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Avoiding Voice Message Hell
How to handle voice messaging systems when
prospecting
Today more than ever it’s
really tough getting through to the person
you’re trying to reach on the phone. It used to
be that the gatekeeper screened your call and
kept you from reaching the very person you were
trying to meet with or sell to. Now there’s
technology getting in your way. Prospecting and
cold calling are hard enough, but when you are
confronted with voice messaging systems, it adds
to the challenge.
When you actually do speak with a prospect for
the very fist time during a so-called cold call,
you need a short, concise, attention-grabbing
statement that will get his attention and make
him want to hear more. That’s not always easy,
even when talking live. With voice messages you
not only have to leave a message that achieves
this same goal, but also does it indirectly via
an electronic recording, making it even more
important to say the right thing. People tend to
get nervous or confused leaving voice messages;
hence the message itself may sound like a jumble
of unrelated phrases. More than once I’ve had
voice messages from callers that sounded like
really good Porky Pig imitations. Also, this
impersonal communications vehicle makes it too
easy for your prospect to delete your seemingly
unimportant message and go on with his day
without fear of an uncomfortable or embarrassing
situation.
It’s very important to leave voice messages that
catch your listener’s attention, compels him to
listen to the entire dialogue, and gets him to
actually return your call. There are several
techniques you can use that will increase your
effectiveness and chances of getting a returned
call. The following seven tips should help you
with this modern-day Hell.
1. Curious George. Be sure to hit my hot
buttons with your message so as to spur my
curiosity. Specify clear benefits as to why I
should return your call. The last thing I want
to hear is “yet another sales slug trying to
sell me something.” Do a little research on me
or my business before calling so you can relate
your message to my interests and let me know
that you might have something of interest for
me. Try something like, “Mr. Lombardo, this is
Fred Johnson with XYZ Inc. I see that you have
expanded your operations to accommodate an
increase in business. I know from my other
clients that have experienced similar growth
that they encountered challenges with finding
quality people to fill the positions needed for
this growth. We help companies find the right
people so that you can spend your valuable time
working with your business instead of working on
your business. I’d like to speak with you to
learn more about your operations and challenges
to see if we might be able to help. You can
reach me at…” If this is truly a concern of
mine, you can be sure I’ll call you back.
Likewise, if this is not a concern or problem,
then I won’t call you back. But isn’t that a
great way to qualify your prospects anyway?
2. Short & Sweet. Don’t leave long
messages. I don’t have the time or patience to
hear someone go on and on about what they do,
how they do it or how they think they can help
me without even asking me what my pains are. The
example in tip #1 is short enough yet
informative enough to get to the point without
boring me. You also don’t want to leave too many
details that would allow me to pre-judge you or
make false assumptions about you or your
offerings.
3. Don’t Hang Up. Always leave a message.
Some people say that if you get a voice message,
hang up and try again later until someone live
picks up. I don’t recommend this at all because
I can see from the caller ID that you called.
And if I keep seeing that you called, I will, a)
get annoyed that you are not willing or able to
leave me a message, b) assume you’re a
telemarketer, or c) fear you are stalking me.
Busy business people frequently don’t answer
their phone directly (I always try to, but
that’s just me) and let it go to voice mail so
they can go through all their calls and return
them at a specific time of day or week. You have
to respect that and not expect that you’ll
actually get me live. So don’t try playing this
game of cat and mouse thinking you’ll fool me
one day by getting me to pick up on your call. I
once read in a book on cold calling that you
should call a prospect late at night when you
know they are not there and listen to their
voice message, but do not leave a message. It
recommended that you should do this several
times to study their voice and intonation in
order to learn about their personality type. I
think this is the dumbest idea I’ve heard in a
long time. Not only will you not learn much
about their personality type just from their
voice message, but if the prospect happens to
check his caller ID, he’ll see that some nut has
been calling him and hanging up at 10:00pm at
night. Then when you do call during the day to
reach him, he already knows you’re mad and will
ignore your call. So be careful of calling and
hanging up without leaving a message for any
reason.
4. Compliment My Business. This tip
doesn’t mean you should send me a compliment
(“Hey Russ, nice voice message.”). It means that
you should try to find a topic that is
complimentary to my business. Perhaps you have a
product or service that works well with what I
offer and we can work together. Possibly we have
something in common like another client or
colleague. Maybe you want to purchase my product
and say so in your message. However, if you do
say that, be sure that this is genuine or else
you are being unethical or just plain lying.
Once I call you back, be sure to discuss this
complimentary topic first, and then you can
segue into how you might be able to help me with
your offerings.
5. Make Me An Offer. Try offering me
something for free such as a free consultation
or site-survey. This doesn’t have to cost you
much or even anything at all. This could be
something that you do anyway as part of finding
new business. It will get my interest when I
hear I could get something for free to help my
business. However, make sure you don’t sound
like a timeshare company offering a free trip
(and all you have to do is sit though a
90-minute presentation…). If you would normally
do a sales call where you’d ask a lot of
questions about my operations and such and then
present your findings to me, then this can be
presented as a Needs Analysis that you are
offering me for free. It’s all about presenting
value to me and getting me to want to return
your call.
6. Be Prepared. Don’t even pick up the
phone unless you are first prepared to, a) reach
a live person (the prospect himself or his
gatekeeper), or b) get a voice messaging system.
Some sales people are good on the phone when
they reach a live person, but as soon as the
“machine” picks up, they fall apart (“Um, yeah,
uh, Hi. Uh, this is George from uh…uh…I mean
George Carlson from uh…”). Be prepared in
advance with your script for handling any
situation. The script should be used as a
guideline for you to follow and stay on track,
but under NO circumstance should you ever read
from a script.
7. Don’t Give Up. On average, it takes up
to six to seven times to get through to people
these days, especially in business. The average
sales person gives up after two or three tries –
not even half-way there. So be persistent and
patient and keep trying. Do not say that you
already left me several messages and sound like
you are getting frustrated. You can say that you
understand that I am busy and haven’t had a
chance to return your calls. By saying that, you
are respecting me and my time. You can also mix
it up by sending me emails between calls, if you
have my email address of course, because I may
find it more efficient to respond to you via
email than by phone. I may even respond to you
via email while I’m on the phone with someone
else. So be creative and persevere and do not
give up too quickly. And, on your final message,
don’t sound frustrated or negative by saying
something like you’re giving up or can’t seem to
get me to call you back. Always sound positive
and professional. I myself have left final
messages that said something like, “I apologize
that it might appear that I’m stalking you, so I
won’t leave any more messages and will wait till
you find the time to call me back.” This pokes a
little fun at me while respecting the prospect’s
valuable time. Funny, I get returned calls after
leaving that message.
Use these tips to help avoid Voice Message Hell
and to increase your chances of getting returned
calls from your prospects.
Good
luck and good selling!
Russ Lombardo
PEAK
Sales Consulting, LLC
russ@peaksalesconsulting.com
(702)
655-5652
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