I was working with a client the other day and he told me something that I hear often. He said, "Nobody is returning my calls!" Has that ever happened to you? You leave a voice mail message and they never call you back. It's not an uncommon occurrence in America today. Is it because people are rude? Maybe they are just way too busy?
Either of the above reasons may be true, but you have no control over those things. What do you have control over? You have control over yourself and the things you do.
Maybe eight or ten years ago I was listening to a speaker talk about how to improve sales through cold calling. I am better at it but still don't enjoy cold calling, however, I remember one thing about the talk; he told us he never leaves a voice mail message that is longer than 10 seconds. He said he gets better than an 80% return of his messages.
The formula was simple:- Introduce yourself
- Establish a context for the call
- Leave your number
Why does this work? The point is that most people leaving a message, take away the reason to call back. They talk too much! When the message is too long or detailed, the listener believes they know what the call is about or they just don't listen to the whole message. The listener has made up their mind that they don't what to hear the rest of what you have to say. Or their is no curiosity or urgency and the listener thinks that they'll call you back later when they aren't as busy. Or they know what you want and cannot help you so why bother calling you back.
On the other hand, being pleasant in voice and establishing a context, e.g., Ms. Henshaw, or the Greater Chicago Chamber, or St. Peter's taffy pull, builds a connection that interests them. They don't want to offend their friend Alice by not returning a referral's call.
Finally, there is the fact that it takes about ten seconds to decide to skip the voice mail message and go on to the next message and by then your voice is saying have a great day.
No comments:
Post a Comment