I get sales calls daily for every media and marketing company imaginable.  I am always amazed at how ineffective many of the sales people are when leaving messages.  Most people ramble on as if I care or have time to listen to a full sales pitch on a voice message.  A few just leave a name and number as if that will interest me to call them back.  I know it is bad form not to return calls.

Selling over the phone and leaving someone a voice message is marketing your business.  Take the same  time and effort you would use to write a great direct response newspaper ad, direct mail letter or email marketing message to craft a great voice message.

Here are some points to think about if you are  going to leave a sales voice mail message.  Implementing some of these ideas might improve your response rate.

• Sound interested in helping me and catch my attention (think headline, subject line)
• Show some excitement about what you are offering
• Give me something of interest or a reason to call you back (think offer or hooks)
• Leave me a way to get back in touch - yes people either don't leave a number or read it off so fast that you can barely catch the number.  Would it be too much to ask for you to repeat the number if we never spoke before?
• Don't leave me a message about how great your company is and go on and on for more then a minute
• Assume I know about my brand and company - I always laugh when people tell me about my company or repeat info from our site or marketing material
• And if you don't get a call back it is not personal but that doesn't mean I want you to call me every week until you catch me at my desk

I don't mean to pick on sales people.  It is a difficult job but remember your target audience has a job they need to do too.  So before you leave your next voice mail message remember you are marketing yourself at the same time.

What else can sales people do to improve their sales and marketing messages when leaving a voice mail?