In prospecting scenarios, I’ve been an advocate for NEVER leaving messages when the person you telephoned is unavailable. Our job is to make the call… it’s not their job to return our calls. Personally, I’ve always disliked it when I’ve returned someone’s call to find out I’ve done it so they can give me their sales pitch!
Truth be known, another reason for not leaving messages is because, if I did, I couldn’t call back whenever I wanted. I thought I had to wait for them to call me back. And too often, they never called back. Then I would have to wait some nebulous “reasonable” amount of time before I could call them again. After all, how many times can you call and leave messages before you’re perceived as some sort of stalker-whacko!
Back in the old days when executives had secretaries that answered their telephones, I had been taught that you don’t sell the Gate-Keeper. Don’t even try – they’re never buying! If I wasn’t put through right away, or started to get the third degree, I found it more to my liking to just say something like “This is Don France with SalesNavigation… let them know I called… you don’t have to write out a message… I’m going to be out of my office… so I’ll try them another time. Would you recommend a good time for me to try to reach them?” I was always courteous and polite but never gave any meaningful information about the purpose of my call.
 If they gave me a time to call again, I’d be sure to call back at that time. If the executive wasn’t available when they had suggested I call back, I always kept the conversation light, never getting upset or blaming them. The Gate-Keeper would gradually become friendlier over time and I’d usually end up with an IOU since I kept calling when they suggested I do so. If I kept this up five or six times, the IOU would usually kick in and the Gate-Keeper would get me connected with the executive. They would track them down for me. You’ve got to be patient in sales!
If they wouldn’t suggest a day and time, I would call when I thought the administrative staff wouldn’t be there and the executive would be most likely to answer their own telephone. That was usually early in the morning (7:30 am – 8:00 am), during the normal lunch time (12:00 pm – 1:00 pm), or at the end of the day (5:30 pm – 6:30 pm). One way or the other, the majority of the time I would eventually get through to the person I wanted.
Since voicemail has become the primary mechanism for leaving executives telephone messages, I’m long overdue in revisiting the issue. There’s simply no way of avoiding voicemail today. This is even more critical in a world where most telephones are equipped with Caller ID. People know who’s calling before they pick up their telephone. In my case, if the caller is unidentifiable, I don’t answer the telephone. I suspect most people do the same. So the question becomes… “How can I use voicemail to convey a message that is strong enough to get them to take my next call (not necessarily call me back)?”
I believe one of the keys to an effective voicemail strategy is to have several variations of your Value Proposition which you can quickly state in a message (30 seconds or less). In my opinion, the Value Proposition is composed of a very brief description of a problem your customers experienced before working with you followed by an equally brief description of a high value solution you provided for them. By having several variations of your Value Proposition based on different capabilities of your product, you can have a series of voicemail messages to help build and strengthen the connection with your targeted executive.
Here’s an example of what I mean about the Value Proposition…
“This is Don France with the Bank of France and I was calling because some of our customers have experienced uneven seasonal cash flow issues (problem) and we’ve helped them with our short-term financing products (solution). I’ll try to reach you Thursday at 2pm.”
Or, something like ...
“This is Don France with SalesNavigation and I was calling because some of our customers were dissatisfied with their forecasting accuracy (problem) and we helped them fill their pipelines and improved the predictability of the business (solution). I’m out of the office so I’ll try to reach you later.”
You can strengthen the relevance even more by taking the time to do some research on the executive’s company or industry. A quick search of the internet to find some recent, relevant information is not difficult to do nor does it take much time and it could yield a huge payoff. By incorporating that information into your Value Proposition variants, your call is now very specific to them!
Your message should be composed of your name, your company name, and one of your Value Proposition variants. I usually go on to say that I’m out of the office a lot and that I’ll call them back at such and such a time. Although I may leave my telephone number, I usually don’t ask the executive to return my call. Instead, I’d state a time that I planned on calling back or ask them to let me know, either by telephone or email, when a convenient time would be for us to speak.
Each time you attempt to reach the executive, leave another variation. By developing a small campaign of messages, after 3-5 attempts, your target will have a more comprehensive view of your Value Proposition (multiple variants), why you’re calling, and how you may be able to help them. If your targeted executive is having a problem anything like what you’ve described in your messages, this will be building some interest on their part to speak with you.
Give it a try and see what happens!
| Don France - |
|
Don France is the founder of SalesNavigation , a consulting, training, and software firm focused on improving the performance and success of front-line professionals. It is his vision and leadership that has led to the development of the training materials and software tools for sales, customer service, and sales managers. Although Don has worked in a variety of industries, his specialty continues to be computer software and financial services. Read More >> |
|
|
Comments 
Write a comment
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed
