{"id":50,"date":"2006-05-24T05:55:21","date_gmt":"2006-05-24T10:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/?p=50"},"modified":"2006-05-24T05:55:21","modified_gmt":"2006-05-24T10:55:21","slug":"voice-mail-messaging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/05\/voice-mail-messaging\/","title":{"rendered":"Voice Mail Messaging"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allbusiness.com brings us this article – Eight Tips on Crafting Effective Voice Mail Messages<\/a>. We live in a world of voicemail which has changed telephone prospecting in a profound way. Throw caller ID on top of a robust voicemail system and under-skilled salespeople are dead in the water.<\/p>\n

The author states that voicemail messages should be approximately 15 to 40 seconds in length because:<\/p>\n

If your message is longer than one minute, you’ll lose their attention. Putting a time limitation on your voice mail messages prevents rambling. As such, it forces you to laser in on the most compelling language to achieve your secondary objective, which is a return call.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Amen to that. Here is another suggestion that I have seen broken many times:<\/p>\n
3. Don’t Give Away the Farm. If you tell them in the voice mail everything you’d want to tell them when you finally have the chance to speak or meet with them, then what’s their incentive to call you back?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I have to confess I have missed that suggestion on a few occassions. Usually breaking this 3rd rule leads to breaking the first one also (that I mentioned above).<\/p>\n
There is one item that caught my attention. The author states there are 12 ways to contact a prospect. They are:<\/p>\n
\n
e-mail<\/li>\n
office voice mail<\/li>\n
cell phone<\/li>\n
internal company advocates<\/li>\n
snail mail (letter or direct mail)<\/li>\n
in person<\/li>\n
fax<\/li>\n
networking\/social function<\/li>\n
another vendor\/salesperson<\/li>\n
trade shows\/industry functions<\/li>\n
references<\/li>\n
concierge<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Are you thinking the same thing? Concierge? That screams stalker to me. Maybe I am over-analyzing it, but I’m not sure how a concierge counts as a contact. Nonetheless, a good list for any salesperson to be aware of potential prospecting channels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Allbusiness.com brings us this article – Eight Tips on Crafting Effective Voice Mail Messages. We live in a world of voicemail which has changed telephone prospecting in a profound way. Throw caller ID on top of a robust voicemail system and under-skilled salespeople are dead in the water. The author states that voicemail messages should be approximately 15 to 40 seconds in length because: If your message is longer than one minute, you’ll lose their attention. Putting a time limitation on your voice mail messages prevents rambling. As such, it forces you to laser in on the most compelling language to achieve your secondary objective, which is a return call.… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales-techniques"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-O","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1407,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/02\/monologue-communication\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":0},"title":"Monologue Communication","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"February 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"JustSell.com's latest newsletter has a quick-hit tidbit that caught my eye: Be careful to avoid working to get the needs of your paying customers and highly qualified prospects \"off your plate\". These are the people who deserve your attention and time. Technology has allowed us to communicate by monologue \u2013\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Communication"","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1553,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/05\/the-9-second-window\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":1},"title":"The 9 Second Window","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"That is how long you have to hook a person on a cold voicemail message according to this article on Salesopedia (my bold): 6 Interesting Sales Prospecting Statistics 1.\u00a0 In a recent survey 95% of salespeople said they can sell - they just need to get in front of more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Communication"","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1224,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/10\/3-words-you-dont-want-to-hear-on-a-voicemail\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":2},"title":"3 Words You Don’t Want To Hear In Voicemail","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"October 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I just listened to a sales candidate's initial message in response to one of our ads. He described his experience by saying: I've been in the _______ business for 20 years. Yada, yada, yada. Funny on Seinfeld, painfully bad on an approach call.","rel":"","context":"In "Anecdotes"","block_context":{"text":"Anecdotes","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/anecdotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1212,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/09\/termination-by-voicemail\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":3},"title":"Termination By Voicemail","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"September 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of days ago I put up a post about the rise of email terminations and how inappropriate I thought that practice was. Well I must say I have now learned of one example of a termination that does this one better (or should that be WORSE!). I talked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Communication"","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1779,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/11\/14-cold-calling-suggestions\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":4},"title":"14 Cold Calling Suggestions","author":"Lee Fratzke","date":"November 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Eyesonsales.com has a short article that lays out 14 steps in making successful cold calls.\u00a0 With the lengthening of the sales cycle in regards to the economy, it is important to make sure that your salespeople stay on top of their pipelines.\u00a0 This article has 14 points that can be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sales Management"","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":812,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/04\/how-to-get-your-voicemails-returned\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":5},"title":"How To Get Your Voicemails Returned","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"April 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"ManageSmarter.com offers some excellent suggestions for making your voicemails far more effective.\u00a0 Their 15 tips include a couple that I cannot stress enough: 11. 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