Dealing with voicemail, 10 tips for outwitting the electronic sales prevention machine

Do you ever get bored of listening to your clients’ voicemails? Do you grow tired of repeating the same old same old and never getting any call backs? Do you wish there was some magic way to get clients to ring you back?

You’re in good company! Complaints about voicemail, the electronic gatekeeper, are one of the biggest issues that many of my seminar delegates face.

If only they could avoid voicemails! If only they could speak to more decision makers! If only there was a magical technique for guaranteeing that their prospects would ring them back!

Get over it! There isn’t.

But voicemail is so  much worse than it was 10 or even 5 years ago Gavin. Soon I won’t be able to speak to anyone!

Is it? Maybe. Maybe not. In my experience there were plenty of industries even 10 years ago where many clients used voicemail as a way of filtering their inbound calls. When I was a sales director and got 35 to 40 inbound calls a day I used voicemail to filter my calls.

This is not a new phenomenon. Nor is it likely to change. I did not have time to take 35-40 calls per day and neither do your prospects!

So the most important thing here is that you get over it. Don’t fight with what is! You’ll lose. If it were easy to get through to decision makers, everyone would get through. Then, where would you be? Getting through to decision makers and making voicemail work for you requires hard work and persistence.

No magic wands here! Dealing with voicemail is part of your job so accept it and start working at standing out from the crowd.

As a sales director my sales staff  frequently used to moan about voicemail. “I know you wanted me to contact XYZ company Gavin but the DM (decision maker) is always on voicemail. I have left loads of messages and they just won’t return my call.”

On several occasions I picked up the phone and reached the decision maker… but how?

Here are my top 10 tips for outwitting the electronic gatekeeper.

1. Don’t leave messages

Hang on a minute Gavin, you said that you would give me some tips for outwitting the voicemail not avoiding it!

Patience, my friend! I will but I also believe in being straight. I’m not going to give you these methods just because you want them. I’m going to give you sales strategies that will make you money and I honestly believe that leaving oodles of voicemails all day long will not help you or anyone else much at all.

Here’s why:

Leaving voicemail after voicemail is tiring! I used to sit next to someone who used to leave somewhere in the region of 50+ every day. He used to turn to me at lunchtime often and say, “Wow! I’m zonked. I’ve done so much today”.

When you looked at it however the reality was often different. He felt tired because he was tired of talking to himself! What’s more, people rarely rang him back. Worse, when they did, he was often caught on the hop! Unprepared and out of control he often “blew” hot prospects.

Because I didn’t waste time speaking to voicemails I had often spoken to twice as many decision makers as he had during the same period of time.

Result!

Most salespeople resort to voicemail way too early in the sales process. Particularly on a cold call this is not a good strategy. Just because you got voicemail the first time you called does not mean that you will get it the second time or the third. Exiting your sales call without waiting on hold to speak to the voicemail beast will save you a lot of time in the long run. Why not make two extra calls in this time?

2. Do a good old one-two and sidestep the electronic beast!

Dancing around voicemail is a powerful sales strategy but it requires patience and persistence. I have to admit that many salespeople seem to lack the persistence that they really need to succeed!

I’m often told, “I can’t get client names” but then when I ask what action has been taken to find them, it’s minimal. Getting around voicemail is a similar situation. If you put your mind to it there are many methods for doing this, you just have to put them into action.

Ring before 9am and after 5pm. Many decision makers turn their voicemails off out of hours because so few salespeople ring then. They are often also allowing family and friends to ring them directly as they have no PA at that time of day to route unwanted calls to their voicemail.

Why not send an email instead or contact them through Linked In. It may well get no response but it’s worth a try (Don’t use LinkedIn? It’s free, why wouldn’t you? As a reader of mine I would be delighted to welcome you into my LinkedIn network).

What about getting their mobile number and ringing them on that instead.

Or speak to someone in their department who is not protected and get them to put you through directly.

3. Believe and achieve!

Even though I rarely left messages for prospects as a salesperson I actually left more as a sales director! This was more as a personal challenge to demonstrate to my team that it could be done and that confidence was the key.

