Voice Mail Strategy

In these days of seldom speaking to a human when we make a phone call, we need to have a successful strategy for dealing with voice mail.

Since business people receive dozens of voice mail messages a day, their time is too valuable to spend it listening to some sales person ramble on.

 

Your voice mail message must be the one that generates a response. A call back.

 BEST VOICE MAIL PRACTICES

1. Plan what you’re going to say before you call; write it down, or at least a few notes.
2. Introduce yourself and your company first.
3. Make the message concise and crisp; 30 seconds or less. Speak slowly and enunciate.
4. Ask them to make the next step: "Please call me at……"
5. Give your phone number twice, or once very clearly and slowly.
6. Be unique. Create curiosity or get their attention. Compel them to call you back.
7. Refer to them personally: their company or their role in it.
8. Mention who referred you to them.
9. Use a conversational tone.
10. End the call with a "Thank you," always appreciated and never out of place.  

WORST VOICE MAIL PRACTICES

• Speak for 1-2 minutes and use verbal fillers (um, ah, eh)
• Tell them everything. (Then why should they call back?)
• Leave a scripted message. Sound like a recording.
• Speak in a rushed and muddled manner. Make your phone number unclear.
• Talk about "us," how great we are, what we do.
• Have no particular context. Just be a call "out of the blue."
• Sound too "professional, like you’re trying too hard.

In today’s tough business world, it’s like hooking a fish to win a response back from a voice mail. Don’t be generic; be specific. Give them a reason to call back. A good idea is to create several different messages and each time you call, leave information about a benefit from you or your company. Almost everyone responds positively to something that will benefit them.

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Below, see an interview with Keith Rosen, AllBusiness.com's Sales Advisor on how to leave a voicemail that works.