By 
Do you typically get a 65-85% return rate on voicemail messages you leave with potential customers?
You can. But first you need to ignore the “conventional wisdom” taught by sales trainers who never really cold call or business consultants who teach rather than do.
In the course of my *research for my book, How to Get Your Voicemail Messages Bounced Back, I came across a presentation by a consultant on this topic. Like many consultants, he didn’t base his techniques on real world experiences. Instead, he based it on a book that he read.
(*The techniques I teach are based on field research. But I was also interested in what other people had to say on this topic.)
She teaches what might be called a “blueprint” of a standardized script you should follow when leaving cold calling voicemail messages.
Without violating anyone’s copyright, and while representing the “model” as accurately as possible, I will now share with you an example of a voicemail message that follows the principles apparently taught in the book she read.
If you prefer to use a traditional approach for voicemail, you can copy this example.
Personally, I hope you don’t follow this model, because of the three fundamental tenets I teach regarding voicemail messages:
1. The sole purpose of a voicemail message is to return the call (or ultimately create a live conversation).
2. Most voicemail messages left by sellers are not returned.
3. Therefore, the methods commonly used by most sellers are often ineffective.
But if you think the conventional approach is fine, here’s a faithful example:
“Hello, my name is Dan Smith and I’m with Z-100 Radio. I understand that you are the advertising manager for ABC Widgets, which means you are responsible for advertising in the Riverside area. I work for a division of XYZ Broadcasting who specializes in creating ad campaigns specifically designed to drive sales for businesses like yours. We’ve worked with everyone from Brand X Widgets to Brand Z Widgets. For example, last year we did an ad campaign for Brand X Widgets in we help them announce their new Super Widget. I’d love to give you more specifics about other successful campaigns we’ve designed and talk to you about how we can help you achieve your goals in Riverside. My name is Dan Smith and you can reach me at 555 -476-8111. That number again is 555-476-8111. Thank you and I look forward to your call.”
Well, there it is: a “professional” voicemail message that, according to some book, contains all the necessary elements to stimulate a callback.
Good luck.
We don’t have enough space to go through that message and list all the things it does wrong. But I will point out something that the creator of this “plane” does not quite understand:
The average business executive sorts his mail in the trash can. As soon as he mentally identifies something as “junk mail,” he throws it in the trash. And most of his mail goes straight to the trash, never opened.
The average business executive listens to their voicemail messages with their finger on the “delete” button. And as soon as he decides that this phone call is not one he needs to return or one that would benefit from returning it, he hits “delete”…
…and never looks back.
That means you should start your message with something that makes the recipient afraid to hit the “delete” button.
And you need to hold the recipient’s interest until your “call to action” (ie, tell them exactly how and when to call them back).
So you have a choice:
Do you want to leave “professional” sounding messages that get deleted and not returned?
Or do you want to leave unique and intriguing messages that are virtually irresistible to the recipient?
© 2005