Voice Mail Prospecting Most Salespeople Leave The Wrong Kinds of Messages
Do you routinely achieve a 65% - 85% callback rate on the
voice mail messages you leave for prospects? You can. But first you have to ignore the "conventional
wisdom" being taught by sales trainers who never actually
cold-call or by business consultants who teach rather than
do. In the course of my *research for my book, How To Get
Your Voice Mail Messages Returned
(http://www.VoiceMailReturned.com), I came across a
presentation that some consultant gave on this topic. Like a
lot of consultants, she didn't base her techniques on
real-world experiences. Instead, she based it on a book she
read. (*The techniques I teach are based on field
research. But I also was interested in what other people had
to say about this topic.) She teaches what you might call a "blueprint" of a
standardized script you should follow when leaving cold-call
voice mail messages. Without violating anyone's copyright -- and while
representing the "blueprint" as accurately as possible -- I
will now share with you an example of a voice mail
message that follows the principles apparently taught in the
book she read. If you prefer to use a traditional approach to voice mail, you
can copy this example. Personally, I hope you won't follow this blueprint,
because of the three underlying precepts I teach regarding
voice mail messages: 1. The only goal of a voice mail message is to get the
call returned (or, ultimately to result in a live
conversation). 2. Most voice mail messages left by salespeople are not
returned. 3. Therefore, the methods commonly employed by most
salespeople usually are ineffective. But if you believe the conventional approach to be just fine,
here is a faithful example: "Hi, my name is Dan O'Day and I am with Z-100 Radio. I
understand that you are the Advertising Manager for ABC
Widgets, which means you are responsible for the
advertising in the Riverside area. I work for a division of XYZ
Broadcasting that specializes in creating advertising
campaigns that are specifically designed to drive sales for
companies like yours. We have worked with everyone from
Brand X Widgets to Brand Z Widgets. For example, last year
we did an advertising campaign for Brand X Widgets in
which we helped them advertise their new Super Widget. I
would love to give you more specific details about other
successful campaigns we have designed and talk to you
about how we can help you meet your goals in Riverside. My
name is is Dan O'Day 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" voice mail message which,
according to some book, contains all the elements required
to stimulate a callback. Lots of luck. We don't have enough space to analyze that message and
list all the things that it does wrong. But I will point out something that the creator of this
"blueprint" doesn't quite understand: The average business executive sorts through his mail over
the wastebasket. As soon as he mentally identifies
something as "junk mail," he drops it into that wastebasket.
And the majority of his mail goes directly into the trash
without ever being opened. The average business executive listens to her voice mail
messages with her finger poised over the "delete" button. And as soon as she decides this phone call is not
one that she needs to return or one that she will benefit from
returning, she hits "delete"... ...and never looks back. That means you must begin your message with something
that makes the recipient afraid to hit the "delete"
button. And it must maintain the recipient's interest all the
way to your "call to action" (i.e., telling them exactly how and
when to return your call). So you have a choice: Do you want to leave "professional"-sounding messages
that get deleted, not returned? Or do you want to leave unique, intriguing messages that
are are virtually irresistible to the recipient? © 2005 by Dan O'Day
Dan O'Day, an internationally known Advertising and
Marketing strategist, specializes in results-producing,
one-to-one communication with customers. He's worked
with media companies, ad agencies, and businesses in 31
different countries. His work has been praised by other
marketing gurus including Jay Abraham, Joseph Sugarman,
Joe Polish, etc. His book, How To Get
Your Voice Mail Messages Returned, is the only
resource in the world that includes detailed critiques of
actual sales voice mail messages... plus O'Day's own
rewrites to greatly increase the callback response of each
call. How To Get Your Voice Mail Messages
Returned is available for instant download from
http://www.VoiceMailReturned.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/ |