I Hate Voicemail
Jeb Blount offers tips to help you get more of your voice mail messages returned.
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I Hate Voicemail
All of my friends and many of my colleagues know that I hate voice mail.
I love email, text messaging, and even smoke signals but I despise voice mail more than any other communication tool.
Why? Well I’m a pretty busy Sales Guy and I usually spend more than half of my day talking to other people on the phone. In fact, my phone never stops ringing and there is just no way to get to every call. So, a certain number of these calls go straight to voice mail. In fact, I average in the neighborhood of 20 voice mail messages every working day.
Now, if you are in sales, you may be thinking to yourself, “that sounds like a pretty good problem to have Jeb.” And in some cases you would be right. Some of those calls are from customers and clients who want to buy more from me. And trust me, I’m like you, when someone is calling me to do business I’m happy.
But, the vast majority of the calls are from people who want me to do something for them. They want me to buy something, or give them an opinion, or introduce them to someone, or answer a coaching question. Many of these people are just cold calling me so I don’t even know who they are. But this is not why I hate voice mail.
The Problem
I hate voice mail because every day I have to stop what I’m doing, dial my inbox and listen to all of those messages one at a time. It is a slow and time consuming process that sometimes takes up to thirty minutes. Which is usually time I don’t have. And of course, the catch with voice mail is that it is linear; meaning that you have to start at the beginning and listen to each message until you reach the end. You can’t just look at all of the messages, like you can on email, and then determine which ones are a higher priority than others and, of course, which ones are just junk.
Now there are some cool new services like Call Wave, You Mail, and Grand Central all proclaiming to make voice mail non-linear, and I’ve even heard that the iPhone does that too. But you see, I’m living in the real world right now and stuck doing it the old fashion way. And that is where the pain comes in and my hatred of voice mail begins. And each day as I reluctantly trudge through my messages, there are three kinds that really drive me crazy.
The first is when people don’t leave their names and phone numbers. I get a message but I either don’t know who you are or how to reach you. These messages are automatically deleted. And then there are the people who leave long-winded messages. There are occasions when I’m ok with this, like when the long message gives me all of the information I need and I don’t have to call back. But if the message requires me to call you back, which is almost always the case, I just get irritated. These messages are saved for when I have time, and in my busy world there is rarely time, so I never call back.
And, finally, there are the people who garble or say their name or phone number too fast. This is the worst because it requires me to listen to the message more than once, which wastes my time and makes it more likely, if I am busy or in a hurry, that I will just delete the message.
The Importance of Voicemail
Okay, so why, other than giving me the opportunity to get all of this off of my chest, is this long rant important to you? Well, the answer is because, as a Sales Professionals and entrepreneurs, the telephone is still your most important business tool. Every day salespeople from all over the world make millions of calls to current and prospective customers and many of those calls go straight to the voice mail boxes of people, who like me, hate voice mail. And this is why so many of your messages go un-returned.
Now, I know those un-returned phone calls are very frustrating, because it happens to me too. So, the key is to come to grips with the fact that on some level most of your buyers despise voice mail and either ignore or delete most of their messages. Now, it is wishful or, more likely, delusional thinking to expect your voice mail messages to actually be returned. However, with a few simple adjustments that make your messages easier for your prospects and customers to deal with, you may succeed in getting many more messages returned and at the same time earn the respect of the people you call.
Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Voice Mail Messages
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Give contact information first: 99% of the time when we leave a voice mail we want the other person to call us back. When you give your contact information first you are far more likely to entice the person you called into writing down your name and number for a call back. Besides, it is just good business. Try something like this: “Hi this is Jeb Blount, The Sales Guy, from QuickandDirtyTips.com. My phone number is 206-202-5036.” It demonstrates your respect for the other person’s time and your professionalism.
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Keep it short: Your messages should be thirty seconds or less and deal with only one subject. When you hold yourself to thirty seconds if forces you to be succinct and to focus on the most important information. And, always remember to tell them why you have called. There is nothing more irritating to a buyer than a salesperson who is not honest about their intentions. After you give your personal information just say, “The reason for my call is” or “the Purpose of my call is”, then tell them why you are calling and leave your message. And Finally, and Most Importantly, Repeat Your Name and Phone Number: Before you push # always say your name again slowly and clearly and always, always say your number twice. It should sound something like this, “again, this is Jeb Blount with QuickandDirtyTips.com my phone number is 206-202-5036 that’s 206-202-5036.” This will ensure that your name and phone number are registered correctly and that you leave your prospect with a positive impression of you.
Thank you for joining me on The Sales Guy’s Quick and Dirty Tips for getting the deal done.
Woman on Phone image courtesy of Shutterstock