Creating Enticing Voice Mails

Voice messages that don't get returned unless they are enticing, focus on business results or share an insightful idea.

By Barbara K. Mednick, Star Tribune Sales and Marketing

Last update: December 3, 2007 - 4:46 PM

Increasing financial goals. Limited resources. Short time frames. Today, corporate decision makers are faced with these and a myriad of other challenges that create stress and limit the amount of time they have to return phone calls.

The result? Voice messages that don't get returned unless they are enticing, focus on business results or share an insightful idea. To meet your sales goals and avoid frustration and productivity loss, you need to craft and leave enticing voice messages that get results.

Self-Serving Voice Mails Deleted

"The use of voice mail is so pervasive that sometimes you wonder if youll ever talk to another human being again," observes Jill Konrath, a sales consultant and president of Selling to Big Companies in St. Paul. "Voice mail messages that contain self-serving verbiage or focus only on your product or service offering are deleted immediately by your prospect."

Karl Walinskas, speaking coach and owner of The Speaking Connection, shares an interesting perspective, "The more technology we introduce to help us communicate, the less we actually communicate."

While that may be true, voice mail is a fact of life today.

Harness The Power Of Voice Mail

Voice mail is also a powerful communication tool you can harness.

"Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. What most sellers don't realize is that voice mail is an incredible tool," says Konrath. "If you craft a tight message targeted to your prospect's needs, they will listen."

What Is Enticing?

"Being enticing is about arousing a prospective decision maker's curiosity. It's about saying something that piques their interest and makes them want to learn more," Konrath explains. "Effective, enticing voice mails require you to establish your credibility, pique their curiosity, communicate your value proposition, share an insightful idea, dangle important information and close confidently."

To come up with an enticing voice mail, however, you need to put a good amount of thought into it.

"Theres no way around it. Provocative, alluring and brilliant statements don't just naturally flow out of your mouth when it's time to leave a message. You'll attract their attention with relevant knowledge, success stories and good business ideas," says Konrath.

Tips For Success

Here are the top tips from Walinskas to improve your rate of callbacks when you leave voicemail:

Be brief and get to the point.

Put the call into context. Give the listener a reason to reply.

Time-stamp the message.

Let the listener know how to reach you.

Provide instructions.

Explain the consequences of not calling back. Here are more tips from Konrath:

Create a script to ensure delivery of the right voice message.

Establish your credibility immediately by referencing referrals, research you've conducted, etc. Come up with a provocative question that will pique the attention of the decision maker. Develop multiple voice mail scripts, each emphasizing different aspects of your value proposition.

"While a script is necessary to ensure an enticing message, you need to practice it so you can just say it and not read it," says Konrath.

Barbara K. Mednick is a Twin Cities marketing PR/communications consultant and freelance writer.

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