I remember one occasion when four separate team members had rung a potential prospect whom we really needed to talk to because we wanted to help on a project that they were undertaking. The team had targeted this project as a “must have” account. They were reporting back to me that the account was “uncrackable” as the prospect had a permanent shield and would not return calls from us.

I decided to take this on and leave a message. Clearly, this was a high-risk strategy as had the call not been returned it would have vindicated my team and proved me wrong!

My call was returned within 30 minutes and a face to face meeting set up!

Luck? Maybe.

Timing? Possibly.

Skill? Surely not!

The telling difference was that I believed that my call would be returned and they did not! I knew how much value we could add for this client and I knew that they (and us) would benefit from us talking together.

Because of this I sounded like I expected my call to be returned, like it was important enough to be returned and therefore the prospect wanted to talk with me.

4. Get passed down

Most salespeople start to low. On my travels I see business owners, entrepreneurs and salespeople alike burning time, effort and money speaking with the wrong people. There’s possibly no bigger anti-sales police than someone too low in the food chain!

My advice has always been to start as high as you think the decision maker can possibly be. Sometimes, even higher. Deliberately targeting the head man or woman is a strong sales strategy provided that you plan and prepare and know how to converse with them.

What’s more, senior people are less likely to hide behind voicemails because they have real, live people to filter their calls for them. They’re called PAs!

After your sales conversation with ythe “top dog” you are often passed down to the real decision maker. With a well crafted voicemail how can they not return your call? It’s a no brainer. That said, so is respect. You need to ensure that you are respectful, you do not want them to feel that you are manipulating them.

5. Listen to their voicemail message

People give away a lot of clues not only in the way they answer the phone but also in their voicemail messages. If someone really is on “permanent” voicemail and you are planning to leave a message why not listen to their message a couple of times and learn all you can about them before you leave it?

I always suggest this when coaching and amusingly, the client quite often answers the phone on one of these occasions so make sure that you are also ready to “sell”, so to speak!

One of the most telling things that you can hear on voicemail is how your client speaks. How we speak is underneath our conscious awareness for the most part but it can make a huge difference in whether we get rapport or not. This may or may not compel your sales prospect to call you back but it will certainly help.

The three core areas to listen out for are:-

Tone or emotion in the voice. Do they sound serious, happy, enthusiatic, bubbly, fun etc?

Pace. Listen to the speed at which your sales prospect leaves their message. Is it fast or slow?  Your prospect is telling you unocnsciously that they think that this is the speed that people should communicate on voicemail. Leaving your message at a similar pace is a sound idea.

What’s more, the speed of speech has been shown to often be an indicator of the speed at which people assimilate information. Going to fast could cause your message to blur out, going to slow could put them to sleep!

Pitch. How much variety of pitch does your prospect use? Do they sing a song or are they somewhat monotone? Do they have a deep resonating voice or a high squeaky one? Don’t copy verbatim of course but subtly mirror by altering your voice an acceptable amount,

Another thing you can listen to is whether your prospect changes their voicemail regularly. Prospects who start their message, “Today is X and I am …” interact frequently with their voicemail and are likely to pick up your message quickly.

Listen out for dates and times when your prospect is away. There is no point leaving a message whilst they are away or even on the day they get back. If they are a sought after decision maker they are going to be swamped with messages and activities and your message will no doubt be swept away in the avalanche.

Finally, check the detail in which your prospect leaves their message. The more direct they are, the more direct you need to be in your message. The more detail they use, the more detail you may consider using.

6. Plan and prepare

Picking up the phone with no idea what message you are going to leave is a bad idea. I hope that I have already sold you on the fact that making the decision to leave a voicemail is not one to be taken lightly! Voicemail is unforgiving. You have no feedback whatsoever from the machine and no ability to “take back” what you said!

Creating a compelling message without planning is hard. It rarely ends in success. Here are two common call types that result as a lack of planning:

The Lazy One

Hello Gavin. This is John from Going Through the Motions, I’m just calling you to introduce myself and my company. Can you give me a call back on 0800 TIME WASTER please?

