Weekly Sales Tip
Technology is a wonderful thing. Voice mail gives salespeople the opportunity to reach their clients and prospects with information, ideas, answers to questions, new product or service information and a host of other valuable benefits – saving them time and energy. It also allows them to leave messages at odd hours when traveling or when the inspiration hits them.
However, if voice mail prevents you from having face-to-face or voice-to-voice communication, you may miss hidden opportunities to better service your clients or reach prospects. I believe that technology in general is a positive thing, but not if it is used as a crutch rather than a tool. Many salespeople leave sales messages, requests for returned calls, and a variety of other information on this recorded wizard and I’m not going to even go into the use of email for prospecting, that deserves its own dedicated article. I recommend the following strategies in dealing with voice mail.
- Never leave a sales message on voice mail for a new prospect with whom you have never spoken. I have no problem leaving a voice mail message with a client where I have an established relationship.
- Don’t assume because a gatekeeper says your prospect is in a meeting that they are in a meeting and that they can’t be disturbed. Ask if they can be interrupted. You would be amazed how many times when I ask that question, how often I get through to my prospect/client.
- Don’t assume, when you hear they are out of the office or in the building that they can’t be reached. Ask if they can be paged.
- If you must leave a sales message on a first call, make it brief. Tell them you will follow up later in the day or week. Your message should be no longer than 30-45 seconds and be benefit oriented. This is not the time for a condensed sales presentation. The critical issue about ‘call backs’ is that you lose control of the sales process, a subject I share in my sales programs. It could take all day to discuss the challenges and benefits of maintaining control of the sales process.
- When you leave a message for a call back with a current customer or qualified prospect, leave your telephone number slowly. One of my pet peeves is voice mail messages and telephone numbers spoken so fast that I have to replay the message to get the number. Not user friendly folks. And, it doesn’t hurt to repeat the number.
- Follow up the voice mail message with an email or a hard copy of something. Some organizations still use paper, and it takes more energy to throw away paper than to hit the delete button.
- If you have the option of voice mail or a hard copy message and your message is not too long, opt for the hard copy message.
- If your contact is not available always ask the contact person, “When is the best time to reach Billy Bob? Please tell him/her I called and I will return the call at that time.”