COMMENTS
I get these types of direct sales and visits everyday. It's great advice to research first. Typically the sales person would ask me what my business does, and then ask if I have a need for their service. Never works. However, it would be refreshing to get a call with someone who has actually spent somee time reading our latest blogs or new and then makes their service relevant to our current situation.
In the 21st century, you need to earn the right to present a solution only after diagnosing business pain. The ability to provide value ON THE VOICEMAIL is the difference between a potential follow up and a waste of time (for both parties) In most cases, your voicemail should be followed up with an email to continue the process and earn the right to have a more detailed phone conversation to determine need and fit
Thankfully the old sales model is dying. I would suggest that even your second version o the message gets heard less and less because they won't get past your name and phone number. People are too busy and know a "cold-call" when they hear it.
Also, when is a one page list of suggestions an "e-book"? Now that was a sales technique!
@frank - I was the one who labeled the download as an eBook when posting Jill's draft; obviously a mistake/misleading but not intentional.
I've struck the words from the post but you can still see it was there! Thanks for keeping us honest!
I almost laughed out loud when I read this article this morning as it directly related to a discussion I was having with one of the senior (older as in old school) members of our team about building and prospecting for business in 2010. Their response to me was that we need to get out there and just start making calls.....all of which would sound just as you had stated them above....BORING, SALESY, and ultimately DELETED!
Great feedback and ideas about how to really change the tone of that communication and add some value to that first impression. I have downloaded the e-book and have already forwarded it off to the team for review! Thanks again. Great stuff.
Thanks for the tips and free download.
Sale Pro - I beg to differ with you. In my opinion, the strategies you recommending are old school and manipulative.
For example, virtually every corporate decision maker I know would laugh at your statement, "I'd appreciate the courtesy of your call at 555-555-5555." They don't owe you any courtesy; nor do they care about being civil. They are much too busy call back every single seller who wants a piece of their time.
And, saying a prospect's name multiple times in a voicemail is just plain overkill. It makes you sound like a cheesy salesperson who's pandering for their attention.
Finally, I clicked on your link to find out a bit about your sales philosophy and read your approach to getting voicemails returned. Your "tricks of the trade" are gimmicky and give salespeople a bad image.
In particular, I find your Incomplete Message tactic to be extremely appalling.
Hang up on yourself in the middle of leaving your message. People's natural curiosity to hear the rest of the message is an exceptionally powerful motivator.
The chance of a return call is high. Save this tactic for an important message. You'll generally be able to use this tactic only once per person.
When disconnecting, remember to use your finger instead of the receiver if you're using an office phone. Make sure to leave your number before disconnecting. While you may get a return call (which you feel justifies the approach), you will have lost all credibility.
And finally, the entire voicemail message about was totally customer focused. The I/you imbalance is irrelevant because the message is all about issues and challenges faced by the prospect.
Before I leave a message I ask myself the question, "Am I giving the prospect a reason to NOT return my call?"
One other tip: try calling your prospects when you don't have anything to sell... to just say hello!
This is the key right here:
We cut their abandoned carts by 16% in just one month, resulting in a 8.4% lift in sales.
Find the time to read Jill's book.
Seems a few nerves have been struck here. Always a interesting topic and today i.e. 2010 the tactics again being re evaluated given new technologies. You have no business calling/emailing/mailing anyone unless you've really done your initial research. The #1 sales person trait I look for is empathy. The real key is providing the environment for them to call you! Takes more time but provides a much better success. Do I hear "inbound marketing"? (little finger curled into side of mouth, thank you Mike Meyers)
Well said Greg. The bottomline seems that there needs to be a mutually valuable interaction beforehand that sets up the potential continued value of your call. Otherwise it's just another cold call no matter how hard you try to warm it up.
But great, worthwhile conversation nonetheless. Thanks for kicking if off Jill.
I get a ton of sales calls - and to be honest, I just hate getting voicemails! It interrupts my day. Most likely, my mind is on something else, and I don't want to switch gears and focus on something else. It's downright irritating.
I'm more responsive to email, because I can look at it when I choose to. I don't know what a voicemail is about until I listen to it. Send me an email with value - a white paper or webinar or something - that's more likely to get my response, personally.
The second message was better than the first and might get a reply if the recipient thinks there could be a problem. However, if they don't think there is a problem, it's still going to get deleted.
Jill, can you comment on Tracey's post?
I hate take cold calls from relationships that I have not initiated; if you call me after I downloaded a white paper or webinar most likely I will take your call.
