Sales executive and educator Jeff Hoffman shares his secrets to effective voicemails that will make — not break — your sale.

If you’re a salesperson, you’ve been in this situation countless times — you’ve invested a significant part of your morning in researching your next call. It’s going to be a big one, you can feel it. You dial the number and listen eagerly as the phone rings. You know exactly what you want to say. The phone rings . . . it keeps ringing . . . boom — voicemail.

The question for many entry-level salespeople is what do you do next? Do you leave a voicemail or not? Is the buyer really going to call you back? Should you even bother or should you just call again later? What do you even say?

In this episode of “Strictly Sales”, Jeff Hoffman tackles voicemails head-on, and explains how to leave effective messages that will keep the ball rolling.

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Key Takeaways

“[People are] always asking me, ‘Do I leave a voicemail?’ I think the better question is, how do we leave decent voicemails? Because to not leave a voicemail is a bad decision for a variety of reasons.”

— Jeff Hoffman, M. J. Hoffman and Associates

* There are a few reasons that you should leave a voicemail: You put a lot of work into research just to make the call; if you hang up at the voicemail level, you are guaranteed not to connect with client; the customer often has caller ID, and can recognize you if you call again

* Voicemails should be under 15 seconds and shouldn’t include your plan of action [3:45]

* Your reason for calling should always change in each voicemail [5:00]

Transcript

CeCe: Hi, everyone and thanks for tuning in to Strictly Sales with Jeff Hoffman. Jeff, thrilled to have you back.

Jeff: We’re doing it again. I can’t believe it.

CeCe: And we’re back for more.

Jeff: There’s at least a couple people listening because we’re doing more of these.

CeCe: Exactly. So, on our last couple podcasts, which you should check out if you haven’t already, we’re talking about how to get into companies and how to get out of companies. Now, if you’re thinking like “Hansel and Gretel” here, let’s talk about leaving those little breadcrumbs along the way. And it’s something I hear from people all the time. You’re always asking me “Do I leave a voicemail”? Yes or no? So, when do you know, Jeff?

Jeff: Well, I hear it, too and I hear interesting arguments on both ends. Particularly people who think leaving voicemail is a bad idea. We know that people don’t often return voicemails. And the last thing we want to be is that annoying voice leaving three or four voicemails for a complete stranger, only to be kind of looking like a stalker. So, I get why people are reticent to not do it. But you know, I think it’s bad form. I think the better question is, how do we leave decent voicemails? Because to not leave a voicemail is probably a bad decision for a variety of reasons, the simplest reason why it’s a bad idea. Because think about all the work you had to do to make the call. You probably had to research them a little bit, write something down, get your pitch ready, find the lead, find the right person in the account. See if they purchased or if they’ve talked to anyone in my company before. You might have spent five, ten, 15 minutes getting yourself to a point where you can make this phone call. You went as far as to dial the number. And it actually rang into a real person’s voice. And then you’re going to hang up? That doesn’t make any sense to me. You’ve literally done all that hard work, you might as well finish. It doesn’t make a great investment of time...