“Hi, Mary, this is Fred Smith from XZY Consulting, a strategy consulting firm. We help clients develop more effective strategies. I’d like to talk to you about ways we could work together. Please call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx.”
Ssszzzzz………… Snore………Yawn…….Borrrring……..
Executives are bombarded with voicemail messages from vendors all day long. It takes time to listen to them. It takes even more to time to respond. That makes them easy to ignore ….and delete.
Your challenge is to get the prospect’s attention. And you have about 40 seconds to do it.
Create a brief, compelling message. Then deliver it several times, if necessary.
Make Your Message Count
Your message is about the prospect, not about you. Forget about your elevator speech, no matter how well crafted. It’s too long and it’s too “me-centric.”
Several sales experts advocate a message with one tantalizing statement. Consider this sample message from Kelley Robertson of Fearless Selling
“Mr. Big, if you’re like other companies in ABC industry, I suspect that you (fill in the blank with the problem). If this is the case, call me at 800-555-1212, and I might be able to suggest a solution. By the way, it’s Kelley calling, and my number is 800-555-1212.”
Note that Kelley doesn’t give his full name, the name of his firm or a description of what he does. He simply talks about the prospect’s problem.
Jill Konrath suggests a five step process in How To Leave Voicemail Messages That Have Prospects Begging To Meet You . I’m not sure if you could get all five of them into a 40-second message. But combining any of #1 – #4 with #5 might be effective.
- Reference your research. Do research on the company in advance and refer to it in your message: “ in researching your company, I see that ……”
- State A Strong Value Proposition – Offer proof “In working with another firm like yours, we reduced space requirements by 10%, saving them over $500k on lease payments and capital equipment reductions of over $300,000.”
- Share An Insightful Idea “Over the past month, I’ve invested a great deal of time studying your website and what you’re trying to accomplish with it. Based on my analysis, I have some interesting ideas regarding how you could leverage it to create additional revenue opportunities.”
- Dangle Important Information – Talk about the industry, competitors, or the prospect’s customers
- Conclude With Confidence “We should talk. The savings I’m talking about can drop right to your bottom line. Give me a call at 651-429-1922 and we’ll set up a time to get together.”
As Jill and Kelley point out, your goal is to whet the prospect’s appetite with a nugget of “must have” information. It could be about your results or simply an idea you want to share.
Be Systematic
Don’t expect an immediate call back. You may have to educate the prospect through a series of voicemails and emails.
Most of all, you need to be systematic. Leave a series of three voicemails over a 10-day period. The prospect will see that you are serious about follow-up. Also, your message will sink in.
Colleen Francis suggests a systematic approach in A 3-Step Strategy for Making Voicemail a Highly-Effective Sales Tool.
Message #1
“Hello, Janet, it’s Colleen from Engage Selling. Sorry, I missed you. I’m calling because Chris at the Gizmo Corporation asked me to speak with you about the work we are doing to improve his sales results. I promise to call you back Wednesday at 2:00PM.”
In this case Coleen is not leaving her phone number. The onus is on her to call the prospect back. She is both educating the prospect and tantalizing her with a tidbit of information.
Message #2
“Hi Janet, it’s Colleen at Engage Selling calling, as I promised, to try and reach you today. Sorry, I missed you. Chris at the Gizmo Corporation thought you’d be interested to learn more about how we are able to reduce your sales cycle by three months. I promise to try you again Thursday at 10:00AM.”
Colleen kept her promise to call at 2PM Wednesday and she set a time for the next call. The prospect cannot help but think that Colleen is serious … and organized.
Message #3
“Hi Janet. It’s Colleen at Engage Selling. I promised I would reach you today at 10:00AM. Sorry I missed you. I noticed you’ve been hard to reach this week and I’m wondering if that’s because you’re busy with your sales team talking about training, maybe you’ve already engaged another sales trainer or I’ve simply been picking the wrong time to find you at your desk. Why don’t you give me a call at 111-111-1111 and if I don’t hear from you, I will try again on [blank date].”
Colleen is now inviting the prospect to call back without making her feel guilty. But she’s still not giving up. She’s set the time for the next call.
In her article she says that this approach has helped her clients increase call backs by as much as 80%.
You could also marry Colleen’s approach with Jill’s. Leave voicemails on a schedule and drop a different tidbit each time.
I might leave a call back number each time. But you can test this approach by leaving a number sometimes and not leaving a number other times.
