour sets for their employees. But when I started doing outbound selling for Time-Life Books, we worked only 3 hours per night, and 4 hours on Saturday morning, and it was ideal for college students.

The phone can be a grind, and Ive never recommended eight-hour shifts. The productivity plummets dramatically, Ive found after five hours.

You should experiment; especially if youre an independent businessperson, or youre in sales and are permitted to allocate your time as you wish.

By the way, if your tolerance level is only an hour or two, its not wimpy to acknowledge it, and act accordingly, because, after all, Dirty Harry is right!