18 Leaving a Message

Chance favors the prepared mind.

—Louis Pasteur

A good thirty-second speech often will work practically intact

when you contact prospects by e-mail or fax. And if the

prospect doesn’t answer the phone, the speech becomes your

voicemail message.

The only really necessary modification is to the summary

and flip that follows the “what’s in it for me” (WIIFM) questions.

Instead of saying, “Before we talk about these . . . .” you

might say something like, “Do questions like these concern

you? Please contact me at ________.”

At the same time, however, we need to recognize what

we’re up against when we leave messages instead of speaking

to prospects directly. Sales messages that pile up in e-mail

boxes are called spam. Those that arrive via fax are called junk

faxes. Voicemail messages from salespeople are “telemarketing

calls.” Prospects regard them as a plague. They’re looking

for reasons to delete your message, not for reasons to return it.

And they have hair triggers.

Somehow your message has to cut through the clutter. It

has to make prospects pause and think before their fingers can

hit the “delete” key. In an e-mail, this applies not only to the

actual message but to the subject line as well. When you check

your e-mail and discover twenty or thirty messages, the first

thing you do is delete the ones that look like spam, right? The

people you’re trying to reach do the same thing.

Here are two quick techniques to help you leave messages

that will get read or listened to—and that might therefore generate

a response.

The YOU Headline

The benefit to prospecting by e-mail or voicemail instead of by

regular mail is speed. Most people check their snail mail once

a day, but they check their e-mail and voicemail ten to twenty

times a day.

But that speed is also our enemy because it prompts the

hair-trigger “delete” instinct. We need prospects to slow down

and hear what we have to say. To stop them in their tracks, use

the word you.

_ “Your phone was . . . .”

_ “You have said . . . .”

_ “Just read that you . . . .”

“Did I say that?” the prospect thinks. Or, “Oh, yeah, I did

say that, didn’t I.” Either way, we have made them stop and

think. That’s a good thing. Even better, we have asked them to

think about themselves, not about us. You is a much more

powerful tool than I.

TIP: Record the thirty-second speech you use for

cold calls via voicemail. You should hear the words

you or your two or three times more often than I or

me. You’ll be surprised how many times you unconsciously

use the word I. But the prospect hears

it every time, like fingernails on a chalkboard.

The Reference

As we said earlier, any time you can turn a cold call into a

warm call by referring to someone the prospect knows, do it.

This becomes doubly powerful in an e-mail or voicemail message.

The prospect’s old friend Fuzzy told you to call? Say so

immediately—in the subject line of your e-mail or the opening

of your voicemail message. The prospect’s finger will pause

over the “delete” key. A picture of Fuzzy forms in the

prospect’s mind. A sense of responsibility to Fuzzy is created.

“If I don’t call this guy back, I’m sort of betraying

good old Fuzzy. Besides, Fuzzy wouldn’t tell anyone

to call me unless he was OK.”

People the prospect knows make the best references. But

people you know, even if the prospect doesn’t, can be useful

as well.

People you know—your current customers, industry

leaders, the President of the United States—can lend you extra

credibility. The more impressive their names, the better:

“Mr. Smith, at a White House briefing last week, the president

singled out your company as an example of . . . .” Though you

don’t say it, what comes across to the prospect is, “Hi, Mr.

Smith, the president and I are calling to find out . . . .”

People they know make the best references because if you

and the prospect both know the same person, then you sort of

know each other.

What you say is: “Holly, I was talking to John Fuzzer the

other day, and he told me to contact you.”

What the prospect hears is: “Hi, Holly! Good old Fuzzy

called and said we should all get together at the bar tonight

and shoot the breeze, us being buddies and all.”

All right, maybe the prospect doesn’t hear quite that

much. But by making the association with Fuzzy you have put

yourself into the same club as the prospect and her friend.

If you’re sending an e-mail, put Fuzzy’s name in the subject

line. “Fuzzy asked me to contact you” or “Blame Fuzzy for

this message.” Guilt by association can be an ally.

Slow the Trigger Finger

The goal of both these techniques is to get prospects to slow

down or stop before they automatically hit the “delete” key. They have to do that before they can read or hear—and maybe

respond to—your message. Use these tools to get them out of

the fast lane of the speedway and onto a side street—if not into

your driveway. You’re competing with a lot of noise out there.

Sales are only made when the prospect takes the time to listen.

