At some point every sales organization that engages in outbound prospecting has a debate over whether targeted sales voice messages make any real difference in results.

The primary complaints of those who don’t like using voice mail as a prospecting tool:

1. It doesn’t work
2. Even if it does work, it’s too time consuming.

I’m here to debunk both of these myths.

Myth #1: It doesn’t work.

The Reality: voice mail works, and it works well.

On any objective level, this complaint is a straw man argument. Inside sales industry insider Ken Krogue has created and nurtured two $1 million+ a month sales teams in two different industries—business development at Franklin-Covey (now Franklin-Qwest), and telecom with inContact, formerly UCN. Every piece of data he’s ever compiled from his teams shows that direct prospecting voice mail averages a 4-6 percent response rate –and it’s often much higher, depending on the product, vertical, and targets chosen . . . .

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The debate on leaving voicemails has been around as long as voicemail has been around. What is the answer to the following questions? Should I leave a voicemail? How often should I leave voicemails? How long is the optimal voicemail? How do voicemails respond compared to email? Should I leave a voicemail? Yes, in face…

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Wow, I wish I had seen this question earlier.  (I just read this question again in a LinkedIn Group I’m a part of, the Sales 2.0 group, and couldn’t do it justice as a mere comment!) Leaving a voicemail is one of the most underutilized of media and one of my favorites. For years the…

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