COMMENTS
Yes, leave VM's but in this world of "Never Cold Call Again" it behooves the professional sales person to know who you are calling and what they do so you can do that twenty-second VM message that relates to them and or a possible business problem you may be a good assist on.
I think biggest thing is to switch it up and NOT get drawn into habits such as "Hi this is Tim and the purpose of my call is ..." they have already deleted the message. Get creative and always ask WIFT (what's in it for them). I leave messages that deliver something to the prospect such as a lead or idea. Most will call back out of curiosity as to why someone would do that. Why? because most people leave generic messages so this type of message stands out.
We are in the enterprise software sales environment and my team leaves messages. This might sound simple, but a voice message is kind of a marketing tool. A recipient of a voice mail will hear your name, your company and what you have to offer (I’m not going to get into technicalities here). Sure we have corporate marketing creating awareness pieces and product focused campaigns to specific people, but for a prospect to receive a direct call (voice mail or connection) can only help. Right? Will the prospect know you if you don’t leave a message?
Absolutely leave voicemails! Prior to me owning RareAgent, I wan an EA to a CEO. I forwarded vmails to "C" and "VP" suite within the company. Here's what I looked for:
State phone number at beginning and end of vmail. Reference how you are connected to prospect (AB suggested I call you, or state research, i.e., noticed Motley is recommending a strong buy on your stock). State a clear business driver, movement and metric. You may not get a call back from the person you left the vmail for, but I guarantee you if you have something compelling to say, he or his gatekeeper will forward to the appropriate person to call you back!
Leaving a message can be useful if you get to the point with something relevant to the listener. We leave messages as a call behind an email. The email has a targeted offer such as a Webinar invite, a recorded Webinar, a new whitepaper or case study... We target by IT or marketing and by vertical so the offer has some direct relevance and speaks to the persona. If they convert, we call again with a follow-up message. Add value, don't just ask them to call you based on an elevator pitch.
Trish,
I'm with Ray Carroll and a bit more...
You actually DO get call backs when you have a friend in common.
Mention a mutual friend in your voice mail and you are in a different league from everyone else (assumption: get the friend to send an email before you call so the prospect knows this is a real referral). Research mutual friends using tools like Linkedin.
And yes, do your home work, including trigger events. Hmm think I wrote about this somewhere :)
Nigel
I think it was Josianne Feigon who calls the email and voicemail combination the "deadly duo". Email repsonse rates are lower than ever. Connect rates are lower than ever. We cannot afford to omit the voicemail, if for no other reason than to draw attention to an email (SHORT!) that we've sent. And, while that return call is indeed rare, they *do* happen.
In our organization we encourage our team to only leave voicemail if they have an organized, value add statement that is customized and brief. We avoid gimmick voicemails or "bait" voicemails that leave a bad impression.
Good record keeping is essential, what you said, to who and when is critical information to show you are organized and attentive.
Thanks to everyone for the amazing feedback. These are some excellent bits of advice.
I think that Alfred makes an interesting point about "good record keeping." If I'm leaving a series of (hopefully relevant / preferably trigger based) VMs, I had better know what I said last time to build on it.
Matt what group was the orginal discussion in? The link doesn't work if you are not part of the group. Thx, Nancy
@Nancy My apologies! It was the Inside Sales Experts - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=71624
Matt, sorry for calling you Trish. I did not read the small print well. Still you are a dynamic duo.
Nice debate.
Nigel
The biggest mistake is leaving a voice-mail and THINKING you're going to get a call back. It's not whether or not you leave a voice-mail.
The bottom line is this: have a process, plan and play book and have your team execute on that flawlessly. Don't leave it up to chance. Develop what you think is right for YOUR organization. There is no standard solution that fits all organizations.
I've developed a 12 touch call process that includes calls, voice-mails and emails. Diane Fonseca has it right above. Josiane Feigon actually calls it the "Dynamic Duo" Voice-mail + Email. Our call process was inspired by Josiane's book as well as a webinar from Tim Wackel as well as information from the InsideSales.com/MIT study of buyer behavior. However, it's NOT perfect and we improve upon it monthly. Here's the latest iteration from July 2010. http://ow.ly/2y4Ux
For example, Nigel is right above. Our process could build more social calling and trigger events into it.
Great discussion!
One pretty agreed upon strategy for 1-to-1 email is to reference RE: My Voicemail in the subject line. Seeing that Subject line, at a minimum is going to prompt your contact to THINK about you and what you've said or done to that point..
The whole point being, leave a VM using all the best practices you all spell out above, but then follow up using some other medium.
Brian Bachofner
I'm with Nigel on referencing a mutual friend. It really works but there's a right and wrong way to do it.
I recently had a sales rep leave me a voice mail that included the mention of a mutual friend. So, thinking that this friend of mine had actually thought to refer this sales rep to me, I called back.
The rep had no idea who the 'friend' was. He had simply gone to my linked in connections, picked one, and used the name in his voice mail. When I asked how he knew my friend, he explained that it was actually a colleague in his office who knew him. It was a clear scam and I was instantly done with him, his product, and his company.
Referencing a mutual friend as a ploy in this manner to get a call back lacks integrity and has the potential to add to the used-car-sales rep perception that buyers have when they get an unsolicited call. If you have a mutual friend, great, use it. if you don't, don't lie and drag our profession down with a cheap poly to get a call back.
@Bob Wow. Just wow. That is unbelievable. Thanks for sharing!