The primary goal of leaving a voice message is to get a call returned. When you actually speak with the prospect you will use your 30-second commercial to confirm that it IS a prospect (not a suspect) and set up a meeting with those ready to meet (qualified). You may have noticed I tend to use the word “meeting” rather than “appointment.” Call it semantics but the word appointment has negative baggage. Who do you set appointments with? Doctors, dentists, and attorneys. No disrespect intended but the experience is usually painful and they always extract big money. Who do you have meetings with? Friends, acquaintances, people you like and trust. I dropped the word appointment from my vocabulary when asking for meetings with prospects.
Now think of all the bad voice messages you have received. Sometimes they didn’t identify themselves or their companies, rambled on trying to sell you something in voicemail, and if they didn’t get cut off by the times-up beep, they hurriedly left a number at the end of a lengthy message. The common denominator was they all would LOVE to meet you. I’m guessing you deleted the message, possibly within the first 15 seconds. Avoid all of that mess.
Similar to gatekeepers (receptionists or any person you must speak with to reach your prospect), your prospect (decision-makers only, please) expects to hear your name, company name, and the reason for your call. The prospect can quickly determine if you’re buying or selling. A poorly crafted message will get you a lifetime subscriiption to their voicemail. I call that voicemail jail.
By keeping your message short, you show respect for the prospect’s time. Remain honest about why you want to speak, but create interest. Less is more. A cardinal rule is leave your phone number early in the message, usually right after your name/company name. Slow down and enunciate it clearly. If you feel you are in his/her cell phone, repeat it in case the cell tower beeps on the recording. If the prospect chooses to return the call, you don’t want to make it hard to listen to the entire message again. Remember, the prospect will either hit repeat or delete. Make it easy to call back. Always end with a call to action: “call me.” You may not have the same title as the President or CEO you are calling, but you have every right as a salesperson to speak with them — as if you are friends with them already — with what we could call “equal business stature.”
Here are few other tips and an examples:
this is NOT the place to use your elevator pitch
do not pitch your product or service
don’t sound like a salesperson, not sales-y
sound confident
don’t talk too fast
asking for help works
differentiate yourself from competition
use one of the problems you solve to get attention
spark curiosity
say when you’re available to take their call if outside normal business hours
be authentic
speak with “equal business stature” — use their first name
