Voice Mail and Its Discontents: "Please, Uhh, Leave Me, Mmm, a Message...OK?"
Tom Boogher, CPSM, and Richard Cilley, CPSM
How many times have you made a cold call hoping to talk to a prospective client about an upcoming project only to confront a dispirited, disembodied voice saying something like, "Uhh, well, this is Joe Shmoe and I...uhh, I can't take your call right now. Please, uhh, leave me a message, mmm, at the beep, uhh, yeah, and I'll get back to you...OK? (Long pause) Clunk. Beeeep."

Oh, well, you think, Joe doesn't sound too good. You leave your name and number and a message for Joe but you've got a bad feeling about that return call. You leave a message every two days for a week, and Joe fulfils your worst expectations and never returns any of your calls. You finally realize your callback probably will come two days after hell freezes over so that Joe can finally walk across the ice to get to the phone.

Voice mail is here to stay. Like e-mail, it has become an indispensable staple in the world of business communications. The recorded human voice can add a great dimension to our communications. But it is astounding how many times voice mail messages get no response these days. The misuse and abuse of voice mail has become so common that breaking through the voice mail barrier to actually speak to some prospects is becoming increasingly difficult. Screening calls, which once upon a time was seen as rude and manipulative, is now considered routine using voice mail systems.

It's so refreshing when we reach a person directly on the first call that we are sometimes taken aback. Whether you are dealing with voice mail on people's office phones or cell phones, the same indifference and rudeness seem to apply for at least a significant minority of people. Everyone should keep in mind your firm's phone presence, like the van driver for the rental car company, is the first contact point you have with your clients and your supporters. From a sales perspective, the experience clients have with your firm on the phone says a lot to everyone about how you will handle their business.

However, when confronted by voice mail as a barrier to business development, there is one obvious tactic that you can employ: Leave such organized and interesting messages that people feel motivated to return your call. In turn, look to your own phone systems: Are you doing the same things you resent from others with your own voice mail system?

The Messages That Get Returned
When you check your own voice mail, and you get an organized, understandable message from a confident voice with good contact information, your motivation to return it moves way up. Think of the voice mail messages you leave as your introduction to that potential client. The best way to present yourself is to be organized, confident, rational, and to ask for what you want whether you are talking to a prospect in person or through a voice mail. When you plan your phone call, always take into account the possibility the person with won't be there and your first sale is to get them to return your call.

1. Planning ahead is key. The first thing to do is what you should do before any important call:

a) glean some information ahead of time about the potential client
b) think about the impression you want to create
c) identify what you want to result from this call.

Write down a sentence that expresses what you want to happen:

"Objective: To set up an appointment to discuss the criteria the owner will use to select an architect and engineers for the new office building project."

"Objective: To discover the decision-makers and decision-influencers at the Public Works Department for the new County Stadium project."

If you do reach an operator who asks you the purpose of your call, instead of stumbling around, have a well-thought-out answer handy: "I'm calling Mr. Schmoe to see if we can help him with the County Stadium project."

The object of many prospect calls is to set up an appointment to meet and discuss the project in which you are interested, so suggest a tentative date and time: "I would like to meet with you on Thursday afternoon after two o'clock at your office in Pasadena."

If you have any hesitation at all, write down your thoughts and keep them in front of you while you make the call.
 
2. Listen carefully to the outgoing message. Note if the person is traveling, if they state a time they will be available to return messages, if they are on vacation, or if they offer an alternate number for contact, such as a cell phone, or a colleague for direct contact. Obviously, if Mr. Schmoe's message says he's going to be out until next Monday, then don't suggest a Thursday meeting.

3. Leave good contact information and be brief. Since many voice mail systems limit the length of messages, first leave your name, number, and any special times you can be reached to be sure that vital information is recorded.

4. Warm up the call. After your name and numbers, leave an introductory sentence to warm up the call a bit. You may know, however peripherally, some one at the company, or be familiar with a current project, or simply admire a project with which the firm was involved recently.

"I've worked with Ron Macher in County Public Works and been very impressed with the help he gave us."

"The new Collier Middle School is a wonderful project, and I look forward to discussing the challenges you faced there."

The internet is a great source of such information and a good pre-call plan should have turned up relevant information you can use to personalize the message.

5. Ask for the specific action you want from the call. An appointment at a certain time and place, some specific information, whatever it is. Ask for the result you want. Don't be afraid to repeat your name and contact number at the end of the message. If you have an unusual name, be sure to spell it as well.

6. Be confident. When you leave your message, don't be timid or assume the person will ignore the message. Convey confidence and speak slowly and distinctly in a loud tone so even poor sound recording equipment can preserve your message clearly. Some people make prospect calls standing up to project a strong, confident energy level while making that first impression.

