Leaving sales voicemail is hard! No doubt. Most of sales reps prefer even to hang up than leaving anything to the scary voicemail. But you SHOULD leave a message and a good one!

Indeed even if you will get a lower response rate with voicemail at least you will receive answers with an highest level of of interest in comparison of emails or other type of message. What you lose in quantity, you gain in quality but at the end you boost your business!

Here the six keys you need to completely master sales voicemails, get high quality responses and skyrocket your business growth.

1) Length: Max 30 Seconds

A perfect sales voicemail should not exceed maximum 30 seconds as most of your prospect don’t have time to listen more than. However you need to give informations about your product/solution and why you are calling, so you need to have at least a 20 seconds message.

Most cell phones show number of the person calling and the length of the missing call. So if you receive a 1 min message on your voicemail there is no chance you will take time to listen to it. 30 second seems to be more reasonable.

2) Lead with information relevant to the prospect.

Sales reps start their message in a very declarative way! Something like “Hey John, my name is Mike Harper and I work for XYZ Inc.” It seems good, clear and straight to the point but it is not the most effective way to leave a voicemail.

Indeed as soon as the prospect understand the voicemail is a sales pitch from a sales reps, he/she will automatically delete it. Thus the best practice is to leave a relevant thought or question to the prospect. You can start with “I am sure you are struggling with [main issue you are covering] such as [name of their competitors]. We are providing an innovative service/product to companies in your industry to get rid of this recurrent problem.”

3) Ask a different question than what you pose in emails.

If your voicemails and emails messages are exactly the same then you loose the possibility of testing 2 different messages and analysing results. Thus make them different by keeping certain questions for voicemail instead of email.

While both messages has to be customized to specific customers, voicemails has to be ultra-specific. In a voicemail the question you ask has to be so specific that they could never be intended for another listener. The more personal and specific your question/pitch is, the more likely you’ll get an answer.

Example: If you start to have very hard chest pains on a crowded street, and you scream, “someone call 911!” you might get some help but you might not as well! However, if you target one specific person and cry out, “Call 911 for me?” It is certain the stranger you have focused on will take his phone and call the emergency.

The difference is you request specifically to one person in the last circumstance so you placed the responsibility on that person. With sales voicemails: The more specific the question/pitch is , the more responsibility the person feels towards you.

4) Never closing the call in a traditional way.

If you close with a classic “call me back before x” or “please email me on xyz@xyz.com” it will decrease the feeling of responsibility you have tried to build during the 20 first second of your voicemail. Instead just pose your question and end the call there or finish with a very original end.

5) Don’t hang up without leaving a voicemail.

If you’re going to call a prospect, you have to leave a message.

Even if your prospect hang up you have to leave a voicemail. Indeed if you do not leave any voicemail, your prospect will see your number popping up each time you will call and follow up. As they do not receive any voicemail they will automatically recognize your call as not important. If you do record a few messages with the identical ultra-specific question then the prospect will feel the responsibility of calling back because they feel they owe you an answer.

I recommend salespeople start voicemails at their normal tone of voice and then go gradually lower. This trick will suggest that you’re at confident making the call, and also that the call is unusual linkedin integration with salesforce.

Salestools tips:

Length: 30 Seconds Max

Lead with information relevant to the prospect

Ask a different question than what you pose in emails

Never closing the call in a traditional way

Don’t hang up without leaving a voicemail