Can You Sell Your Product in a Voicemail?

The easiest answer: an emphatic yes. Leaving a sales voicemail isn’t only easy, but it’s an effective way to begin prospecting without making a major investment of your time. Think about it this way: if you were sure that you had an effective voicemail that you could leave on almost every sales call—and you could repeat it—don’t you think that would be an effective way to get peoples’ attention?

Leaving a ringless voicemail message also has an additional advantage built right in: it’s personal. This can lead to a higher response rate, especially if you customize your message to the individual you’re calling. Will you make the sale within the context of the voicemail itself? It’s possible you’ll run into people you’re cold calling who are already sold on the idea and like the sound of your voice. However, it’s more effective if you consider using the voicemail as the beginning stage of a sales funnel. If you leave a good voicemail as a first impression, it’s a powerful way to start building up new prospects who might buy from you.

Why Do You Need a Good Voicemail for a Sales Call?

What you want is a sale. What the prospect wants is someone addressing their needs. So is leaving a voicemail really the best way to match a sale with a salesperson? In many cases, it’s ideal. Not only is leaving a good voicemail a great way to handle sales prospecting in a more personal, direct way, but it will show that your business is willing to give individual care and attention to each account.

Should You Test Different Voicemails?

When you’re cold calling, one of the most powerful things you can do is to treat every voicemail you leave as a two-pronged strategy. First, you obviously want to get the attention of a potential prospect. But what if they don’t respond?

Then you can add the second element: learning something new about your voicemail message every time. You’re not going to land on the perfect sales voicemail, after all, if you don’t hone your message over time. To do that, you’re going to need to have an A/B testing mindset as you carve out a message that gets results.

How do you conduct an effective A/B test using something like voicemail? Here are some voicemail tips you can use to test how well you’re getting your prospect’s interest:

Create two lists of prospects. If you already have a large list, consider splitting it in half at random. Hopefully, you’ll have a large enough sample size that you can get an accurate gauge on which voicemail elements are working best.

Isolate just one variable at a time. Using a voicemail script (more on that below), and approximating other variables like the same tone of voice, sense of urgency, etc., you should just test one element at a time. For example, maybe you’ll test your first statement by using the same script—but a different statement for each sales strategy list. Or you may keep everything else the same while testing out different value propositions.

Identify the “sweet spot.” Now, each time you use a voicemail for social selling, you (and a sales team, if you’re working with one) should be able to gauge which voicemails are generating the most response. When you have a statistically significant set of numbers for one voicemail, you’ll know what your sales strategy “sweet spot” is.

The great thing about testing different voicemails is that it maximizes the productivity you get out of each call.

How to Use Sales Voicemail Scripts to Come Across Naturally

One of the most powerful ways you can use sales voicemails is to repeat them. But that leads to one challenge: how do you maintain an organic, natural quality to your sales voicemails when you repeat them often enough?

First, be willing to work from sales voicemail scripts. Hopefully, you’ll arrive at a script that works well within your industry. There’s a reason so many sales reps turn to voicemail scripts, after all: they’re proven. Not only do they have an effective message, but they’ll accomplish the following:

Reminding you to leave vital information. Don’t want to forget your company name or contact information? Want to highlight a LinkedIn profile? Simple: build it into a script. Working from a script has a major advantage in ensuring that you hit all of the major key points.

Getting the prospect’s attention. Getting the prospect’s attention is one of the most powerful ways to use voicemail scripts. If you settle on one way that gets their attention, why not repeat that element of your voicemail message every single time? All you need is the right context, and you’re ready to go.

Leaving room for improvisation. If you don’t always want to come across as wooden, then the best way to ensure you do that is to leave some room for talking naturally. If you only read off of a sales script, it has the tendency to use the spontaneous inflection that makes you sound more authentic.

With a good voicemail strategy in place, you should not only be able to leave a solid voicemail, but also have a strategy for what happens if there ever comes time to leave a second voicemail. Remember: leaving a cold calling voicemail can be the first connection you have with a customer. But don’t view it as your only chance of making a sale. With the right strategy in hand, it can be a powerful way to begin prospecting in earnest.

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