1. Being surprised by voice mail.
Why do so many people ramble on and on “at the sound of the tone”?
Because they were trying to get the person on the phone, and they were surprised when the person wasn’t there “live.”
They were surprised when the person wasn’t there?
How in the world could they be surprised??
Of course the person wasn’t there!
Before you pick up the phone, assume that in a few moments you will be leaving a voice mail message.
2. Not having a clearly defined goal before you dial the phone.
You need to know exactly what you want your message to accomplish.
To get a callback.”
Okay, that’s a good start.
But when do you want the prospect to return your call?
Why should that person return your call?
More to the point:
Exactly what do you want the person to think when he or she hears your message?
You must learn what motivates the people you are trying to reach…and how to use those motivators to define the goal of your message.
3. Dialing the phone before you’ve decided what you will say.
“Oh, I’m good with words. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”
Is that approach….
Foolish?
Lazy?
Typical?
Yes.
Most of the time, it’s also:
Ineffective.
You can see the difference for yourself if you ever have the chance you compare verbatim transcripts of real messages left by real salespeople with an expert’s rewritten versions.
4. Not planning a message designed to make the prospect pay immediate attention.
The average business executive listens to his voice mail messages with his finger poised over the “delete” button.
As soon as he realizes he won’t profit by returning the call, he hits “delete”…
…and never looks back.
You must learn you exactly how to command the interest of your prospect from your very first words.
5. Attempting to sell in your voice mail message.
The purpose of your voice mail message is not to sell your product or service.
It’s not to give a commercial for your business.
The purpose is to stimulate a callback.
Your message should not include even a single word that isn’t calculated to make the recipient call you back promptly.
You’ve got to learn what message to leave that won’t be a commercial for yourself.
6. Coming across as an “eager beaver”.
Eager salespeople do not attract customers or clients.
Salespeople who sound confident do attract clients.
A training course or e-book devoted to getting your voice mail messages returned can give you the information, the mindset, and the very words you should use to infuse your message with an unmistakable confidence.
7. Creating a personal distance.
At least 90% of voice mail messages left by salespeople (or other business people trying to establish contact with strangers) create a huge chasm — a great physical space — between themselves and their prospects.
And they do so with their very first words!
They use a very common phrase that immediately signals the prospect, “This is a stranger who wants something from me. Time to hit the ‘delete’ button.”
You also must learn which death-inducing phrases to avoid at all costs…and what to say instead.
8. Not determining where on the hierarchy of calls you want to be perceived by the recipient.
The person you’re calling has 20 messages waiting for her.
Do you really think she returns every call, every time?
Of course not.
The next decision is which of those callbacks to make first.
Then she decides which of those calls to return first.
Smart salespeople know they need to be at the top of the prospect’s hierarchy of calls to be returned.
9. Not leaving the kind of message that the recipient cannot bear to leave unreturned.
How do you get a callback?
By making them want to return it.
Think about the messages you’re currently leaving: Do they really make the prospect want to return your call?
Knowing how to make the person want to call you back is the secret to voice mail success.
10. Ignoring the important numbers.
Telesales is, indeed, all a matter of numbers.”
But contrary to what most salespeople are taught, there are two numbers that determine your amount of returned voice mail messages.
One number measures the amount of calls you make. The more voice mail messages you leave, the more callback you’ll receive.
Most salespeople (and sales managers) focus on that number because it can be objectively determined quite easily: Keep an accurate tally of the messages you leave, and you’ve got a very accurate measurement.
The other number also can be measured, but few people even consider it.
For some reason, people don’t think about their messages’ “impact rating”.
A “zero” impact rating = No one ever returns your voice mail messages.
If you always get your voice mail messages returned, then you have an impact rating of “100″.
Your impact rating is between 0 and 100.
If you learn advanced strategies of getting prospects to call you back, you can double or even triple your response rate virtually overnight..
You choose.
Would you like to make twice as many sales by making twice as many calls?
Or do you like the idea of doubling your sales by doubling your success rate?
You choose.
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