Getting Prospects to Return Your Voicemails

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.