Voicemail

[dsmithsvm]

I find myself getting thrown into voicemail about 60-70% of the time. I for the most part do not leave voicemails. Any suggestions for cutting down the volume of times I get forced into voicemail jail?

And are there times I should be leaving a voicemail message.

Thanks

[Jacques Werth]

Generally, it is counter productive to leave voice mail messages unless your product or service is in great demand.

1. Try pressing 0 for operator when you get voice mail. Then, find out how to reach the gate keeper for the person you're trying to reach. Make your prospecting offer to the gate keeper as if he/she is the decision maker.


2. Try to get the direct dial number of the person you're trying to reach. Then, call them before and after business hours, during lunch time, and on Saturday mornings.

3. A good list broker can often get the names of people with the right job titles and their direct dial numbers.

[grasmere]

And are there times I should be leaving a voicemail message.

Prospecting - no

Returning a call - yes

IMHO

[MedallionFin]

I'd like to hear some thoughts on this, but a suggestion given to us when leaving voicemails when prospecting, was to do this:

"Bob, this is Jeff with XXX Company. I think it may be important that you and I speak. Call me. XXX-XXXX. Again that's XXX-XXXX (click)."

Thoughts??

[Derek]

"Bob, this is Jeff with XXX Company. I think it may be important that you and I speak. Call me. XXX-XXXX. Again that's XXX-XXXX (click)."

Thoughts??

This is completely manipulative. You will probably get some call backs from some very low probability prospects.

[MedallionFin]

Now i'll tell you that the only call backs received from this method were very angry.

[Derek]

Now i'll tell you that the only call backs received from this method were very angry.

Nobody likes con men.

If you are leaving these types of messages I think you need to take a step back and get serious about what your goal is.

You are leaving this message to get someone to call you back. But, that isn't what your goal should be. Your real goal is to sell your product/service. So, you only want people to call back that want to buy what you are selling. Everyone else that calls is wasting your time.

[MedallionFin]

Agreed. thanks for the feedback.

[SuzeR]

This reminds me of a book I gushed on and on about a couple of years ago, called Coldcalling that REally Works, by Michael Schiffman (not sure if that is the correct last name). He had a voicemail tactic where you say you are calling about Company A (a client of yours who is in the same or similar industry as the prospect) and to please call back.

I felt so oily doing that. I stopped after a few times. Especially after I heard annoyance in the voices of callbacks.

[highprob]

Several years ago, we did a study of 21 salespeople who strongly believed that it was very important to leave voice mail messages when prospecting. I don’t have their exact statistics handy, but what follows are close enough for our purposes.

On average:
They got one return call for every 200 + voice mail messages (VMM) that they left.
They sold about 1/3 of the people that called them back. Therefore, about 1 in 600 VMMs resulted in a new customer.
The average of that group’s sales for the six months that we tracked them was 29% lower than the average of all salespeople in their companies.

The best of them was only about 4% lower than the average salesperson in his company.

I am not saying it’s impossible, because we actually know one person that had an excellent call back rate from VMMs – about 1 in 16. We recorded her calling sessions several times, tried to analyze them, and many people tried to emulate her – without success.

That was before we tabulated the results of her calls. None of the people that returned her calls bought the product she offered in her VMM.

[asapfloors]

Does anyone know a good list co. with direct dial #'s?

[localman]

Look up a little something called centers of influence.

If you're voicemails goes something like: "I was meeting with John Doe the other day and he suggested I get in touch with you". where, your prospect and John know each other.

You'll get sent to voicemail far fewer times and the voicemails you do leave will get returned.

Trust based selling is the way to go.