Virtual Selling

24Leaving Effective Voicemail Messages

When you prospect by phone the majority of your calls are going to go to voicemail. That's a fact. But far too often sales professionals feel that leaving a voicemail message is a waste of time. It can feel like you are sending those messages into a big black hole because so many voicemail messages never get returned.

This is exactly why the most frequent question I get about voicemail is not how to leave an effective voicemail message, but should I leave a voicemail? Frankly, if you aren't asking this question, you're not human.

In my experience, there are two camps on this. One that says you should never leave a voicemail and another that says you should always leave a voicemail. Both are wrong. Leaving effective voicemail messages is important because:

• People do listen to and return voicemail messages.
• A series of voicemail messages, over time, educates and builds familiarity.
• It tells your prospect that you care enough to be persistent, and you are not going away.

If you never leave a voicemail, you will never get a callback. You signal to your prospect that you don't you care enough to pursue them, you abdicate your responsibility to educate your prospect, and you hinder your efforts to build familiarity. Since getting a callback is a very good thing, it doesn't make sense to never leave a voicemail.

There are some circumstances, though, where it might not make sense to leave a voicemail. For example, if you are dialing a completely ...