Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

It’s Only Common Sense: Dreaded Cold Calls

To paraphrase Mark Twain, “The reports of the death are greatly exaggerated.” I know that every salesperson in the country wishes that the cold call was truly dead. Sorry; it’s still alive and kicking.

To be a salesperson, you have to call people and talk to them about buying your stuff. There is just no way around that. I know that there are all sorts of reasons not to cold call; in my 40+ years in sales, I have heard them all.

Social media tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have offered different ways to get in touch with customers and potential customers, but they have not replaced good old cold calls; as I like to say, they have only warmed them up a little and thawed them out. So, suck it up, salespeople. You will have to call somebody you don’t know and—even worse—doesn’t know you and ask them to buy something they don’t think they need. That’s just life in the sales lane.

With sales calls comes the inevitable dreaded voicemail, which we all hate. What do you say? What kind of message should you leave? What can you say that will be so interesting that the person receiving that message will call you back? Dream on.

But wait! There’s hope. Like everything else, there is a process. There are ways to leave effective and productive messages that will get end results. From the neat little book The Pocket Sales Mentor: Proven Sales Strategies at Your Fingertips by Gerhard Gschwandtner, here are nine useful tips on how to leave great voicemails.

1. Determine exactly what you want to accomplish with your call. Define your objective and tailor your voicemail to it.
2. Make your message concise and to the point. With each message you leave, add a little more information to arouse the customer’s curiosity.
3. Insert a customer benefit into the message to give them a reason to call you back.
4. Differentiate your message for the others and create a sense of urgency.
5. If you’re having trouble getting through, utilize other communication tools, such as emails, letters, faxing (believe it or not), or social media.
6. Try to find another contact within the company to help you connect with your prospect (this is where LinkedIn comes in handy).
7. Call early or late and vary your calling time. You may get lucky and catch the customer before or after the gatekeeper is in.
8. Use humor in your voicemail to make your message stand out from the others.
9. Don’t give up if your voicemails don’t get returned after the first few calls. Since voicemail is here to stay, you must integrate it into your sales efforts.

And again, from this book, here are five more tips on how to get customers to call you back:

1. Expect to reach a voicemail box. You know that chances are very high that you will get voicemail, so be prepared to leave a message or even to talk to the person you’re calling (that does happen sometimes).
2. Tell your customers what’s in it for them. No one is going to call you back if they don’t see what they will get out of it. Make sure you are prepared to let them know what benefit they can get out of returning your call.
3. Keep your message short. No one likes a long voicemail message. In many cases, it will make the customer go negative on you, which defeats the whole purpose of the call.
4. Prepare your message in advance. As with everything in sales and in life, preparation is the key to success. Know what you are going to say in your message even before that little beep sounds. Then, your message will come across confidently clear and concise.
5. Make your message unique. If someone asked you to write down a salesperson’s typical voicemail message, you could probably put together a message that sounds like 90% of those your prospects hear. Consider that, and then think about how you can make your message different and appealing to the person receiving the message. Personalize it. What kind of message would you like to hear? What would make you smile or want to return the call?

And finally, be enthusiastic, passionate, and excited about talking to your customers. Act as if you have great news that you want to share. Think about what you would feel like if you were calling your spouse about a great promotion you just got; capture that feeling and use it in your cold calling. It works!

As the world gets back to normal, it is going to be more important than ever to get back in touch with your customers—the ones you have been dealing with for years and the prospects you are trying to turn into customers. And yes, this is going to require a lot of calling and leaving voice messages. Instead of dreading this necessary part of sales, embrace it, and take the challenge of being the best cold caller and voicemail messenger you can be. Then, you will succeed.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.