"I did have at one point in time like 103 unheard messages," says 31-year-old Antonia Kidd.
As you practice and score your sales voicemails, you’ll start to determine some best practices. Here are a few of mine:
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Sound sales efforts are consultative and customer-centric, and sales voicemails are no different. They should revolve around helping your prospect — not forcing them along your pipeline.
I had to call Elijah this week to get some information. I tried his technique on him, cutting off my message in midword. I said, “I’m going to quote you in my column this week and I need…” He called me back in under 3 minutes laughing hysterically. This technique could revolutionize message leaving. I’ve been using it all week and it works. Be careful about how far you go on the humor with someone you don’t know.
If you create a call answering rule but don't specify an action, your caller will hear the following prompt: "You have reached the mailbox of
While you’re updating your voicemail greeting, make sure you let callers know when they can expect to receive a call back from you or from someone else from your company. Most professionals opt for a 24-hour callback window. Clearly state this in your voicemail greeting to set expectations with your callers.
First-time sales outreach response is plummeting. According to sales strategist and author Jill Konrath, 97% of all business calls now go to voicemail.
Unfortunately, not all phone numbers can be dialed: Slydial doesn't work with landline phones, third-party voicemail services, VoIP numbers, or prepaid mobile phones. If you subscribe to one of the premium plans, you can eliminate the ads on the service and send messages to multiple contacts at once.
If you can, try to keep your message 20 to 30 seconds long — max. This is the sweet spot for sharing just enough information without going overboard, potentially getting cut off by the recipient’s voice mailbox system, or having the listener hang up early because your message was simply too long. Speak clearly, avoid rambling, and get straight to the point.
5. Select the default voicemail greeting by tapping "Default" or record your own message by choosing "Custom". To record an iPhone voicemail message, tap "Record" in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
Before you pick up the phone, consider why the person you are calling should listen to you. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine their pain points.
Continue to follow the instructions to complete setting up your voicemail greeting.
4. Save and delete messages. Voicemails will be deleted if the auto-save period is reached. The auto-save period can be from 14 to 30 days, depending on the type of voicemail.
Be brief. Don’t make your listener resent you for leaving a 5 minute long message. People are busy. Listening to 5 minute phone messages is not on the top of their priorities and wastes their time. Many callers seem to think they are the only person in the world leaving a voicemail for a particular person. Yet a dozen other people feel the same way and a man ends up holding the phone to his ear for an hour.
Practice your spiel so you can speak with authority. This lets the caller know how confident, qualified, and prepared you are. The goal is to sound like you’ve been doing this for years, not a few minutes.
Or, if they need to refinance, tell them that you know about current rates. And, you can provide them with guidance on if the timing is right. Staying honest and genuine will give you credibility and encourage them to return your call. After all, you are trying to become their trusted advisor, and the voicemail is the first attempt at this.
To tell you the truth, I don’t like when people leave me a Voicemail message. I prefer when they text me on my phone or email me. I can see what the call is about straight away. It saves me time from logging into my Voicemail and playing the message, then waiting for it to finish. I am a bit impatient.