Leave perfect sales voicemail… but how? No doubt, it is very hard. If you ultimately record a well-crafted message, do prospects listen to it, or take the time to call you back? I think the answer is … Not usually.
Should salespeople even bother with voicemails? So what’s the point? Here’s why it happens and what should be done.
Although a seller gets a higher response rate from an email or another type of message, responses to voicemails are generally more productive and demonstrate a higher level of interest. Therefore, what you lose in quantity, gain in quality.
You won’t get any responses at all, of course, if you don’t leave a carefully planned and thoughtful voicemail, — high quality or otherwise. Here are some pointers for the best sales voicemail.
Leaving a Voicemail
Leave a voicemail by using a normal tone of voice and keeping the message short, in between 20-30 seconds. Start the voicemail with information relevant to the contact and ask questions that are tailored for them.
The length between 20-30 seconds.
A perfect voicemail should be in between 20 to 30 seconds — not much longer, and not much shorter. I realize this is a particular window of time, so let me explain the reasoning. Prospects aren’t going to listen to long voicemail from a voice caller that too from a number which they don’t recognize, and the past 30 seconds pushing the call ensures the message will get almost deleted immediately. Buyers are also unlikely to listen to a short message call.
When a call is missed, most mobile phones show the number as well as voicemail duration. Therefore, if the recipient sees the message is from an unknown number and only a few seconds long, they’ll assume it’s not essential and hit delete. The word still doesn’t appear to be substantive, and they are not agreed to listen. 20-30 seconds is a better and sweet spot—a voicemail in timeframe sparks curiosity without demanding too much of the time.
Lead with information relevant to the purpose.
Sales representatives tend to be very declarative in messaging. The starting phrase in both voicemails and emails generally sounds like, “Hi, My name is Derek, and I work for Instant Solutions Pvt. Ltd.”
It might look straightforward approach, but it is not the most effective one. As soon as the prospective client realizes the voicemail is a sales pitch from a salesperson, it gets deleted. And if you lead with the name and company, The prospect’s finger hits the delete key almost immediately. This is why it’s essential to lead with relevant to the prospective client, like a thought-provoking question.
Ask a question you wouldn’t send in an email.
If your voicemails and emails are precisely the same, you lessen your chances of getting a response to either. Instead of email, make them different by reserving specific questions for voicemail.
While both types of messages must be customized to the buyer, voicemails should be ultra-specific. In an email, I may ask for an appointment, a referral, or feedback on a content asset they downloaded. While still tailored to the buyer, these sorts of classic questions can be customized for reuse with another prospect, or another 100 opportunities.
But the questions you may ask in a voicemail should be concrete. They might never be intended for some other listener. If I were selling financial management technology, I might ask the voicemail recipient which commercial software they use nowadays, or if all of the financial analysts work from the central office.
The more personal the question, the more likely it might get a response. Think about it. If you have chest pains on a busy city street and cry out, “Somebody call 911!” you might get help … or you might not get it. But when you point to a specific person and shout, “Would you please call 911 to help me?” confident that the person you selected might grab the phone and call for help.
Not using a traditional close.
Referring to lines like “Please call back” or “I’ll check in again on X date.” Because these are generic, these asks don’t increase the buyer’s feeling of responsibility. Instead, it is suggested posing your specific question and ending the call there.
Not hanging up without leaving a voicemail.
If you call a prospect, you have to leave a message. Regardless of whether the opportunity was actively screening calls or directly away from the desk when the phone rang, your contact will pop up as a missed call. If you do two or three times in a row, you degrade your chances of ever connecting with this prospect. Since they’ve now seen contact come up multiple times without once receiving a voicemail, they’re aware this call is not to be picked. The next time you call, and they’re not picking up.
Salespeople who call and hang up get themselves out of the process. Whether you’re prepared to leave the perfect voicemail, you need to move one every time. However, if you do record messages with the ultra-specific question, the prospect needs a twinge of guilt you call back as they think they owe you an answer.
Using the usual tone of voice.
Salespeople often are coached to sound excited on the phone, thus raising natural voice pitch to a high, an unnatural one. This tone of voice clears to the listener that this is an uncomfortable call, but a generic one.
