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The time you spend to improve voicemails should be a small part
of your telesales efforts. Although there are things you can do
to improve the success of getting a prospect to return your call,
don't rely on voicemails to dramatically improve your selling results.
Remember that no matter how much you improve the voicemails you
leave prospects, the majority of them will not return your call.

Also, you may
want to think about other areas of your telesales organization that
may be preventing you from maximizing the results of your sales
efforts.

• Are you
  able to establish relationships with gatekeepers so that they
  are an advocate for you when calling a prospect? Or, are they
  just dumping you into voicemail because they think you're "just
  another sales guy".


• Are your
  salespeople improving their selling skills daily with ongoing
  sales training?


• Is your telesales
  organization designed in a way that identifies the hottest prospects,
  qualifies those prospects, and converts them to orders in the
  shortest amount of time?

These points
(and many more) may be areas you want to evaluate in your telesales
organization. Continual improvement in all areas from strategic
(how to properly design your telesales organization) to tactical
(sales training) will help dramatically improve your sales results.

Getting
prospects to return your voicemails

Effective voicemails
must meet certain criteria. The following is a list of points for
leaving great voicemails. After you understand the criteria, create
specific messages that are in-line with these points.

Criteria
for effective voicemails

1. Be
   short – Voicemails should be no longer than 20
   seconds. Less is better. It’s more effective to leave prospects
   wondering who you are and what you called for, than for them to
   delete a long-winded message.


2. Arouse
   curiosity
   – This is the single most
   important piece of advice. The only goal in leaving
   voicemails for cold prospects is to get them to call you back.
   If you tell them everything, they don’t need to call you
   back. Spark their interest by having them think about who you
   are. Being vague may sometimes create interest in the prospects
   mind. If they are curious, they will call you back.


3. Be
   different – Think of all the voicemail messages
   that you receive. Do they inspire you to call back? If not, leave
   messages that are completely different than the ones you receive.
   Uniqueness will grab a prospects attention and will be more likely
   to compel them to return your messages.


4. What’s
   in it for them? – If you decide to leave additional
   information on your call, only state information that is a clear
   benefit to the customer. What benefits of your products or your
   services will most likely intrigue them enough to call you back?


5. Warm
   up the call – Take liberty in how you warm up the
   call. Use whatever you may or may not know about the company.
   Do you know any other people at the company? Do you know what
   they do? Do you know their competitors? Any information you know
   about the company can be used in a voicemail to make you sound
   more familiar with the prospect and his company.


6. Be
   confident – Don’t ask them to call you back,
   tell them to call you back. You must believe that you are doing
   them a favor by contacting them, not vice versa. Successful sales
   calls ensure parity between you and the prospect. Failed sales
   calls are ones in which you are the subordinate to the prospect.


7. Be
   creative – Think of new and different approaches
   every day. Even voicemail messages that seem odd at first may
   be the most effective in getting prospects to call you back.


8. Be
   prepared – When customers do call you back, make
   sure you’re able to quickly and efficiently move into your
   sales call. Fumbling around, asking them multiple times for their
   name, telling them to hold on while you bring their name up in
   the database, or trying to find questions you want to ask, will
   kill your credibility with the customer. You should be able to
   easily and effectively move into a sales presentation with only
   a pen and a blank piece of paper.

About
Brooks Dreyfus Consulting:

Brooks Dreyfus
Consulting is a specialized sales consulting firm, working with
companies to improve the results of their telesales efforts. Whether
you're looking to create an in-house telesales team or improve your
current one, Brooks Dreyfus Consulting can help. Our results oriented
approach assists clients across a broad range of telesales needs.
From strategic vision to tactical execution, we focus on applying
proven techniques to achieve your goals.

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