We have all heard that awful recording. Some of us several hundred times a week. You call that hot prospect that you met last week at that networking event and all you seem to get is voicemail. You call that person back that sent you an inquiry from your website, voicemail. You go to schedule a second appointment with that prospect that you have been luring for months. You guessed it, voicemail.
Voicemail is a great tool. It is also a salespersons’ biggest obstacle. It has been my experience that I would rather deal with a savvy assistant or receptionist. At least they are human (at least most of them) and you can establish a relationship with them and find out if it is worth your time to pursue this particular prospect.
The ultimate question is how do you get around voicemail, and better yet how do you craft a message to get that person on the other end to pick up the phone to call you back.
Let’s take the first part, do you leave a message? I generally will leave a message on my first attempt no matter what. I then try to call again at different times. Say early in the morning between 7:30 and 9:00 am. If you are dealing with a small business owner they will generally get in early and stay late. So I may also try after 5:00 pm. This way any gatekeeper that may answer the phone will be gone for the day. If you have a secondary number try that. My school of thought is if someone has given me their business card and their cell phone number is on it. Then that is permission to call it. If they show any frustration or anger that I called that number then I say “Ooops, I looked at the wrong number on your card, sorry.”
The second part of the equation is crafting your message. Be straight forward, brief, leave your name and number TWICE, and speak slowly and clearly. The real key is to leave a message that will have the recipient want to call you back. A new service you are offering for the upcoming tax season, or a closeout model on last year’s xyz product that is heavily discounted. Sometimes I reference other organizations that are current customers of mine that they may have a relationship with as well. I always state the reason why I am calling.
Now I have many prospects that just will not return my call. These are people I have been calling once a quarter for years. This is when I get creative. I often use this as the last resort. I will call and tell them and I have a free breakfast for their staff I just need to know what day to bring it over. I tell them I was referred to them by and “click”. I just hang up. That one actually does work. Oddly enough when they do call back, they never seem to ask who the person that referred me to them was.
Trying to get thru to important people on the phone is difficult. You have to be persistent, creative, and have a sense of humor. If not, you might want to just hang out in the parking lot and wait till the person comes out to their car. That is not always fun, especially when it is raining.
