1. The Challenge: Knowing When to Call Prospects
Sales teams often work with Leads, Contacts, and Accounts located across multiple countries and time zones.
A common problem is:
Just because a prospect is in Salesforce doesn’t mean they are currently available to take your call.
This leads to issues such as:
- Calling prospects before business hours
- Calling prospects after they’ve left the office
- Lower connection rates
- Wasted time dialing contacts who are unavailable
- Difficulty prioritizing international call lists
Many sales representatives end up manually checking local time websites before making calls.
When dealing with dozens or even hundreds of prospects every day, this process quickly becomes inefficient.
To improve outreach effectiveness, sales teams need a simple visual indicator that instantly answers the question:
“Is this a good time to call?”
2. Using Local Time to Build a Call Availability Indicator
The Local Time app automatically calculates a subject’s:
- Local Time
- Time Zone
- UTC Offset
- Daylight Saving Time adjustments
These fields can be used in Salesforce formulas, reports, list views, and automations.
One particularly useful approach is creating a formula field that displays a visual indicator based on the subject’s local time.
For example:
🟡 Early Morning
🟢 Business Hours
🔴 After Hours
Sales users can immediately determine whether a prospect is likely to be available before placing a call.
3. Example Solution: Traffic Light Status Indicator
Goal
Display a visual status on Lead records showing whether it is currently a good time to call.
Example rules:
| Local Time | Indicator |
|---|---|
| Before 9:00 AM | 🟡 Yellow |
| 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM | 🟢 Green |
| After 5:00 PM | 🔴 Red |
This status can be displayed on:
- Page layouts
- List views
- Reports
- Console applications
4. Create the Formula Field
Create a new Formula field on the Lead object.
Field Type
Formula (Text)
Formula
Assuming 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (9 – 17) are the business hours:
IF(
ISBLANK(tz__UTC_Offset_F__c),
"Unknown",
IF(
VALUE(MID(TEXT(NOW()+ tz__UTC_Offset_F__c /24),12,2)) < 9,
IMAGE("/img/samples/flag_yellow.gif","Yellow",18,18),
IF(
VALUE(MID(TEXT(NOW()+ tz__UTC_Offset_F__c /24),12,2)) > 17,
IMAGE("/img/samples/flag_red.gif","Red",18,18),
IMAGE("/img/samples/flag_green.gif","Green",18,18)
)
)
)
The formula uses the UTC Offset field provided by the Local Time app to calculate the subject’s current local hour and display an appropriate indicator.
5. Add the Field to Salesforce
After creating the formula field:
Step 1
Add the field to the Lead page layout.
Step 2
Add the field to Lead list views.
Step 3
Include the field in reports if desired.
Result
Users can instantly identify:
- Who can be called immediately
- Which prospects may be unavailable
- Which records should be prioritized
without opening individual records.
6. Example Use Case: International Sales Teams
Consider a sales team working from New York and calling prospects across:
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- Australia
- Singapore
- United States
Without a visual indicator, representatives must continually calculate time differences.
With the indicator displayed directly in Salesforce:
- Green prospects become priority calls
- Yellow prospects may become available soon
- Red prospects can be contacted later
This allows sales teams to focus their efforts where they are most likely to achieve a successful connection.
7. Extend the Concept
Many customers customize the formula further by:
- Changing business hours
- Using different images or icons
- Creating additional statuses
- Applying different rules for different regions
For example:
- Green = 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
- Yellow = 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
- Red = Outside business hours
Because the solution is formula-based, administrators can adapt it to their organization’s requirements without writing Apex code.
8. Try the Local Time App
Knowing the local time is useful.
Knowing whether it is a good time to call is even better.
By combining the Local Time app with a simple Salesforce formula field, organizations can create highly visible call-prioritization indicators that help sales users work more efficiently and improve outreach effectiveness.
The Local Time app automatically calculates local time, UTC offsets, time zones, and Daylight Saving Time adjustments for Leads, Contacts, Accounts, Opportunities, Cases, and other supported objects.
Install it from the AppExchange and try it free for 30 days — setup takes less than 15 minutes. Follow the steps described in the installation and setup guide.