Today we’ll introduce you to The Blitz Experience®; a one day, activity based, new business development program that empowers salespeople to fill the pipeline with new opportunities in just one day. Here, Andrea presents a favorite technique from her program: how to get voicemails returned.
If you’re lucky, you get voicemails returned 5% or 10% of the time, and if you’re not so lucky, maybe it’s 0% of the time. Do you even believe in using voicemail as an effective prospecting tool? Well, Andrea’s techniques will convince you to leverage voicemail as a useful tool to penetrate existing accounts, and find new opportunities.
So, what are the components of leaving an effective voicemail? First, you need to create a compelling hook, in other words, something that motivates your prospects to return the call. In addition, you need to establish credibility, and last but not least, create curiosity. All of this together will motivate your prospects to return your call. Let’s apply these tips to real life.
Create voicemail scripts.
Refer to current customers you have. Let’s say that you work with ACME Hospital, you are calling another hospital and you get voicemail. Remember to leave your name, your company’s name, and drop your current customer’s name, followed by the request of returning your call, and your phone number.
Example: “Hello Mr. Prospect, this is Andrea Sittig-Rolf with XYZ partner, calling about ACME Hospital, would you please return my call? My number is 555-1234. Thanks.” Don’t elaborate, don’t start selling. It’s as simple as that!
Another type of voicemail is the referral voicemail. When leaving the message, state your name and company’s name, as well as the referral source and your phone number.
Example: “Hi Mr. Prospect, this is Andrea Sittig-Rolf calling from XYZ partner, Bob Smith asked me to give you a call, would you please return my call? My number is 555-1234. Thanks.” Simple, just drop your referral’s name, without any more details.
The final script is the vendor voicemail. Let’s say you represent Microsoft or HP. When you leave the message, state your name, your company’s name, and drop the vendor name and your phone number.
Example: “Hello Mr. Prospect. This is Andrea Sittig-Rolf calling from XYZ partner. I’m calling about HP / Microsoft, would you please return my call? My number is 555-1234. Thanks.” That’s it; short, sweet, and concise.
Be prepared, because with these techniques, your voicemails will be returned, so you’ll need to know how to deal with those returned calls. The idea is not to trick people into calling you back, but rather, explain why you left the voicemail that you did. If you dropped ACME Hospital on a call for ABC Hospital, explain that you’ve been able to help ACME’s IT spend, and think you might be able to do the same thing for ABC Hospital, then set up some time to talk. If you left a referral or vendor voicemail, always refer back to that message when you get those calls returned, so it’s relevant to the prospect, and they don’t feel tricked.
Good luck with your voicemails! For more information on The Blitz Experience® program, visit www.blitzexperience.com. If this has been helpful, please join the Coffee Coaching community and follow us through our social media assets blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn.
