3 Tactics For Getting Past Voicemail and Reaching More Decision-Makers

Are your marketing and recruiting efforts being thwarted by voicemail?

Recruiters are finding it increasingly difficult to reach prospects by telephone. Some clients and candidates seem to leave their voicemail on permanently! Here are three tried and tested tactics to get past voicemail and have more conversations with decision makers.

1. Don’t leave a message until you’ve called at least 3 times.

Leaving a voicemail message should be a method of last resort. It’s preferable to simply keep calling back because then you retain control of the process. Once you leave a message, the ball is in their court and they may not call you back. Or worse, they may avoid your calls in the future! So try calling back several times at different times of day before leaving a message.

2. Don’t hang up too soon!

Upon reaching voicemail, don’t hang up. Listen carefully to the message for important information – such as your prospect’s mobile phone number, and clues about their communication style.

Then hit “0” to go back to reception and see if you can locate the person you want to contact, or at least gain more information. Say: “Can you please help me? I’m trying to reach Bob, but I keep getting his voicemail. Do you happen to know if he’s in the office today and if not when he’s due back?”

• If Bob’s on holiday, find out when he’ll be back. Set a reminder to call him back 2 days after he returns, and make a note to ask him about his holiday.
• If Bob’s in a meeting, find out when it’s due to finish. Assuming the meeting finishes at 4pm, you would leave this message: “Please tell him that Mark Whitby called and I’ll try him again after 4pm.” Decline to leave your telephone number. Then when you call back, if you’re asked what the call is regarding you can say “He’s expecting my call.”
• If Bob’s stepped away from his desk, ask for him to be paged. (Provided you’ve got a valid reason for calling and a strong call opening for when Bob finally comes to the phone!)
• If Bob’s working remotely ask for his mobile phone number. You might only get it 10-20% of the time, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get!
• If the receptionist doesn’t know Bob’s whereabouts, ask to be put through to somebody else in Bob’s department who might know where he is.

Think about it this way. How important is it that you speak to Bob? If you have something that could benefit Bob, surely that’s important enough that you should make every reasonable effort to contact him. If you don’t really consider this to be an important call, then you probably shouldn’t be calling him in the first place!

3. Do use a script – but don’t give a sales pitch

Don’t wait until the “beep” to think of what you want to say! You’ve got one shot to nail this so have your voicemail script ready before you place the call.

Having said that, don’t promote the voicemail box to the role of sales representative. Your message should have only one objective – to get a return call. Curiosity is a powerful motivator and you’re more likely to get a call back if you don’t leave a detailed message. For example:

“Hi Bob, this is Mark Whitby calling at 10.30 on Friday. Please call me when you get this message on 0131 664 8064. I look forward to hearing from you.”

“Hi Bob, this is Mark Whitby. I have reason to believe you might be able to help me with a project I’m working on and I’d like to ask you a couple of quick questions. Please call me back on 0131 664 8064.

You want to create a sense of intrigue. If you tell them everything they need to know (“I’m a recruiter and I’ve got an opportunity that might be of interest to you”) then they have no reason to call you back.

The voicemail “game” is not one of pure chance. Winning this game involves a combination of both luck and skill. You can’t control when your prospects schedule meetings or take their lunch. However by adopting the right mindset, and refining your technique, you can significantly improve your odds of success.
See more at: http://www.recruitmentcoach.com/

How to Increase Your Sales Activity

Do you ever procrastinate when it comes to prospecting? I know I certainly do. It’s human nature to avoid tasks that we find uncomfortable.

Yet most recruiters would agree that developing new business is absolutely essential for success in recruitment, especially in the current climate. So how can we get ourselves to pick up the phone and make those marketing calls consistently, instead of waiting until we’re in the mood (which is never)?

The solution is to make prospecting part of your daily routine; something you do habitually, without hesitation.

The Power of a Standing Appointment

Cold calling is like going to the gym — short-term pain for long term gain! I find that the longer it’s been since my last workout, the harder it is to get back into the gym. On the other hand, when you’re in the habit of exercising regularly, the whole process feels natural and even enjoyable.

The key is sticking to a routine — exercising at the same time, on the same days, every week. Many people prefer to exercise in the morning, because they start the day feeling great and there’s less chance of skipping their workout if they get “too busy” later!

Similarly, we can defeat procrastination by setting a “standing appointment” for telephone selling. In other words, set yourself specific time slots for making business development calls. By locking those core calling times into your diary, you remove the decision of “if/when” to call and are therefore less prone to procrastination.

10 before 10:00

Here’s a simple, yet effective formula that has worked well for me and my coaching clients. It’s called “10 before 10:00″ and here’s how it works…

1. Set yourself the goal of reaching 10 prospects before 10:00am every single day.
2. Schedule this activity in your calendar as a recurring appointment.
3. Start dialling at 8.30am (or 9:00am at the latest) and stay on the phone until you reach 10 prospects or until you get a qualified job order.
4. The only calls that count are conversations with decision-makers. Voicemail messages don’t count!
5. Remove all distractions. Turn off your email and screen your mobile phone calls mercilessly. Unless the call is critical for closing a deal, let it go to voicemail.
6. Don’t replace the handset between calls, just disconnect and dial the next number. Keep up the intensity! Don’t update your database in-between calls, learn to type and talk at the same time. And save sending follow-up emails until you’ve finished all your calls.
7. You’ll need to plan your calls the night before, and have the names and numbers of 25-30 prospects to phone because you’ll only reach 30-40% of the people on your list.
8. Start with your hottest leads (companies that are currently hiring) and/or MPC calls (selling-in your “most placeable candidates”). Then move to call-backs and cold-calls.
9. Don’t just go through the motions — give every call your full effort.

Of course, if your market is extremely candidate-driven, and you’re lucky enough to have more job orders than you can handle, then you can adapt the “10 before 10:00am” formula and make recruiting calls instead.

Imagine how fantastic you’ll feel knowing that by 10:00am you’ve already achieved so much! This simple little idea of “10 before 10:00″ has helped me enormously in my own business. I challenge you to try it for yourself starting today and judge the results for yourself. If you stick to it for the next 2-3 weeks, I’m confident that you’ll experience a big boost in productivity and motivation.

For More Info: http://www.recruitmentcoach.com