7 Tips for Leaving Great Sales Voicemails

One of the biggest hurdles (and most frustrating) to making a sale is getting the right person to call you back. As ancient as voicemail seems to be these days, it's often the primary tool you have to persuade someone to talk to you. Here are 7 great tips for leaving good voicemails.

1. Explain the benefit of the call, not the service - Don't try to sell your service in a voicemail message (you won't have enough time), just sell the conversation. Tell them what will they get by calling you back? A free assessment, advice, peace of mind...what will motivate them to want to talk to you?

2. Understand unconscious language triggers #1 - Don't start out your message with "Hi, (customer's name) my name is (your name)..." because most telemarketers and strangers start that way, it often evokes a negatively conditioned Pavlovian response. Try using "Hi (their name) it's (your name)" this is the language a friend or acquaintance might use, and usually accesses a positive unconscious trigger.

3. Understand unconscious language triggers #2 - Robert Cialdini describes how the word "because" is an unconscious trigger that increased the likelihood someone will comply with your request. If you use the word "because" when you describe why someone should call you back, you might be surprised at your increased response rate. Click here if you'd like to understand why.

4. Create curiosity - If all the information you want to convey is already in the voicemail, why would they call you back? Create curiosity. Tell them you have information that is really valuable to them, but they have to call you back to get it. 

5. Express urgency - Why do they need to call you back right now? How can you create an emergency? What will happen if they don't call you back right away? But don't just focus on content. The urgency you create will be largely based on the tone of voice you use. If your family was being held hostage and their life depended on this person calling you back...what tone of voice might you use?

6. Use good VM etiquette - No one likes a really long VM, keep it as short as possible. And say your number in the beginning of the message and at the end - not everyone has an iPhone.  If the person misses your number the first time they hear the message, and they have to playback the entire message to retrieve it, it's less likely they'll call you back. Just use common sense.

7. Sell your message second by second - Just like any written sales copy, realize that if the first part of your message sucks, they're likely to press delete right way. Make your first 5 seconds compelling so they'll listen to the second 5 seconds, and make those 5 seconds make them want to listen to the next 5 seconds and so on.

Comments

[Stephen Welton]

For those people out there that are considering the world of selling. Using voicemail is a great start to generating some activity for yourself. We often find the phone extremely interruptive however if your lucky enough to get the voicemail and it's not forwarded or used on their mobile device this tips are will prove to be extremely useful. Anyone care to share their voicemail's?

[Prescott Indigo, Vertex Education]

Great post, and I'd agree w/previous comments about tip #2. Using "it's" instead of "this is" is probably fine, but I'd tread carefully with anything sounding artificially chummy.

In addition to an urgent tone, I'd suggest employing an authentic, conversational tone. Even if it's the 100th voicemail you've left today, if you sound scripted, you won't get a call back.

Prescott Indigo, Vertex Education

[wireless barcode scanner]

Thank you for all your help.

[super solano hair dryer]

"Use good VM etiquette - No one likes a really long VM, keep it as short as possible. And say your number in the beginning of the message and at the end - not everyone has an iPhone. If the person misses your number the first time they hear the message, and they have to playback the entire message to retrieve it, it's less likely they'll call you back. Just use common sense." - What does VM stand for?

[hon file cabinets]

"Create curiosity - If all the information you want to convey is already in the voicemail, why would they call you back? Create curiosity. Tell them you have information that is really valuable to them, but they have to call you back to get it." What is a good way to create curiosity?

[emergency survival kit]

"Explain the benefit of the call, not the service - Don't try to sell your service in a voicemail message (you won't have enough time), just sell the conversation. Tell them what will they get by calling you back? A free assessment, advice, peace of mind...what will motivate them to want to talk to you?"--another good tip

[contacts for less]

Understand unconscious language triggers #1 - Don't start out your message with "Hi, (customer's name) my name is (your name)..." because most telemarketers and strangers start that way, it often evokes a negatively conditioned Pavlovian response. Try using "Hi (their name) it's (your name)" this is the language a friend or acquaintance might use, and usually accesses a positive unconscious trigger. Please expand this in more detail. thank you

[commercial espresso makers]

"Express urgency - Why do they need to call you back right now? How can you create an emergency? What will happen if they don't call you back right away? But don't just focus on content. The urgency you create will be largely based on the tone of voice you use. If your family was being held hostage and their life depended on this person calling you back...what tone of voice might you use?" good tip

[commercial coffee makers]

Those are some great tips. I will change my voicemail.

[chi hairdryer]

My husband who receives tons of sales calls gives everyone 10 seconds to make him want to listen to the rest of the message.

[carpet cleaners rentals]

The only long voicemail I ever listened all the way through was from my girlfriend.

[ohio state store]

If someone starts out pretending to be his friend, and he doesn't know them, not only does he hit 'delete', he's annoyed, feels lied to and is not likely to communicate with the rep in any way. So be careful about advice in #2.

[soft play]

Very helpful tips. I think I should change my voice mail now.

[Julianna]

My husband who receives tons of sales calls gives everyone 10 seconds to make him want to listen to the rest of the message. If someone starts out pretending to be his friend, and he doesn't know them, not only does he hit 'delete', he's annoyed, feels lied to and is not likely to communicate with the rep in any way. So be careful about advice in #2. When I write sales scripts, I try to stick with being professional (Mr., Ms.) and honest (reps first and last name). Big fan of the rest of the list.

[Joseph Joel Sherman]

Great practical advice, thanks.

[Jerry]

This is a great post. I am currently reading: Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive -
and chapter 35 which I read last night, covers the word "because" being an unconscious trigger and goes into it a little more than I remember in the book Influence. But, it has been a while since I read that one... maybe I just don't remember. Both books are great reads.

The only long voicemail I ever listened all the way through was from my girlfriend. Great advice.