7 Voicemail Message Tips for Sales

7 Voicemail Message Tips for Sales7 Voicemail Message Tips for SalesIf you place a cold call and your prospects voicemail picks up, dont give up and hang up the phone. Voicemail provides a golden opportunity to get leads to call YOU instead of spending days trying to chase them down yourself. But if you expect to get many of your calls returned, youll need to make a point of leaving messages that will give eachleada good reason to get in anflug with you. 01Know What You Want to SayYulia-Images / Getty ImagesBefore you even pick up the phone, jot down a few sentences that you can use as a default voicemail message. These sentences should act as a safety net, not a script. In otzu sich words, if your mind goes blank at the sound of the beep, you can glance down at the paper and start talking instead of sitting there saying Uh, uh, uh...02Speak ClearlyIf your lead cant understand what your message says, shes not going to call you back. This sounds pretty obvious but after the fortieth c old call of the day, you might start to mumble without even realizing it. So make an effort with each and every voicemail message to speak slowly and clearly.03Repeat YourselfGive your name, company name and phone number twice on each message once at the beginning of the call and again at the end. That way, if your lead didnt have a pen in hand at the beginning, she doesnt have to replay the message to get your information. Take special care to speak your phone number slowly and clearly picture the recipient sitting there with pen in hand trying to take down the number as you say it.04elend Too ShortSome salespeople like to leave a message with nothing but their name and phone number, and possibly a hint that theyre calling for business purposes. This is not usually a good idea. The only people who call for business purposes and dont include details in the message are salespeople and collection agents. Either way, your lead isnt going to be in a hurry to call back.05Not Too LongOn the other hand, a voicemail message is not the place to describe your entire product line in great detail. The ideal sales voicemail message is no more than one minute long, tops. You want to leave just enough information to intrigue the lead into calling you back. Dont wait until the end to mention your hook because if the first 15 seconds of the message are boring, your message will be wiped before it gets that far.06Mention Your ConnectionIf you got the leads name from an acquaintance or co-worker, drop that persons name early in the voicemail message. Or if you met the lead (or someone from her company) at a convention or other event, then bring that up instead. Failing any kind of connection between you and your lead, say something like, While researching your company, I noticed that your website mentions XYZ... This shows that you arent just calling your way through the phone book.07Pick Your Time WiselyThe worst time to leave a voicemail message is Friday afternoon, especial ly for B2B sales. By the time the lead gets your message, it will be Monday and shell have twenty more important things to deal with. And dont leave messages at times far outside of the business day, like 2 AM, because the time stamp on the voicemail message will make the lead think youre either calling from China or keep really bizarre hours. Weekday mornings are the best time to leave messages because your lead will have the option to pick up the phone immediately, instead of having to wait until the next day to call you back (by which time they may have forgotten all about you).

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13)Stump the Intern (10/13)Q I have neither facebook inc nor Twitter, because Im not particularly interested in social networking. However, even I can recognize that social networking is having a huge impact on the way employees hunt and employers hire. Im willing to bite the bullet and create profiles on both, but I want to keep it strictly professional. How do I do this without all my friends friending me on Facebook and following me on Twitter?Signed,Not quite a Luddite but practically thereA Luddite, Ill admit, I laughed a little when your question came in. Its good that youve recognized that if you want to play on the job market field in the 21st century, you have to get with the program (literally). If you want to keep your Facebook and Twitter accounts professional, I think you will have to create twoone to use for personal wall postings, messaging, and gift giving, and tweetingand another for employers. Your friends will look for you and they will friend you they are going to follow you on Twitter, too. If you want to keep your personal Facebook profile private, you can ensure that no one except those in your network can see it, in additional to several other settings. Good luckPosted by Sophie Friedman, Vault Web Content Intern

How to Use Soft Sales Techniques in a Job Interview

How to Use Soft Sales Techniques in a Job InterviewHow to Use Soft Sales Techniques in a Job InterviewInterviews are stressful. You know full well that most everything you say or do is being judged very closely. Make a mistake in one of your responses and your chances of getting the job are diminished. However, stressful an bewerbungsinterview can be, if you can end the interview by closing for the position, you will earn tremendous respect and demonstrate with a real-life example of your closing skills. Why Close? In addition to prospecting, building rapport and delivering presentations, sales professionals must be able to close deals. Without the ability to or resistance to closing sales, all the other skills are useless. Sales professionals main job is to convert prospects into customers. This process is done via the close of the sale. If interviewing for a sales job, you have a golden opportunity to show the decision-makers that you are willing and confident enough to close o n the job. Though your closing skills may be weak and in need of some training, your attempt to close will speak volumes and earn respect. When to Close Sales professionals live by a simple formula that is summarized by the letters ABC. ansicht stand for Always Be Closing. While this attitude of always closing can lead to being over-aggressive, remaining aware of closing opportunities is very important in sales. Same is true during an interview. While some interviewing experts suggest that you wait until the very end of the interview to close for the position, the better advice is to use trial or mini-closes throughout the interview. These mini-closes can be as simple as stating, Im sure that education and experience are important considerations for you during your decision process. A statement like this will elicit a response that will give you insight into how the interviewers feel about your education and experience. Based on their reply, you could use a trial close, like It seems that my experience is a good match for the position. What other factors are important to you? It not only helps you control the pace and direction of the interview but lets others know that you understand how to close a deal How Hard Should Try? Hard closing techniques are dangerous if misused. They sometimes convey desperation, over-confidence, and create a very stressful environment. Closing for a job takes a more delicate touch but needs to be firm and filled with certainty. Your close needs to convey one message You Want the Job If you feel that the position is above your current skill set, your closing attempt will reveal your hesitancy. Often, people who try to close hard are people not certain that they can deliver the results expected of the position. Instead of closing hard for the job, employ a more assumptive closing style. If you used mini-closes during the interview, you would have developed a good rapport with the interviewers, and both you and they will have either come to an agreement on your ability to fulfill the roles demands or will have identified some areas of potential concern. Either way, using mini-closes builds momentum and a basis for a final close. While the words you use need to be your own, an assumptive interview close could go something like, based on everything we talked about, it seems that I certainly meet the requirements that you have for this position. I think its obvious that I am interested in moving forward with you and would like to ask what you feel the next steps for me should be? This soft, assumptive-style close assumes that everyone is in agreement with your qualifications and asks for a next step. It assumes that you all agree that there should be the next step and, lastly, assumes that you should be asked to take the next step. If there is no interest in having you as an employee, you will find out as soon as you ask the final closing question. While this may be frustrating, it will allow you to fo cus on finding the right position for you. However, if you are considered a viable candidate, your willingness to close will probably put you on the top of the candidate list.