I see people putting text messages on the phone or computer and I think, “Why don’t you just call?”

—William Shatner, actor

No matter how proficient you become with the Seven-Step Telephone Prospecting Framework, no matter how targeted your prospecting list or focused your phone block, no matter how well you time your dials, the majority of your calls are still going to go unanswered—many to voice mail.

Of course, in some cases, especially with high-school students, the prospect has not set up a voice mail box. Still, when there is a voice mail box, leaving a message can feel like a waste of time. There are always these little questions floating around in the back of your mind:

• When should I leave a voice mail message?
• Should I even leave a voice mail message?
• If I do leave a message, will I get called back?
• What should I say?

While there are no definitive answers to any of these questions, knowing how to leave voice mail messages is important, because prospects do listen to and will return voice mail. It’s also true that when you leave a voice mail, and the voice mail alert pops up on your prospect’s phone screen, the probability that you will get a call or text message back is much higher than when you don’t leave a voice mail.

An effective voice mail should help you achieve at least one of three objectives:

1. Get a call back
2. Get a text message response
3. Build familiarity

But, leaving a voice mail is time inefficient. It takes time to work your way through the phone prompts. At around 30 seconds per voice mail, you can easily spend 10 to 15 minutes of an hour-long phone block just leaving voice mail messages.

The call-back rate on voice mail messages is very low. As in single-digits low. This is why when you leave voice mail, it has to count.

Five-Step Voice Mail Framework to Double Callbacks

As I trudge through my voice mail messages, there are three kinds that drive me crazy:

• No contact information: These messages are automatically deleted.
• Long-winded: Somewhere in the middle of their droning on and on, I usually hit “delete.”
• Garbled contact information: When I have to listen to a message more than once, it wastes my time and I delete it.

Here’s the deal: To get more of your messages returned, you must make it easier for your prospects to call you back. There are five steps to leaving effective voice mail messages that get returned (see Figure 17.1). When you deploy this process consistently, you will double your callback rate.

1. Identify yourself. Say who you are—rank, name, branch—right up front. This makes you sound professional.
2. Say your phone number twice. Prospects can’t call back if they don’t hear or can’t understand your number. Give your contact information up front and say it twice—slowly. In some cases, after they hear your name and military branch, they may not care about the rest of your message because based on their situation, they can infer why you are calling, and they’ll call you back. Finally, because voice mail to text translation is becoming more common, your phone number ends up at the top of the translation, and a quick click on the link dials you right up.
3. Tell them the reason for your call. Tell them why you have called. After you give your personal information just say, “The reason for my call is to schedule an interview,” or “The purpose of my call is to invite you to our next event.” Tell them why you are calling and what you want. Transparency is both respectful and professional.
4. Give them a compelling reason to call you back. Prospects call back when you have something that they want or are curious about. Curiosity is a powerful driver of behavior. When you have knowledge, insight, incentives, urgency, or even “want to learn more about” them, you create a motivating force that compels your prospect to call you back.
5. Repeat your name and say your phone number twice. Before you end your message, say your name again slowly and clearly and always, always say your number twice. This way your prospect doesn’t need to go back to the beginning and listen to your number again—thus making it easy for them to return your call.

Bonus tip: Keep voice mail messages to 30 seconds. When you hold yourself to 30 seconds, you are forced to be clear, succinct, and professional.

• Hi, Marie, this is Sergeant Sweyer with the United States Marines. My phone number is 1-888-360-2249, that’s 1-888-360-2249. The reason I am calling is you filled out a form indicating that you were interested in learning more about career opportunities with the Marines and I want to schedule an interview to learn more about you and find out if you qualify for the new signing incentives that just became available to me. Let’s get together this week. Give me a call back at 1-888-360-2249, that’s 1-888-360-2249.

I am aware that it feels awkward to say your phone number four times on the same voice mail message. Your goal is to make it easy for your prospect to call you back, not more comfortable for you.

By hearing your phone number twice up front, they don’t need to listen to the entire message to get your phone number if they are ready to call you back. If your message intrigued them and they want to call you back, you also gave them your number twice at the end, so they don’t have to replay the message. Making it easy increases the probability that you’ll get a call or text back.

Develop Compelling Voice Mail Messages

Take a few minutes now to develop a set of compelling reasons to call you back for each category of prospect. Record them in Table 17.1.