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:
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:
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. As I trudge through my voice mail messages, there are three kinds that drive me crazy:
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.
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.
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. 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. Table 17.1 Compelling reasons to call back
Five-Step Voice Mail Framework to Double Callbacks
Develop Compelling Voice Mail Messages
Alpha
Student
Grad
Prior Service
Inbound Lead
1
2
3
4
5