The question of whether or not to leave a voicemail in prospecting efforts is a very hot topic right now. There was an excellent discussion at Focus on Does anyone leave voicemails anymore? which I recommend you take a look at.
Now, I've already shared a little rant on what not to do when leaving voicemails: Do Your Team's Voicemails Sell the Conversation? But more importantly, if probably less buzz-worthy, I wanted to share a recent example of someone who did it right.
I receive a fair amount of cold calls and almost never pick up my phone for an unfamiliar / blocked number. I do, however, listen to my messages up to the point that the seller loses my interest. But the other day, I received a voicemail that held my interest and really sold the conversation. The seller addressed two hugely important things for me within the 1st 10 seconds:
- Why me?
Of all the people you could be calling, what makes me so perfect for your solution?
How did he do that? He told me, upfront, that his solution was for B2B Marketers who use Salesforce.com and care about lead management. I thought: I am. We do. And I do.
- Why me now?
With everything else I have on my to-do list, why is now the time to listen to what you have to say?
So how did he do that? He quoted me a MarketingSherpa stat (this is my rough recollection) that only 35% of B2B Marketers were using a tool for xyz. But those that did, saw a 125% increase in their abc conversions.
So what did I, the buyer, hear?
If you'll allow me, I want to share a quick story about Why You? / Why You Now? (WY? WYN?). First off, it's not my concept. Somewhere in '04 / '05 I took a sales training class with Jeff Hoffman from Basho Strategies. He introduced me to WY? WYN? And it's something I have thought about weekly for the better part of the last 5 years. Talk about sales training with legs!
The strategy is simple - outbound messaging must revolve around that fact that buyers don't care what you have to say unless you answer for them directly and up-front Why Me? / Why Me Now?
I would love to hear your thoughts? What do you think of WY? WYN? How does your team deliver outbound messaging that get prospects to move?
(Photo Credit: Kaptain Kobold)