How to Be Smart with Voice Mail

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Yeah, I would, too. Let me know if you find it.

Oh, there are messages that can get calls returned all the time.

There are the ones saying that you’re from the IRS and have some important information. Or that you’re with the hospital lab depart-ment and located something disturbing in some past test results that were overlooked. (As tongue-in-cheek as I am when joking about these, I have, regrettably, seen those techniques suggested before.

Sad. And somewhat desperate.)

First, let’s get real regarding voice mail and telephone prospect-ing: You need to lower your expectations. Do not expect your calls to be returned.

Come on, now. It’s a bit absurd to think that someone who does not know you—who is probably overworked and underpaid, who has 79 unread e-mail messages and 12 other voice mails from people they do know—is going to return your call. Unless the prospect has an

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immediate, urgent need and pain that your product or service can address at that very moment, it’s much more likely that they will not call you.

A couple of years ago, after an overnight torrential downpour, I went down the stairs into the lower level of my house for an early morning workout. At the last step, my foot squished into wet carpet.

Oh no! The sump pump had fried, and the lower level of my house was now flooded, with water still gurgling in. At that moment, I would have immediately returned a voice mail message from someone who did sump pump installation or water damage cleanup (unfortunately, I instead spent time waiting for them to return my call).

Therefore, the first question we need to answer is: “Should you even leave a voice mail on a Smart Call?” And the very definite answer is “Yes!”

Why? Because you have already done the heavy lifting by com-pleting the intelligence gathering. You know something about the person you’re calling, the company, industry, and hopefully their needs, pains, problems, and initiatives. You have a Possible Value Proposition for them. You now have the opportunity to make an impression with your message. Of course, you want to do it correctly, since most voice mail messages create resistance and quickly get zapped.

My suggestion for your voice mail objective is to pique their curiosity with a hint of possible value and leave a question in their minds like: “Hmmm, what exactly might that be?” Or “I wonder how they do that?” You want whomever you are contacting to eventually take your call when it is announced by an assistant or perhaps when they see your company name on caller ID.

But what should that message be? It should be almost iden-tical to the interest-creating opening statement that you will be developing in Chapter 10. After all, why would you say something different on voice mail than when you speak with your contacts in person?

Using the Smart Call opening example from Chapter 10, here is a sample voice mail message:

“Hi, Michael, I’m Pat Stevens with Insurance Partners. Hope you enjoyed your golf vacation. In speaking with your assistant, Suzanne, I understand that you are in the process of evaluating your competitive edge in the employment market and figuring out how to attract and

keep the top talent in your various locations. We’ve been able to help other companies in the same situation lower their recruiting and hiring expenses, and increase their retention of managerial staff. I’d like to ask a few questions to see if I could provide you some information. I’ll try you again on Friday morning. If you’d like to reach me in the meantime, my number is 555-###-####. I’ll repeat that, 555-###-####. And my email is [email protected]. Thanks.”

Some might read this and claim that it is long, but long is a matter of perception. Hearing two sentences about opera is too long for me, personally. Call me an uncultured oaf, but I don’t care about opera. But if I heard 15 minutes about a barbecue brisket recipe that might be tastier and tenderer than the one I make, well, that might not be long enough. The bottom line: If the information is on a topic the person is interested in, then a detailed message won’t be considered too long.

Smart Calling Key Point

A voice mail message or opening statement is only too long when everything in it is not of interest to the listener.

Edit your voice mails and openings in the preparation stage with this in mind.

To repeat: An effective voice message is almost iden-tical to your interest-creating opening statement. The only difference is that at the end, you inform the person you’re calling that you will call back, and then leave your contact information—just in case they get the urge to call you. Because it is virtually identical to your opening, all of the same rules apply for what to avoid and what works. While I will not repeat them here, I suggest you do review and follow them. If you want to jump ahead, go to Chapter 10.

Smart Calling Exercise

After you complete your opening statement in Chapter 10, come back and modify it slightly by using the ideas here to make it your voice mail message to that prospect.

Following are a few other pointers and tips specifically for maxi-mizing your voice mail effectiveness.

Be Prepared

Here’s one of the biggest “Well, duh, no kidding” tips in the book.

You have to be prepared to reach voice mail, since this will probably be the case most of the time. But as basic as this is, you’d be surprised to find that it isn’t something that sales reps usually do. More often than not, too many simply wing it.

Voice mail is not new technology; it shouldn’t be a surprise that you will be asked to speak after the tone. So why wouldn’t you be 100 percent prepared for what you’ll say? (Just notice how many messages you get that begin with, “Uhhh.”) There’s no excuse to not be totally smooth and confident. Again, this will stem from your interest-creating opening, which you will have prepared word-for-word—so it shouldn’t be a problem for you.