It doesn’t matter how you sugar coat your voicemail, normally I do not return calls unless I initiated the contact and we are playing phone tag.
In a recent benchmarking survey for professional services, a high percentage of respondents said they would take a phone cold call if it were relevant, timely and would help them with an existing or future problem or goal.
Everyone: Thanks for all the comments. It's fun to read your additional insights & perspectives. Good stuff!
Dan: I totally agree with you that an email needs to follow a voicemail. In today's business environment, it's taking between 8-10 touches to connect decision maker's today and it's higher with C-level executives.
Also, it really helps if a company has a resource-rich website full of white papers, podcasts, articles, videos (ala HubSpot!) Then, as a seller, you can send an email suggesting they take a look at the resource or you can invite them to an event.
Dalit: Great points re: "entering" the organization first. The data you gain can be invaluable in identifying the business impact you can make.
Matt:Send a copy of the article to your old school colleagues! They need to read it.
Rick: If everyone tested their message with your question, they'd be a lot more successful.
Tracey:I am also seeing a movement away from voicemail too. Some people never listen to it anymore; others have it turned into text so they can read/delete/return messages in the desired order. And the type of email message you're responding to is what's working best. It's educational in nature, not salesy.
Sales Pro: Yes, I am saying that my information is better than the advice from Jay Conrad Levenson, the father of Guerrilla Marketing. While his suggestions may have worked 20 years ago, they are no longer effective with busy people who have way too much to do and impossible deadlines.
The other thing I think you're missing the boat on is this. I/we is not the only way to evaluate a message. Self-referential messages, as you call them, typically have words like this: leading edge, state-of-the-art, robust, out of the box, passion for excellence. HubSpot's GobbledyGook Grader deals with eliminating those words.
If you look at the message again, you will see that there is not ONE about the salesperson's company. Everything is about the prospect: their website, their shopping cart, outcomes they'd like to achieve.
And I would like to note again, your advice for hanging up on callers yourself so they'll call you back. That's just plain sleazy and, as far as I'm concerned, an indicator of low integrity. The ends do not justify the means.
I've read this blog for a long time yet never posted. This guest blog and comments inspired me to action.
The best sales reps know several ways to sell. Consultive sales is the buzzword of the day and it works for many prospects. There are still plenty of people who want and like to be sold. A consultive sales rep with never get anywhere with them just as a direct sales rep won't have success with those who like consultive sales.
Anecdotally, I'd say many buyers like a little bit of both sales styles, kind of a hybrid model. Factors such as cold calls, repeat customers, and referrals all play a factor in the style a sales rep will use.
I was taken aback by the guest blogger's hostility towards those who disagreed with her positions. The name calling and insults have no place in this profession. I was also startled that the guest blogger thinks her information is superior to JC Levinson. That kind of denial of reality is hilarious.
I would hope HubSpot would have guest bloggers who were more in touch with reality.
While we all love new bloggers, Jeff's comment above really struck a nerve.
To call Jill's article "hostile" is a misguided and mistaken reading of an article by one of the best sales experts anywhere. "
name calling" and "
insults?" Hardly. I personally have known Jill for a very long time and she is incapable of name calling and insults.
It's simply not in her personality.
Sellers can learn a great deal from Jill and her guest article is spot on. I congratulate HubSpot for inviting her to be a guest.
Jeff Ogden, President
Find New Customers
<a>www.findnewcustomers.net
Jeff, I'm glad you came out of the woodwork to respond to my comments. However, my intent is always to help sellers be more effective.
The marketplace has shifted drastically in the last decade. Different strategies are needed today. I entered the sales profession in 1978. Many sales techniques and strategies that I was taught then are now ineffective because of the internet, voicemail, email, inbound marketing, etc., etc.
When I hear sales advice that I know doesn't work with today's busy buyer, I have an obligation to point that out. When people promote manipulative tactics, it's important to label them as such.
And finally, Mr. Levinson supports my book, Selling to Big Companies. When it came out, he invited me to speak in his webinar series. And, here's what he said about it:
"Stop fishing in small ponds with the wrong bait. You'll net bigger clients with this straightforward, easy-to-follow approach." -- Jay Conrad Levinson, The Father of Guerrilla Marketing and Author of the Guerrilla Marketing series (on Amazon)
@jeff-starmarketing Jill is a respected thought leader in this space and she has great ideas worth sharing. That is why we invited her to contribute to the HubSpot blog.