It’s easy to imagine the caller hung up, dialing another prospect, and leaving an identical voicemail using the same high pitch, and then on and on. It sounds like a salesperson is doing 50 prospecting calls for the day. It absolves the listener to respond. I would recommend salespeople initiate voicemails at a normal tone of voice and go gradually lower. This shows that you are at ease making the call, and the request is unusual.
Without the fake tone of excitement in voice, the listener will understand that the question you’re asking is just as meaningful as it is to them. The more the listener assumes the message is meant for only them, the more likely they will respond.
Leaving voicemails at the end of the day.
Voicemail connects rates usually go up as the day advances, so you should schedule your phone activity toward the end of the day. You are wondering why this is? We could thank the serial position effect. The psychological phenomenon says while showing people a list, they will remember the first and last items the best, which means when you would be trying to grab a prospect’s attention and they hear and want, one of the first or last things.
But imagine if you got a sales voicemail at 10 a.m. It may be the well-delivered and the most compelling, voicemail that you have ever heard, but you might be dealing with other tasks. You may decide to respond to the representative when you have much more time to talk. As the day rolled by, you might completely forget about the call.
On the other hand, if you listened to the voicemail at 4:30 p.m., the day is likely wrapping up for you. You might return their call first thing the next day or email the salesperson that night.
Split up your voicemails.
You can also try leaving two voicemails. Rather than leave one 30-second message, record a 20-second voicemail and then immediately call back and leave a 10-second one. The second should include information that was missing in the first voicemail. For example, a representative using the technique may leave the following two messages:
Voicemail #1: “Hi, Jaya, I recently attended one of Turbo King’s webinars. I have not received any follow-up emails, which made me wonder if you have a marketing strategy in place for nurturing webinar leads. According to my team’s research, folks who attend a live event are 30% more likely to convert. What strategy do you have in place today?”
Voicemail #2: “Zeba, I forgot to leave my name and number. This is Surbhi from Ashima Corporation. You can reach me anytime at 780-867-5309. Thanks and have a great day.”
Splitting the message into two parts has many benefits. Firstly, you become more memorable. Secondly, you look less rehearsed. And, if you are reciting a given script, probably you must not be going to be lazy to forget the critical component. Prospects will trust you more automatically.
Slow down.
Start voicemail with regular speed, but it gets slower and slower the longer you speak. You get to your phone number by the time, and you should practically be crawling. It sounds counter intuitive — but this tactic makes prospects likelier to finish listening.
You sound more confident and articulate when you’re not rushing to the finish line, but you also seem authentic. Speaking in a hurry suggests you have been dialing all day long and require to be as effective as possible. If still, you’re making three calls rather than 30 calls, you are probably sound far more deliberate. A slow finish echoes the buyer. They are not another name on the list.
Ending a Voicemail
Make the culminating thing you say be your phone number. This ensures it’s visible on voicemail and makes it easy for the prospective client to call you back. Avoid phrases such as “Call me back when you get through the call over your voicemail,” which may sound pushy. Tell them you will follow up with an email from the other end. This scenario gives the prospect two ways to return, which certainly can’t hurt your call.
Ending with the contact number
Contact number is the last thing you must say on a voicemail. Say it once and too very slowly, and make sure to repeat it. This will have dual benefits: Firstly, it makes contact number the last thing prospect hears, which encourages an immediate reaction; secondly, in the age of voicemail dictation, it ensures contact number appears clearly at the end of the text message. It will get hyperlinked and becomes accessible for the prospect to push for a quick reply.
Sounding desperate
Phrases such as “Please call back on getting this,” “I will be looking forward to hearing from you soon,” and “Call me at the earliest convenience,” are aggressive, pushy, and desperate. Telling prospects what to do must be avoided. You would be making returning calls seem like a job for the opportunity or demand. This must come as a mutually beneficial relationship and in which each party is in the self-inspired mood to call unpromptly the other back.
The message to leave should be “Call back when you get this,” at the door, and “Talk to you” “Thanks for the precious time,” or another right old way, “Have a nice day.”
Saying that you will follow up through an email
Keep the conversation going to give your prospects an easy way to return call by writing them a quick email after hanging up the phone. Sales and marketing personnel are used to being on the phone all day — but not all prospective clients do this.
Hedge bets by giving prospects two ways to respond and choose from. A simple, “I’ll follow up through an email,” before hanging up, is short, concise, and shows thoroughness on your part.