Eight Tips on Crafting Effective Voice Mail Messages

By Keith Rosen, MCC
The Executive Sales Coach™

1. The Length of a Voice Mail Message Should Be Approximately 15–40 Seconds.

This accomplishes three things:

• If your message is longer than one minute, you'll lose their attention. Putting a time limitation on your voice mail messages prevents rambling.
• As such, it forces you to laser in on the most compelling language to achieve your secondary objective, which is a return call.
• Finally, it accentuates the importance of taking the time to craft the right language/wording in each message.

2. Each Message Must State a Reason for Them to Return Your Call.

What is their motivation/incentive/urgency to want to speak with you? The following statements do not motivate a prospect to return your calls:

• "I'm just calling to check in/touch base with you to see if you have a need for …"
• "The reason for my call is to see if you received the information that I sent you last week."

It's hard enough to catch your prospects in the office and engage them in a conversation. It's twice as hard to get someone to return a voice mail. Therefore, you must weave in a reason/benefit that's compelling enough for them to stop what they are doing, write down your number or save your voice mail, and return your call.

What can you say? What value proposition can you share that will make them want to return your call? (I can assure you, wanting to "schedule a meeting with them" or "send them some information" is not going to make your phone ring off the hook.) What problem can you solve for them? What have you done for other companies like theirs that they would be interested in hearing about?

3. Don't Give Away the Farm.

If you tell them in the voice mail everything you'd want to tell them when you finally have the chance to speak or meet with them, then what's their incentive to call you back?

4. Create Five Unique Voice Mail Messages.

If you're prospecting someone for the first time, do you know exactly what his or her greatest challenges are? Do you know what his or her specific goals are?

Remember, there's a big difference between what you think is important and what your prospect thinks is important. You just have to work at putting yourself in their shoes to uncover what they want and need to hear rather than either assuming what you think they need to hear or saying the same thing that every other salesperson is saying. These kinds of statements simply fall on deaf ears.

If you're using the same voice mail over and over again, you're limiting the chance of getting your calls returned, especially if you continue to reinforce the wrong message! Multiple approaches will increase your odds of hitting on what's most important to them. Developing five unique voice mail messages provides a unique opportunity for you to newly reconnect with your product, to reinvent and reposition what it is you're selling and discover a greater value that you can offer each prospect.

Tip from the Coach: Studies have shown that it takes a minimum of eight attempts/contacts to trigger a return call from a prospect.

5. Use Multiple Methods of Contact.

Twelve Ways to Contact a Prospect:

• e-mail
• office voice mail
• cell phone
• internal company advocates
• snail mail (letter or direct mail)
• in person
• fax
• networking/social function
• another vendor/salesperson
• trade shows/industry functions
• references
• concierge

6. Develop an Automated System Regarding Your Frequency of Contact.

When calling on new prospects, developing your follow-up system encompasses three things:

• Developing what to say or the language you use when you're leaving a voice mail.
• Determining the frequency of contact.
• Determining the communication vehicle. (How are you contacting them? Phone, e-mail, snail mail, or other?)

What is the intention of a follow-up system? This encompasses any attempts you make at contacting the prospect or the communication vehicle you use to leave messages. On the surface, most salespeople would suggest that the intention of a follow-up call would be:

• To get your calls returned
• To remind them who you are

While this may be true, consider this: The goal is actually to get through each step of your follow-up system. If you shift your energy and focus away from "Having to get a return call" to simply "Honoring, following, and trusting the process" of contacting a prospect the predetermined number of times that you feel is appropriate before moving to the next step in your prospecting system, consider how this changes your disposition and mindset — you're less likely to be pushing for the result and more likely to focus on the process. This will remove the pressure of producing the result, since you now realize that it is the process that will produce the results you want, as a natural byproduct of your efforts.

7. Speak with Enthusiasm.

Smile when leaving your voice mail message. It comes across on the phone. If you're not excited about what you have, then how can you expect a prospect to be?

8. Practice Your Voice Mail Until It Sounds Natural.

Practice each voice mail message a minimum of 24 times out loud, without making any changes to it. Once you're comfortable with the final draft, make sure you can practice it the same way, consistently. If you keep making changes every time you practice using your voice mail, it's similar to changing your golf swing every time you attempt to hit the ball. The result? Consistent inconstancy.

About Keith Rosen, MCC — The Executive Sales Coach
Keith Rosen is the executive sales coach that top corporations, executives, and sales professionals call first. As an engaging speaker, Master Coach, and well-known author of many books and articles, Keith is one of the foremost authorities on coaching people to achieve positive change in their attitude, behavior, and results. For his work as a pioneer and leader in the coaching profession, Inc. magazine and Fast Company named Keith one of the five most respected and influential executive coaches in the country.

If you're ready for better results quickly, contact Keith about personal or team coaching and training at 1-888-262-2450 or e-mail info@profitbuilders.com. Visit Keith Rosen online at Profit Builders and be sure to sign up for his free newsletter The Winners Path.