Ms Jill Konrath of Selling to Big Companies.com recently held a great tele-seminar on this important topic. (above) I would like to share a few key take-aways with my readers:

• Executives today are fiercely protective of their time. An interesting statistic: the average exec has 59 hours of work on his or her desk at any point in time.
• Meetings run all day, every day.
• The web enables any exec to research any company or offering. So he no longer needs to meet with salespeople to learn key facts.

Have you ever listened to voicemails from your salespeople? I’ve listened to thousands. Face it, nearly all salespeople are deadly dull and sound like this:

“Hi, Bob. This is Jeff from ABC Computing. We specialize in helping financial services firms grow profits by managing risk. Our risk-management products are the best in the industry according to Gartner and have won many other accolades.

I’m calling today to see if I can set a time to meet with you to learn your needs in the area of risk management. Please call me at (212) 435-5000.”

What’s wrong with it and why is it always deleted? It’s boring. It earned no points for preparation. It is not personalized, although a large financial services firm has a robust website today — so research can be done. Face it — today people listen to voicemails with a finger poised above the delete button. Same for emails.

How do we create enticing voicemails?

First, we need to look at what corporate decision-makers want. They are busy and lack perspective on what other firms are doing. They wish to talk to experts in their particular area. And they are tired of fighting fires — because they don’t have time to think, your ideas are important.

My goal is not to teach you how to do it, but rather to get the creative juices flowing.

Write it down!

Establish credibility
Reference referrals (use names of others in the company)
Reference research (what have you learned about them?)
Reference a triggering event (a promotion, an acquisition, etc.)
Pique their curiosity (not too much info!)
Communicate a specific value proposition (measurable results other have achieved.)
Share an insightful idea (how might you help?)
Dangle important information
Close confidently (“These savings could fall right to your bottom line!”

Here is an example that Jill used of a good voicemail:

Pat. Tom Terrific of Ditto Creative. I understand that a primary strategic initiative of your company in the coming year is to double sales of your private label products. We recently redesigned the beverage packing for one of our retail grocery clients. In just six months, sales of their store-branded beverages increased by 19% while sales profits in their juice section grew by 56%

These dollars are significant. Why don’t we get together to see if you can achieve similar results? My number is….”

Start writing out your voicemail messages. You will need at least three different ones. Review them and remove all wimpy words. Close strong. Practice them by leaving voicemails for yourself. But before your call, do extensive research and personalize each one.

It takes between 8 and 15 ‘touches’ to get a meeting with an executive. Plan out a strategy. Use voicemail, email, direct mail, webinars, case studies and more. Touch them every two weeks for three months. If you find a triggering event, touch them again.

Bottom line: Sales is different today. Deep thought, research and testing is needed to ensure our salespeople are well-armed to generate revenue.