By Jeff Beals
As a sales consultant, I enjoy analyzing the various voicemail solicitations I receive each week. Like you, I receive a lot of them. Here is a transcript of a voicemail I received just yesterday:
“Hi Jeff. My name is Zach, and I’m with [Company Name]. I hope you’re doing fantastic, man. Uh, the reason for my reach-out is pretty simple. My company, [Company Name], has a tool that identifies businesses that visit your website—show you what they look at even if they don’t actually contact you through your contact forms. I work with a couple clients in your space. I wanted to see if this was maybe something you wanted to learn more about. We offer a free trial so you can see how the tool works for yourself. Give me a call ###-###-####. Thank you.”
Now that you’ve read the transcript, I have one question for you. Be honest. Would you call this guy back?
I chose not to call him back, not because I wanted to be rude, mean or inconsiderate. I chose not to call him back, because he gave me no compelling reason to call. Given that I am overloaded with stuff to do, I’m not going to allocate any precious time to call someone I don’t know, from a company I have never heard of and who gave me no compelling reason to call him.
Let’s break it down – what’s wrong with this voice mail?
1. The wording sounds like every other “salesman” in the world. I recommend you avoid using terms like “reach-out” and “clients in your space,” because they sound like cheesy corporate speak.
2. Because I don’t know this person, I think it’s a little too informal to refer to me as “man.” Some people might disagree with me on this. The guy’s voice sounded very young.
3. He started talking right away about HIS company and what HIS offering does. Instead, he should talk about what matters to ME, the prospect. His message would have been more effective had it started with something like this: “Business owners like you are missing out on countless customers, because you don’t fully understand who is visiting your website and what they are reading.” See the difference? Talk about what you believe matters to the prospect and not about yourself. Frankly, I (and pretty much every other prospect in the world) couldn’t care less about the offerings of a company I’ve never heard of.
4. If you have to mention a free trial in your initial conversations, it means you lack confidence in your offering and/or you have done nothing to establish value. When someone pushes the free trial too soon, in my mind, it’s code for “the offering is not good.”
Voicemail is a critically important prospecting tool.
The vast majority of prospecting calls go to voicemail. Some sales pros gripe and grumble when they are automatically routed to a prospect’s voicemail. They complain, that “nobody ever answers the damned phone!”
It is true that prospects are getting harder to reach. It is also true that decision makers are more likely to let calls from unrecognized phone numbers go to voicemail.
But don’t consider voicemails to be a bad thing; see them as opportunities, little advertisements that can be customized exactly to each prospect’s unique situation. Because you are most likely going to get voicemail whenever you call, it makes sense that you put a lot of thought and effort into each voicemail.
The key is to leave a voice mail that captures a prospect’s attention by relating to what truly matters to him or her. If you leave voice mails about your company or your product’s features and benefits you are almost guaranteed not to get a call back.
Is your company planning a sales kickoff meeting this year? At most companies, these meetings are filled with product-centric training sessions, boring PowerPoint slides and bleary-eyed sales reps wishing they were somewhere else.
I deliver entertaining kickoff sessions that are filled with ideas your sales team can start using the very next day. Let’s help your sales team:
- Bring new prospects into their pipelines
- Shorten sales cycles
- Increase average deal size
- Sell value so they don’t have to compromise on price
- Get motivated to crush it in 2019
Check out my Sales Training Menu with some new training courses for 2019. Give me a call at 402-510-7468 to discuss a first-quarter sales training program or simply reply to this email.
Jeff Beals helps you find better prospects, close more deals and capture greater market share. He is an international award-winning author, sought-after keynote speaker, and accomplished sales consultant. He delivers compelling speeches and sales-training workshops worldwide. He has spoken in 5 countries and 41 states. A frequent media guest, Jeff has been featured in Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, Men’s Health, Chicago Tribune and The New York Times.
