January 2009 Issue
Let It Shine!
by MJ Durkin
Networking Trainers Article
To Leave or Not Leave a Voice Mail - That Is the Question
by MJ Durkin
Voice mail and caller ID have changed the landscape of telephone prospecting forever. It is not uncommon for a networker to make two dozen calls over a two hour time period and not reach even one person live. It is the world we live in now and the networkers who will take the time to learn the skills of leaving voice mail messages that get return calls will be the ones who succeed in the next several years.
Traditional sales training espoused the caveat that if you received someones voice mail that you should not leave a message - you should wait until the prospect answered the phone live! It is vital for you to realize that this is advice that was given in the 1970s and 80s when telephones were still attached to the wall by coaxial cable! This is outdated advice that does not work in todays Pentium-like environment. If you have the ability to sit at a phone all day long, every day and call your prospects at different time intervals you will eventually be able to reach them live. Most networkers do not have the luxury (or the tragedy) of having that kind of time to call that consistently. So the 21st century answer to the question of whether or not to leave a voice mail is this: always leave a voice mail every time you call. Yes, every time you call!
Todays prospect listens to their...
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