By Ric Willmot
Often a member in my training program will seek my advice on how to get prospective clients to return telephone messages. It’s not uncommon for buyers to ignore voicemail messages, especially, unsolicited calls where it’s an obvious sales pitch. Understand that your messages must establish your credibility and pique curiosity. Here are my strategies to get prospects to return your call.
Get to the point
Stop pretending they should know you by being overly friendly in your message. Who are you kidding? They know they don’t know you. Be professional. “Kevin, Ric Willmot calling. 07 3395 1050.” Although you may feel compelled to give your position, title and company name, constrain yourself, they’re irrelevant in a voicemail.
Leverage referrals
You can almost guarantee to have the prospect continue listening to your message by mentioning the name of the person who referred you. Give their name immediately after your own. “Wayne Cygnet suggested I call you.”
Research and understanding
Display your professionalism and knowledge of their business by explaining your experience with other people or organisations like theirs. “In working with other accounting firms, I know that write-offs and billings are issues of focus.”
What’s your value?
You must state a strong value proposition to get the buyer’s interest high enough to return your call. Don’t waffle about your product or service, speak of business metrics. Tell of the business outcomes you can deliver. “We help accounting firms reduce writeoffs to less than 2% and increase hourly rates by up to 35%.”
What’s your offer?
Nothing is more tempting than ideas, insights or information that can help eliminate their problems or achieve their objectives. You alternatively may mention recent events that create need relevant to your offering – matters such as acquisitions, downsizing, higher interest rates or new strategic initiatives. Let them know what has triggered you to call them. “We recently did a study as to how your target market decides who to select as their accountants.”
It’s not about you
Eliminate any self-serving verbiage – as much as you might like to mention your supersonic systems, unique methodologies and passion for service excellence, your prospects have heard it all before from the previous 17 callers.
You are a peer
You are a peer of the buyer. Remember that! You are not subservient, a sycophant or a vendor but a trusted peer who has been recommended and engaged by the best businesses around. Bring your personal value to the relationship. You’re not hoping to meet with them or grateful for 10 minutes. Be confident that it would be crazy not to share your insights and value proposition with the prospective buyer.
Read a script, rehearse your lines
Using a script as the foundation for your message virtually guarantees a 100% better success rate of having your call returned than if you ramble and fluff about. You have a maximum of 25 seconds before you’ll be deleted if the value is not perceived. Every word counts, so be certain to get it right by using a script, and rehearse so your voice sounds natural.
If we put it all together, it may go something like this: “Julia, Ric Willmot calling 07 3395 1050. Mary Gill suggested I call you. In working with other recruitment fi rms, I know they’re struggling with attracting more clients and converting more sales. We help recruiters shrink time to revenue on new sales by up to 47%. We did a survey into recruitment and the opportunities in today’s environment. Mary thought you’d be interested. Thanks Julia. Ric Willmot 07 3395 1050.”
It may not be perfect, but it works. Adjust to suit your personal style, just not too much! Good luck.
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