Too many salespeople overlook the impact of voicemail. One excuse I hear from salespeople is, “Why leave a voicemail? Nobody will listen to it anyway!” And a comment I hear from people receiving voicemail is they rarely listen to them because they are so long and boring.
I say leave a voicemail, but do it correctly so it will be heard! When you do it right, it takes only 14 seconds and it will make an impact.
The reason voicemail is viewed so poorly is because the vast majority of voicemails are simply a waste. They tend to be long boring messages that are all about the person leaving it, and there’s zero value for the person listening to it.
Key to a great prospecting voicemail is to make it between 11 and 14 seconds. I know you’re saying, “How can anybody do that?” You can’t unless you know what you’re doing before you leave it! A simple rule you have to remember when you make a call is to know what you’re going to say if the call does go to voicemail.
Your voicemail should be broken into 3 parts. First is the greeting, the middle is the call to action and the third is your contact information. I spell all of this out in detail in my new book, High-Profit Prospecting, but here’s a quick example:
Ross, this is Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter.” I have some new information regarding sales trends and your industry for the coming year. I’d be happy to share these with you if you call me at 555-555-5555. Thanks Ross. Again, this is Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter” at 555-555-5555.
Do you see that the message is tight and about something of value to the person I’m calling? It’s not about me.
A few other things to keep in mind when leaving a voicemail:
Every call you make can go one of four ways and you need to be ready for each one. Your call could go to voicemail, be answered by a gatekeeper, roll over to an automated directory, or be answered by the person you’re trying to reach.
Never leave the same message twice. Doing so is an insult to the other person, as it implies they didn’t get your first one.
Don’t leave in your message that you’ll try to call them again tomorrow. Your goal is to get them to call you back. Sure, you can still call them again the next day, but don’t say this in the voicemail.
Practice voicemails by leaving them for yourself first on your voicemail. Then listen to the voicemails. If your voice does not have energy, you have zero chance. If your message sounds scripted, you have zero chance. Remember, your voicemail is you, so let you come through!
Check out this video on leaving effective voicemails:
And be sure to grab a copy of my book High-Profit Prospecting. You’ll be glad you did!
Copyright 2017, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price and High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.
2 Responses
very helpful, makes one see the mistakes we make & have a different perspective. Thank you
My final blog post of the year discussed 5 sales lessons I’d gotten from five books in 2016. One of them came from your book, and it was the observation that any call you make can go one of three ways. The post is here: http://philbernstein.com/5-sales-lessons-i-learned-from-5-books-in-2016/
Interesting that you’ve now added a fourth possibility — the call rolling over to an automated directory. This means you need to have a strategy prepared to navigate the directory, and then be ready for one of the original three possibilities.
Just another challenge to consider — good stuff!