The Trail of The Voice Mail

"If you care at all, you'll get some results. If you care enough, you'll get incredible results" -Jim Rohn

We have all been on the other end of a poorly executed voicemail message.

Perhaps, we have even been guilty of leaving one of those awkward verbal bloopers in an attempt to interest a prospect in what you had to offer.

In the business of selling, answering machines are standard fare—as telemarketers and inside sales reps, you typically leave a lot of voice messages throughout the course of your work day. However, as you know from first hand experience, only a small fraction of those calls are returned.

Question: What do you think compels a prospect to return some calls and ignore others?

Answer: Two things— (1) Content and (2) Curiosity.

Busy managers/directors/owners do not have the time or desire to listen to a rambling, “I want to sell you something" voice message!

They will only listen if you make it worth their while…and you have a very narrow window of opportunity in which to do so.

That’s why what you say and how you say it will be the all important catalyst for piquing their interest and getting your call returned!

If you want to reap solid results from the voice mail messages you leave, then take heed:

▪ Prepare what you want to say (rehearse it, if necessary) before you pick up the phone.

▪ Use this time critical window (25-40 seconds) to position WIFM’s—not to make your sales pitch! (Ex: they will be able to cut costs; reduce customer attrition; improve staff productivity; double ROI and so on). Think value proposition!

▪ Your message should always be concise and confident…remember less is more in the world of voice mail messages.

▪ Don’t rush through your message—be sure to pause and speak clearly. The objective is to give the prospect a compelling reason (i.e. WIFM) to call you back!

▪ Speak your phone number s-l-o-w-l-y! Don’t make the common mistake of racing through the number—do not put the prospect in the position of having to rewind the message several times in order to decipher your call back number!

Sample script:

“Hi Steve, this is Jill Richards with ABC Management Systems—I ‘m calling on industry professionals regarding a business tool that will help you dramatically increase staff productivity. It only takes 5 minutes to demo, and I am confident this is something you will want to check out. You can reach me at 800-5-5-5-5-8-5-5. Thanks Steve…I look forward to your call.”

▪ Steer clear of multi-tasking (i.e. eating, drinking, and similar no no’s ) when leaving your message. You would be amazed at the number of sales people who leave messages while eating!

▪ Stay mindful of the end result you want to achieve.

▪ Log and track all of your outbound activity via CRM entry—this way you stay on top of your business and maintain ready access to prospect/customer info when your calls are returned.

The goal: To eliminate scattered, unfocused voice mail messages which are always wasteful and counter productive; and replace them with polished, attention grabbing ones!

The above pointers when implemented with fore thought and consistency, will elevate the quality of your message, stimulate interest and motivate prospects to learn more about your special product or service.

Leave your message at the beep!