Leave a voicemail that won’t be deleted

According to Jill Konrath, the sales and marketing guru, busy professionals only listen to the first 2.7 seconds of each voicemail message. I admit I’m a “voicemail deleter”. I am so quickly annoyed by rambling voicemail messages. Since I’m in a confessing mood, if you are my mother, I NEVER listen to any of your messages. Why? Because I love her dearly, but her messages never tell me anything that my caller ID hasn’t already told me….”Andrea, this is your Mom. Call me back when you get a chance.” So, the question is not how to avoid being my Mom, rather … How to leave a message that compels the receiver to listen to the message in its entirety. Here are some easy steps: #1 Give them a value proposition that is meaningful to THEM. #2 Don’t start the message with your company name unless it is one that makes people stand up and take notice. #3 Speak as you are their peer – not their buddy and not subservient to them. Do not say, “I know you are super busy”. They will say to themselves, “Yeah, I’m too busy to listen to you tell me how busy I am”. #4 Ask for the next step in your sales process (conference call, in person meeting, web-based demo, etc.). Give these tips a try and let me know how they worked for you.  I'd love to hear your tips too!