COMMENTS
Matt, you are talking RA's language. Voice messages must be compelling, hit on pain, motivation and validation, to inspire the listener to take action. I agree with all you said above, but one item, leaving your phone number early in the voice mail message. As a busy executive, I like receiving a number to jot down at the beginning of a voice mail. This way I don't have to re-listen to the whole message, if I want to return the call.
Prior to sales and RareAgent, I was an executive assistant (EA), and most "C" level management I worked with liked receiving messages with phone numbers up front and at the end.
Hi Marge,
Thanks for the comment. Maybe it's just me, but I am far more likely to delete a message than pick up a pen.
When I got this voicemail for example, I had 3 others (a colleague, a client & a friend). That is tough competition for anyone trying to get me to take action.
Thanks for your thoughts!
A compelling voicemail message can start the conversation, an email follow up that supports the voicemail typcially gets a much higher response
Less than 3% of people return cold calls- ever
Leaving a single voice or email attempt without a follow up series of attempts is a waste of time for everyone involved
Most voicemails longer than 45 seconds are annoying and deleted
DT
Great topic. This is also the difference between transactional and consultative selling. Both look for the winning sale, but go after the prospect in different ways. We use more of a consultative approach because of our long sales cycle in which we have to touch many people over a long period of time. Focusing on their persona is key for a long term relationship. Transactional is good for the small, quick sell where you might not see or here from them after the sale.
Thanks for the comments!
@Dan I agree that a series of combined voicemails/emails is most effective. But an over reliance on email is a major, and growing, trap. Email is great for getting higher response rates, but far worse for moving the sales process forward. Just my $.02.
@Jeff Good point about different selling approaches. I absolutely agree on how fundamental “buyer personas” are in long term/relationship marketing.
Voice mail is not so much about getting them to call you back as it is to getting their attention and create interest.
Good article
Matt,
I love the way you portrayed the "he said" / "what I heard" dissection of a voicemail. Couple comments though:
- In the work we do for
outbound marketing, we tend to find that persistence and then finally reaching the person live is more effective than a voicemail. But I know others differ from this opinion and respect that.
- I think a survey is in order, and if you're up to it, I'll jointly conduct it with you: To C/VP level prospects: a) When you get an unsolicited phonemail do you listen, delete or save for later? b) Do you listen to voicemails more or less now than you did 5 years ago? and c) If you downloaded a whitepaper, would you rather have followups in the form of: live call, voicemail or email?
Would make an interesting study.
This is an awesome post and you point out a major weakness of many sales reps -- they don't sell from strength and seem to lack confidence or passion in their voicemails, interactions, etc.
The best never call to follow up -- the best call to share compelling information on how the buyer persona can benefit from speaking with you and your company. Tell the buyer persona what they will receive from calling you back and you will generate more awareness and calls back.