{"id":819,"date":"2011-06-10T08:56:12","date_gmt":"2011-06-10T13:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/wordsofwisdom\/?p=819"},"modified":"2011-06-06T08:58:12","modified_gmt":"2011-06-06T13:58:12","slug":"voice-mail-is-the-scourge-of-the-american-salesperson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/wordsofwisdom\/voice-mail-is-the-scourge-of-the-american-salesperson\/","title":{"rendered":"Voice mail is the scourge of the American salesperson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weekly Sales Tip<\/p>\n

Technology is a wonderful thing. Voice mail gives salespeople the opportunity to reach their clients and prospects with information, ideas, answers to questions, new product or service information and a host of other valuable benefits – saving them time and energy. It also allows them to leave messages at odd hours when traveling or when the inspiration hits them.<\/p>\n

However, if voice mail prevents you from having face-to-face or voice-to-voice communication, you may miss hidden opportunities to better service your clients or reach prospects. I believe that technology in general is a positive thing, but not if it is used as a crutch rather than a tool. Many salespeople leave sales messages, requests for returned calls, and a variety of other information on this recorded wizard and I’m not going to even go into the use of email for prospecting, that deserves its own dedicated article. I recommend the following strategies in dealing with voice mail.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Never leave a sales message on voice mail for a new prospect with whom you have never spoken. I have no problem leaving a voice mail message with a client where I have an established relationship.<\/li>\n
  2. Don’t assume because a gatekeeper says your prospect is in a meeting that they are in a meeting and that they can’t be disturbed. Ask if they can be interrupted. You would be amazed how many times when I ask that question, how often I get through to my prospect\/client.<\/li>\n
  3. Don’t assume, when you hear they are out of the office or in the building that they can’t be reached. Ask if they can be paged.<\/li>\n
  4. If you must leave a sales message on a first call, make it brief. Tell them you will follow up later in the day or week. Your message should be no longer than 30-45 seconds and be benefit oriented. This is not the time for a condensed sales presentation. The critical issue about ‘call backs’ is that you lose control of the sales process, a subject I share in my sales programs. It could take all day to discuss the challenges and benefits of maintaining control of the sales process.<\/li>\n
  5. When you leave a message for a call back with a current customer or qualified prospect, leave your telephone number slowly. One of my pet peeves is voice mail messages and telephone numbers spoken so fast that I have to replay the message to get the number. Not user friendly folks. And, it doesn’t hurt to repeat the number.<\/li>\n
  6. Follow up the voice mail message with an email or a hard copy of something. Some organizations still use paper, and it takes more energy to throw away paper than to hit the delete button.<\/li>\n
  7. If you have the option of voice mail or a hard copy message and your message is not too long, opt for the hard copy message.<\/li>\n
  8. If your contact is not available always ask the contact person, “When is the best time to reach Billy Bob? Please tell him\/her I called and I will return the call at that time.”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Weekly Sales Tip Technology is a wonderful thing. Voice mail gives salespeople the opportunity to reach their clients and prospects with information, ideas, answers to questions, new product or service information and a host of other valuable benefits – saving them time and energy. It also allows them to leave messages at odd hours when …<\/p>\n

    Voice mail is the scourge of the American salesperson<\/span> Read More \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"categories":[330,9],"tags":[83,6,426,1153],"yoast_head":"\nVoice mail is the scourge of the American salesperson - Words of Wisdom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/wordsofwisdom\/voice-mail-is-the-scourge-of-the-american-salesperson\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Voice mail is the scourge of the American salesperson - Words of Wisdom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Weekly Sales Tip Technology is a wonderful thing. 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