7. Be patient but persistent. We are all busy people and even the most conscientious of us occasionally have difficulty returning a phone message within 24 hours, especially when we are on the road. If you don't get a return call in two days, try again. Many times, the second call will elicit an apologetic call from the more responsible folks. The murky world of the third, fourth, and succeeding calls often signals that this person has made a decision not respond to you or that you are trying to reach the wrong person. If you are sure you are headed in the right direction, make those calls on the principle that persistence sometimes pay off. If you are unfailingly courteous and confident, the chance of getting some results goes up.

Physician, Heal Thyself
Let's look at how the firms you do business with are using this vital interface with the outside world.

The Worst Scenario: You call in and an automated voice gives you a bewildering number of seemingly contradictory and irrelevant choices and NO OPPORTUNITY TO GET TO A HUMAN. You punch '0' for the operator and merely get sent to the "Employee Directory" with no way to get beyond the machine.

The Employee Directory option promising to lead you to the extension of the person you want to call is your only hope, Obi-Wan, and so you do what the directory option suggests: You punch in the last name of the person you're looking for—Rachel Van Deventer—but you're not sure whether you should include the 'Van' or not. So you punch in the name with the 'Van,' and you are whisked not to Rachel's voice mail but to John Vandegriff's voice mail.
 
So you hang up and call again. You try punching in Rachel's name without the 'Van' and the directory refuses to find anyone with such a name. You try a third version, with a space from the # key, and this works! You finally get Rachel Van Deventer's outgoing message. You are poised to make your pitch—and suddenly there is a series of beeps followed by, "Voice mail box is full. Thank you for calling. (Click)" There's no appeal and no hope.

At this point, if you're like us, you're seething with frustration. We've all been here before, wasting time bouncing around in virtual voice mail hell searching for some way to contact a real person. If we were clients, we'd be even more steamed because then we would be PAYING for the privilege of being abused. Rest assured, clients aren't any more enthralled at this experience than we are.

A Better Scenario: You call in and the automated voice gives you a great array of options and one of them is to dial '0' to get a human operator. The downside of this scenario is that sometimes you punch '0' and wait through what seems like 300 rings and that operator STILL doesn't pick up your call. Or the operator answers in a blurt, "TheStoneCompanypleaseholdforonemoment," while punching the hold button. Then you hold, and you hold, and you hold. Sometimes there is strange, cheesy, or boring hold-music selections between the automated announcements asking you to wait just a little longer.

When the operator does answer, be ready to ask whether the person you are trying to reach is in the office or out traveling, and to try to get their e-mail address. Many operators refuse to give out such information, but you can always try. Also, if the operator does allow you to leave a humanly transcribed message, you should take the opportunity. The operator may still just route you back to voice mail but at least you can touch base with a human in that office. When you do your own voice mail audit, be on the lookout for these traps.

The Best Scenario: You call in and a human operator answers, "The Optima Corporation, may I help you?" You ask for Mr. Schmoe, and the operator whisks your call to his desk. If he is in a meeting, the operator says so and gives you a choice whether to leave a physical message at the main desk, to be connected with Mr. Schmoe's assistant, or to go to Mr. Schmoe's voice mail. If Mr. Schoe is traveling, the operator tells you he is out of the office for a set period and again offers several options: physical message, assistant, or voice mail. If Mr. Schmoe is no longer with Optima, that fact is given along with an offer to connect you to Mr. Schmoe's replacement. It doesn't get any better than this.

A Self-Audit for Quality Service
Now, call yourself up and see where your firm's system fits on the spectrum. Be honest. How does accessing your voice mail system make you feel? How clear and unambiguous is your own outgoing voice mail message? Remember the Golden Rule: Are you treating your clients, employees, and vendors the way you would want to be treated?

Ask yourself: How far short of the best scenario does my company's voice mail system fall in serving my clients and my collaborators? What do we need to do to improve the experiences people are having in communicating with our firm?

It takes great communications to support a great sales effort. If you are not satisfied, start making changes today. Make your own messages as clear as possible and start agitating to clear up your firm's system so you can take a step toward improving your firm's behavior and giving your clients the first-class service experience they deserve.

About the Authors Richard Cilley, CPSM, is CEO of Transcendent Consultants (www.transcendentconsultants.com), and Tom Boogher, CPSM, is Executive Vice President of Professional Service Industries, Inc. (www.psiusa.com). Richard and Tom have a combined 50-plus years of experience in marketing and sales within the A/E/C industry.

Hosted by SMPS' Business Development Institute, this column provides tips, best practices, and suggestions on how to excel at sales and client development. Remember that nothing happens in business until you make a sale! The Business Development Institute is a Specific Interest Group of SMPS with the goal to promote, inform, and educate the A/E/C industry on the importance of sales and the necessity for business development best practices.

Your comments, feedback, suggestions and questions are encouraged. Please drop either editor an e-mail with any input. You can reach Tom Boogher at tom.boogher@psiusa.com or Richard Cilley at rcc@transcendentconsultants.com. [ return to top ]