Sales Tip: Leave an Effective Voicemail Message

Should you leave a voicemail message or should you hang up when cold calling? I have seen both work, but with caller ID just hanging up becomes a little more obvious to the prospect and can work against you. I suggest polishing up on your voice messages to increase the number of call backs and position yourself as someone your prospect would like to talk with. Leaving a bunch of missed calls will probably not peak a quality prospects interest in speaking with you.

Don’t give up if your phone does not start ringing off the hook with call backs. If you are calling on busy people it will probably require more than one call to get through. Still, if your messages establish credibility, piques curiosity and closes with confidence you will see progress.

Jill Konrath, sales strategist and bestselling author of Selling to Big Companies and SNAP Selling has a very good short video on How to Get Companies to Call You Back. If you follow her advice and examples you should be well on your way to more appointments and sales.

Here are the three points Jill suggests to improve your message on her video.

1. Establish credibility by showing you understand what is happening in their market place.
2. Pique their curiosity by stressing your value proposition or what might have been realized by one of your other clients.
3. Close confidently by sounding equal to the prospect not like a self serving sales person needing to get something from them.

My last tip would be to have a strategy when leaving multiple messages with one prospect. Plan more than your original message. Make sure there is value and connection between your messages and keep them brief.

If you want to see more of what Jill has to offer, find her at www.sellingtobigcompanies.com.

If you or your sales team wants help crafting your message give me a call and we can set up a time to do that 916-596-3713.