Sales Voicemail Statistics – Is leaving a message worth it?

“Can you PROVE that leaving voicemails are worth it? What have you found to be the average % of returned calls? What are the statistics?”

Here’s my concern with your question…

Are you looking for stats to defend your stance to not leave voicemail messages? Or are you truly looking for data to determine if you should start leaving them?

If you’ve already decided that you don’t want to leave a voicemail message, I’m not here to try and change your mind. If, however, you are looking for facts in order to make a sound business decision, my question to you is this:

“How many callbacks do you get if you DON’T leave a voicemail?”

Of course, the answer to that is ZERO.

So if I left a message with every new sales call I made in a day that went to voicemail, and I only received ONE call back per day, that’s 100% more than you would get.

I look at it this way… If you are fishing, you have to cast your line. If you’re going to cast your line, you might as well have bait on the end of it.

Not leaving a voicemail is like casting your hook with nothing on it.

HAVING THE RIGHT EXPECTATIONS

When I’m in “making sales calls” mode, I understand there are several factors outside of my control regarding when a prospect will be ready to buy. My goal is to find the ones who are ready now.

The one’s who aren’t, I at least want to make sure I’m on top of mind with them so that when a trigger event does happen, they call me to help them solve it.

Leaving a compelling voicemail might not get you a callback today, but it can help you get a call back when the prospect is in high problem solving / buying mode.

With that said, I’ve found that the ones that DO call back the same day are the ones that are further along in the buying cycle and THOSE ARE THE LEADS I want to be talking with anyway.

Here’s something to think about as well, prospects have this thing called: CALLER ID.

If you keep calling and don’t leave a message, isn’t it a safe bet the prospect would become agitated, always seeing your company name pop up, but never knowing why you are calling? The more you call and DON’T leave a message, the more you appear to be a pesky salesperson.

Annoying your prospect before ever talking to them is not a successful strategy.

If a prospect is worth chasing, they are worth a creative voicemail message. Something that has a WHAT’S IN IT FOR THEM, mixed with a little bit of your personality that will entice them to want to call you back.

Make sure you have at least three solid first-time call messages in your playbook as well as three coinciding emails that you send right after each voicemail.

Don’t give up after leaving one message. I can’t tell you how many times a prospect has taken my 2nd or 3rd attempt only to hear them say “sorry I haven’t gotten back to you till now, things have been crazy busy.” Your prospects are busy and they want to grow/improve their business. Be part of the solution to help them get what they want and you will end up getting what you want:

A call back that leads to a new business relationship.

– Michael Pedone

Michael Pedone teaches inside sales teams how to pick up the phone and close business. He is the CEO/FOUNDER of SalesBuzz.com – An online sales training company.