The HubSpot blog is a great resource for everyone and we encourage transparent dialog so everyone can learn all points of view and I feel we can all agree to disagree at times.
I for one have learnt a a great deal from this passionate conversation!
This is an interesting discussion, with a variety of views. Getting people to take your call, listen to your voicemail, return your call, or even remember you when you call again is a challenge every sales professional faces.
I've always believed you want to focus on What's In If For Them, motivating them to return your call, or in the least remember your voicemail if you call them again.
What better way is there than to demonstrate you respect them enough to have done your homework, that you have some insight into what they face, that you have some experience in producing results that can impact them.
Jill's advice is spot on, it addresses each one of those areas. It's an approach I've used for many years and it's produced results for me. In one case, it opened the door for a multi-million dollar sale. In another, while I didn't get a call back from the CEO (the person I left a message for), I got a call from an EVP who asked, "What did you say on that message, my boss told me I had to talk to you!" I only wish I had been aware of Jill's advice a long time ago, rather than having to figure it out by myself.
I find the discussion of "tricks/techniques" interesting. In a time when "authenticity" is the keyword for connecting with customers and others, these techniques fly in the face of current best practices.
To some degree, it is the fancy tricks and techniques that now make prospects and others so tough to reach. They have become so jaded or resentful about this manipulation, that it has poisoned the well for those that have an offer of genuine value to the prospect.
A sales professional's job is to create value for the customer, not only in the solutions presented, but in every interchange--from the first phone message, through every other encounter in the process.
Jill advice is very sound. Her disdain of trickery and technique is well founded.
But it is an interesting debate!
Thanks Jill for the guest post. Nice to see you on the HubSpot blog. I loved your book on Selling to Big Companies and made it a must read for our team at Akamai.
Great discussion so far on this topic. I will start by saying there is no "Silver Bullet" here. Also, I think the way you leave a voicemail differs depending on what you are selling, who you are selling to, and ultimately your role on the sales process.
I think the key takeaways are this:
First and foremost, being brutally honest with yourself and others. This is key to being a top sales rep. Leaving misleading or cryptic voicemails is not going to get you very far. You might as well be the telemarketer who leaves my voicemails stating they have an urgent matter to solve with me or the recruiter who called me and did not leave his company name, just stating he was just talking with someone about me and that I needed to get back to him in a timely manner.
Secondly, do not ever use a script.
Jill is correct in that you must tie your value prop and existing customer benefits to the person as well as the company you are calling. The VP of Marketing has different needs and pains, then a VP of Sales, etc. The best way to answer someone's question around "what do you" is to answer by speaking about a relevant customer example and the business benefits they have seen in using your product or service, not using your elevator pitch littered with gobbledlygook.
3)Keep the voicemail to under 1 minute.
Do not repeat your name and phone number at the end as it is no different than stating your name and company name at the beginning. It justs helps them justify there decision to d-e-l-e-t-e.
My mentor Jeff Hoffman from Basho recommended not sounding like every other sales rep and suggested starting a voicemail without leaving your name and number and just leaving it at the end.
Lastly, the goal of the voicemail is to either get them interested enough to call you back or refer you to someone else. It should not be to get a meeting. It is also just a crucial touch in that 5-10 touch process letting the prospect know that you have done your homework and that you are not just making another dial in your 100+ dial day. If you leave a differentiated voicemail, the prospect will remember you when you get them live or when you send them that great why you, why now email. Another thing to remember is to never make reference to a past attempt to reach them, this only reminds them that they already deleted you! :)
Again, I think the strategy can vary depending on what your selling and your role in the sales process. As someone who used to focus solely on leadgen, I had the time to do my homework and break into large accounts. As an Account Executive, I now have less time to spend solely on prospecting so I have to dedicate at least a few hours a day and I have to rely on google alerts, industry blogs, trade magazines and related email newsletters to have those triggering events at my fingertips in order to save time.
Happy Hunting!
Time for me to hit the phones!
-Brian
Jill,
Thanks for the post. I think what you had to say was spot on. I can echo Dan's (and your) sentiment about ensuring that an email to the prospect follows shortly after the voicemail. I think Tracey said it best in that voicemails are just seen as an interruption!
Thanks again for the article!
Chris
Nice - always remember THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU... and as long as you focus on the customer and what's in it for them, you'll be golden. Well done!
The advice to research the company beforehand can be applied elsewhere, such as in job interviews. However, I think most would agree that Joe Girard's book How to Sell Anything to Anybody is the Holy Grail of sales :)
Wow...I missed a good debate that included some mud slinging.
