VM OR NOT TO VM, THAT IS THE QUESTION
Going into my first week as an SDR, one of the initial questions I had was whether or not to leave a voicemail. Just like most things in sales, there were mixed responses. So, like other sales tactics, I tried to apply my own spin and experiment the strategy for myself.
One week was spent leaving voicemails, while the next week I left no voicemails at all. The results I found were pretty surprising.
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During my week of leaving a voicemail, I noticed I was spending a lot more time on each prospect. The amount of time it took to leave a personalized voice message for one prospect, was the equivalent of reaching out to 2 or more prospects when I wasn't leaving a message. I spent the week leaving a voicemail to various targets, and the grand total of how many demos I booked from those messages was…zero.
I was pretty disappointed in the results, as I felt that the messages were decent, but the results weren’t there.
However, week two of this experiment actually yielded some fruit. By me not leaving any voicemails, I was actually having prospects reach out to me. I would receive a phone call from them and had a greater success of closing those prospects as the interaction was a bit warmer.
I would say more often than not, the conservations went really well, leading to me booking them for a demo, or I was able to immediately disqualify them as a target. There were the occasional angry prospects who curse you out, but that’s just sales.
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Overall, what’s worked best for me was leaving no voicemail, as I had a greater success with getting into contact with prospects as opposed to leaving a voice message. On the flip side, if I am absolutely certain I cannot get a hold of the prospect on the phone, I do leave a voicemail without mentioning my company or services at all, I simply tell them to check their inbox for an email from myself. What I’ve learned is that the less salesy I sounded, the better results I experienced. Ultimately, I would suggest to try this out for yourself and see what kind of results work best for you. Sales isn’t a one size fits all type of career, experiment with simple tactics that help you close predictably, on your terms.