Speaking of voicemails…

Should you leave voicemail messages when calling potential buyers? Short answer: yes, always. For the longer reason…

Consider how often a buyer interacts with your competitor’s product or a person representing the competition. How often does this happen in your industry? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Simple math says that if it’s weekly, that buyer is forming/solidifying/questioning his impression of that company up to 52 times every year.

All it takes for a buyer to switch to you is enough frustration with the current way of doing things and trust that you can alleviate that frustration with minimal disruption in the transition. If you were to call when a buyer hits this boiling point, you will, at the very least, get in to see the buyer. And since decision-makers are naturally difficult to reach (especially if you don’t already know them), you’ve got to leave a voicemail. You’ve got to believe that something could have gone wrong recently. If you leave a voicemail, your timing may be perfect.

If you DON’T leave a voicemail, you will never know. In fact, you’re basically saying your competition does a good or better job of taking care of their customers than you can, and the possibility of their service failure is non-existent. If that’s your feeling, get out of what you’re doing right now.

And if your opinion is that leaving a voicemail is a waste of time, give me a break. How long a voicemail do you think you need to leave when the person is already starting to boil? You need a primer in getting to the point (see the resources below).

While I think it’s far more effective to be the “go-to” person a buyer calls when her current relationship begins to fall apart, if you don’t have a relationship in place, as a professional salesperson, if you don’t reach the decision-maker you’ve got to leave a voicemail.

Other resources: 43Folders audio/podcast, GreatVoice article, Karl Walinskas article, and a great overview from a unique source.