I will say, I err on the side of professionalism, etiquette, and process to bring value to the sales cycle. Even at the earliest level of first call/voicemail.
Mind you Sales Pro, your techniques might work, and probably more so 15 years go, but times have changed. I too service small-mid sized companies as well as the large enterprise. They may be different in size, but they respond similarly to voicemail. That claim is unsubstantiated.
The fact is that it's a numbers game. Some prospects respond to voicemial. Some to email. Some to cold calls getting answered live. Heck...the old fashioned postal letter still works (talk to Mac McIntosh).
Prospects are sophisticated today. You think they don't know when you mis-dial or triple dial or leave a manipulative message? They do. Not all. But most. Do they want to start their relationship with someone like that? Most won't, so why risk it.
Good luck with your techniques. I'll stick with Jill Konrath, Dan Tyre, Trish Bertuzzi and others that exude professionalism and avoid boiler rooms.
I get phone calls & voicemails from many many sales people....and the proposed 'better' approach is the one that I'd delete and never return.
You want to sell me something then you need to get to know me and my problems....but don't tell me what my problems are before you talk to me.
Nothing worse than a sales person trying to tell me how to fix my problem before they really know the problem.
Wow - a $10,000 challenge. Matched by a $1m ego to boot it seems.
Salespro, you've completely missed the point.
The core of Jill's article is about demonstrating insight and adding value on the call. I'm sure she didn't agonise over every word she put into her script - the point was to show how value can be added not about the niceties of language.
Having said that, your point about the repetition of the potential customers name is just plain wrong.
Yes, we all like to hear our own name. But repeatedly from the mouth of a stranger? That's called over-familiarity, And it's a relationship killer. It doesn't take much sophistication in a buyer to recognise when they're being manipulated by a salesperson who's using their name repeatedly as a sales technique.
To my mind, Eric makes a more serious criticism. Personally, if someone called me and said it looked from my site as if my abandonment rates were too high it would absolutely put my back up. They have no idea what's going on behind the scenes. There could be a myriad of reasons why things are the way they are. You'd have to be absolutely certain you were right to use that sort of line.
I'd be much more likely to use an analogy or story that tried to get the same value across. Perhaps about how a number of companies (like X, Y & Z) facing similar challenges had managed to decrease abandonment and increase sales - and asking if he'd like to discuss how.
But again here I'm in danger of falling into the same trap of not seeing the wood for the trees. The overall point of adding value remains.
And also, not everyone is going to react like me or Eric. I'd need to see some more data before going one way or the other.
Ian
You know, I've never thought about it this way, and I do it all the time. Well, I don't call all the time, but when I do, I say things almost exactly like what you posted above. Now I seriously have to rethink my strategy, but that's a good thing. Great post; thanks.
I like the idea to research before approaching. But what if the research is impossible??
Jill, Frank Reed has a good point:
I would suggest that even your second version of the message gets heard less and less because they won't get past your name and phone number. People are too busy and know a "cold-call" when they hear it.
What are your thoughts on Frank's comment?
Anna, I'm not sure what you mean when you say that research is impossible, but let me try to tackle a few things you might be thinking:
- You don't have time because you're expected to make so many calls. If that's true, I'd suggest grouping things so that you're calling attorneys for a week, then school districts or hospitals. Take some time to learn about issues relevant to each of these types of prospects so you can create enticing messaging.
- If they're a private company and you can't get much data. Then look at public companies to find out what their issues, needs, challenges, objectives are. In many cases they are similar.
You can also talk to your colleagues to find out what they know about what's important to your targeted customers.
There are many ways to gather insights if you look for them.
Chris - You asked for my thoughts re: Franks comment: "Thankfully the old sales model is dying. I would suggest that even your second version of the message gets heard less and less because they won't get past your name and phone number. People are too busy and know a "cold-call" when they hear it. "
It is getting harder and harder for salespeople to connect with clients. That's why companies like HubSpot are doing so well.
I am 100% behind web-based thought leadership based marketing strategies that catch online seekers when they're actively looking for information about their problems and/or possible solutions. In my opinion, it's the only way to go.
That being said, most companies haven't embraced that kind of thinking yet. They still have salespeople who have to go out and get the business.
So, I try to give them strategies that are more effective than traditional sales techniques -- ones that stand out as thoughtful, customer-focused, and curiosity-provoking.
The sooner the old sales model dies, the happier I'll be. Sales desperately needs Marketing to step up to the plate and change the game.