Errr, yeah. I think not!

The Belly Flop

Gavin. This is John from I’m Trying to Intrigue You .com We’ve got an interesting opportunity at the moment that I would like to to talk with you about. Give me a call back on 0800 MUGS ONLY today, I think you’ll be glad you did.

Maybe next time.

7. Create a compelling message

Leaving a powerful and compelling message can be difficult but it can be done. When you leave a message you need to respect several core truths:

Your prospect is short of time.
They  will delete you the moment you lose them.
They have various questions that they want answered.
They want to make their decision as fast as possible.

The primary questions that your prospect wants answered are: Who are you? Where are you calling from? What’s the call about? Why are you calling me? What’s in it for me?

For this reason your message needs all of the above information. This information must be delivered succinctly and in the right level of detail for your prospect or all will be lost.

Do not feature bash! Do not bore them talking about specific products!

Use a “hook” if you have one and (for those familiar with my work) a “Sales Bridge”.

All messages must have a CTA or call to action. The prospect needs to know what they are expected to do, they must know why and there must be a benefit for them in doing it.

8. Play the Power Game

Business people like information. One of the reasons why salespeople often get in as much hot water as they do when selling is that prospects want “free information” and “free consulting”.

Business today is all about information. Knowledge and how you use that knowledge is power. Power means business success and riches. For this reason, your clients want to know what’s out there, what it can do for them and what others are doing with it. They may not buy it but they want to know.

For most salespeople, business owners and entrepreneurs this game plays out against them.

Prospects often agree to meetings to appraise themselves of what is going on in the market with little or no intention of either buying the product or, at least, not off you, anyway! (Check out my Professional Selling Skills sales programmes to discover how to stop this happening to you).

But here, we can use it in our favour. Try using a company name, a new technology or a specific problem that will peak your prospect’s interest. One that will get them wanting to call you to find out more because they think that you may well have information that can help them. Be careful not to give away confidential information, this will destroy your reputation and lower your chances of a return call.

9. Be ready for the call back!

I said it before, this can all go horribly wrong if you get your call back and then blow it. When you are making outbound sales calls you have all of the information you need to hand and you choose the time and the place. You also have the element of “surprise” as you chose the timing of the call.

When your client returns your sales call from a voicemail message you do not have any of these. They may return your call quickly, slowly or not at all. You might be ready, you might not.

You need to consider how you are going to deal with the call if you are in the middle of something else. What if there are distractions going on in the office? Even worse, what if you cannot put your hands on the relevant paperwork or information?

Then again, what if you are on the phone and they get your voicemail? Will they leave you a message and if they do, what happens next?

Do you give out your mobile number? Is this better or worse? Now they could ring you in the pub, the gym or the supermarket? If you want this, fine, but how do you ensure that you make a strong first impression when they do ring?

10. Have a voicemail strategy and be select

I know that this sounds a little grand but you need a voicemail strategy. It doesn’t have to be complicated but you need one none the less. Leaving voicemail messages willy-nilly when you feel like it is akin to sitting in your office and making a bonfire with your commission. Don’t do it!

Don’t leave too many voicemail messages for the same person either. This may annoy them which isn’t good. It may amuse them but that may well be at your expense! And it most certainly doesn’t position you well at all.

Have a plan and work it. Mine used to look something like this,

• General cold calls to normal prospects – never leave a message.
• First 5 calls to “serious target” prospects – no message.
• Call all “serious targets” out of hours at least twice before considering a message.
• Try to get mobile number or get “referred” through.
• Plan message and time when I am available and ready to take the return call.
• Check all current data to ensure I have not missed anything.
• Leave message.
• Rinse and repeat no more than twice more. Continue trying other methods of contacting the prospect throughout.
• Give up and move on.

You can devise your own voicemail strategy based on your experience, your industry and your clients.

So there we have it, 10 strategies for outwitting the electronic beastie that is the voicemail. Why not share your ideas and strategies for dealing with voicemail in comments below?