Chance favors the prepared mind.

—Louis Pasteur

A good thirty-second speech often will work practically intact

when you contact prospects by e-mail or fax. And if the

prospect doesn’t answer the phone, the speech becomes your

voicemail message.

The only really necessary modification is to the summary

and flip that follows the “what’s in it for me” (WIIFM) questions.

Instead of saying, “Before we talk about these . . . .” you

might say something like, “Do questions like these concern

you? Please contact me at ________.”

At the same time, however, we need to recognize what

we’re up against when we leave messages instead of speaking

to prospects directly. Sales messages that pile up in e-mail

boxes are called spam. Those that arrive via fax are called junk

faxes. Voicemail messages from salespeople are “telemarketing

calls.” Prospects regard them as a plague. They’re looking

for reasons to delete your message, not for reasons to return it.

And they have hair triggers.

Somehow your message has to cut through the clutter. It

has to make prospects pause and think before their fingers can

hit the “delete” key. In an e-mail, this applies not only to the

actual message but to the subject line as well. When you check

your e-mail and discover twenty or thirty messages, the first

thing you do is delete the ones that look like spam, right? The

people you’re trying to reach do the same thing.

Here are two quick techniques to help you leave messages

that will get read or listened to—and that might therefore generate

a response.

The YOU Headline

The benefit to prospecting by e-mail or voicemail instead of by

regular mail is speed. Most people check their snail mail once

a day, but they check their e-mail and voicemail ten to twenty

times a day.

But that speed is also our enemy because it prompts the

hair-trigger “delete” instinct. We need prospects to slow down

and hear what we have to say. To stop them in their tracks, use

the word you.

_ “Your phone was . . . .”

_ “You have said . . . .”

_ “Just read that you . . . .”

“Did I say that?” the prospect thinks. Or, “Oh, yeah, I did

say that, didn’t I.” Either way, we have made them stop and

think. That’s a good thing. Even better, we have asked them to

think about themselves, not about us. You is a much more

powerful tool than I.

TIP: Record the thirty-second speech you use for

cold calls via voicemail. You should hear the words

you or your two or three times more often than I or

me. You’ll be surprised how many times you unconsciously

use the word I. But the prospect hears

it every time, like fingernails on a chalkboard.

The Reference

As we said earlier, any time you can turn a cold call into a

warm call by referring to someone the prospect knows, do it.

This becomes doubly powerful in an e-mail or voicemail message.

The prospect’s old friend Fuzzy told you to call? Say so

immediately—in the subject line of your e-mail or the opening

of your voicemail message. The prospect’s finger will pause

over the “delete” key. A picture of Fuzzy forms in the

prospect’s mind. A sense of responsibility to Fuzzy is created.

“If I don’t call this guy back, I’m sort of betraying

good old Fuzzy. Besides, Fuzzy wouldn’t tell anyone

to call me unless he was OK.”

People the prospect knows make the best references. But

people you know, even if the prospect doesn’t, can be useful

as well.

People you know—your current customers, industry

leaders, the President of the United States—can lend you extra

credibility. The more impressive their names, the better:

“Mr. Smith, at a White House briefing last week, the president

singled out your company as an example of . . . .” Though you

don’t say it, what comes across to the prospect is, “Hi, Mr.

Smith, the president and I are calling to find out . . . .”

People they know make the best references because if you

and the prospect both know the same person, then you sort of

know each other.

What you say is: “Holly, I was talking to John Fuzzer the

other day, and he told me to contact you.”

What the prospect hears is: “Hi, Holly! Good old Fuzzy

called and said we should all get together at the bar tonight

and shoot the breeze, us being buddies and all.”

All right, maybe the prospect doesn’t hear quite that

much. But by making the association with Fuzzy you have put

yourself into the same club as the prospect and her friend.

If you’re sending an e-mail, put Fuzzy’s name in the subject

line. “Fuzzy asked me to contact you” or “Blame Fuzzy for

this message.” Guilt by association can be an ally.

Slow the Trigger Finger

The goal of both these techniques is to get prospects to slow

down or stop before they automatically hit the “delete” key. They have to do that before they can read or hear—and maybe

respond to—your message. Use these tools to get them out of

the fast lane of the speedway and onto a side street—if not into

your driveway. You’re competing with a lot of noise out there.

Sales are only made when the prospect takes the time to listen.