Voice Mail Prospecting - Most Salespeople Leave The Wrong Kinds
of Messages
Do you routinely achieve a 65% - 85% callback rate on the voice
mail messages you leave for prospects?
You can. But first you have to ignore the "conventional wisdom"
being taught by sales trainers who never actually cold-call or
by business consultants who teach rather than do.
In the course of my *research for my book, How To Get Your
Voice Mail Messages Returned, I came across a presentation
that some consultant gave on this topic. Like a lot of
consultants, she didn't base her techniques on real- world
experiences. Instead, she based it on a book she read.
(*The techniques I teach are based on field research. But
I also was interested in what other people had to say about this
topic.)
She teaches what you might call a "blueprint" of a standardized
script you should follow when leaving cold-call voice mail
messages.
Without violating anyone's copyright -- and while representing
the "blueprint" as accurately as possible -- I will now share
with you an example of a voice mail message that follows the
principles apparently taught in the book she read. If you
prefer to use a traditional approach to voice mail, you can copy
this example. Personally, I hope you won't follow this
blueprint, because of the three underlying precepts I teach
regarding voice mail messages:
1. The only goal of a voice mail message is to get the call
returned (or, ultimately to result in a live conversation).
2. Most voice mail messages left by salespeople are not
returned.
3. Therefore, the methods commonly employed by most
salespeople usually are ineffective.
But if you believe the conventional approach to be just fine,
here is a faithful example:
"Hi, my name is Dan O'Day and I am with Z-100 Radio. I
understand that you are the Advertising Manager for ABC Widgets,
which means you are responsible for the advertising in the
Riverside area. I work for a division of XYZ Broadcasting that
specializes in creating advertising campaigns that are
specifically designed to drive sales for companies like yours.
We have worked with everyone from Brand X Widgets to Brand Z
Widgets. For example, last year we did an advertising campaign
for Brand X Widgets in which we helped them advertise their new
Super Widget. I would love to give you more specific details
about other successful campaigns we have designed and talk to
you about how we can help you meet your goals in Riverside. My
name is is Dan O'Day and you can reach me at 555- 476-8111. That
number again is 555-476-8111. Thank you and I look forward to
your call."
Well, there it is: A "professional" voice mail message which,
according to some book, contains all the elements required to
stimulate a callback.
Lots of luck.
We don't have enough space to analyze that message and list all
the things that it does wrong.
But I will point out something that the creator of this
"blueprint" doesn't quite understand:
The average business executive sorts through his mail over the
wastebasket. As soon as he mentally identifies something as
"junk mail," he drops it into that wastebasket. And the majority
of his mail goes directly into the trash without ever being
opened.
The average business executive listens to her voice mail
messages with her finger poised over the "delete" button.
And as soon as she decides this phone call is not one
that she needs to return or one that she will benefit from
returning, she hits "delete"...
...and never looks back.
That means you must begin your message with something that makes
the recipient afraid to hit the "delete" button.
And it must maintain the recipient's interest all the way
to your "call to action" (i.e., telling them exactly how and
when to return your call).
So you have a choice:
Do you want to leave "professional"-sounding messages that get
deleted, not returned?
Or do you want to leave unique, intriguing messages that are are
virtually irresistible to the recipient?