Ringless Voicemail to Improve Sales
Business owners in many industries have an erroneous belief that if a salesperson delivers a sales presentation once and a prospect doesn’t buy right there and then, the prospect will not buy from the salesperson ever again. The logic behind that belief is that if the prospect didn’t buy after the salesperson “made his or her best shot,” then nothing else will work.
In reality, for a sale to happen, three things need to happen at the same time. First, the prospect must have the money or an option to apply for credit. Second, the prospect must have a need or a want. Third, there needs to be a reason to buy now.
This means that the prospect may be interested, for example, in buying a car (have a need and or/a want), and have a reason to buy a car now. For instance, his or her car may have broken down, but the prospect will not have enough funds until the next month. Because of this, he or she will not buy right now even if the sales presentation is absolutely perfect.
Multiple studies in various industries show that a significant percentage of sales happens several weeks after the initial contact. Some people need to “sleep on it” before they can make a decision. Others may be doing a research and not be ready to buy. Yet others may not have funds available but will have money for the purchase in the near future.
For example, according to a study by Joe Verde Group, 38% of people that visit the first dealership buy a car within 4 hours, yet 78% of all people buy a car somewhere. This means that most of the people that walk out of a dealership without buying will buy a car somewhere in the near future. Because of this, one of the best ways to increase ROI on your marketing is to build a better follow up system.
Lead Nurturing and Follow-up
If you currently have no follow up or a poor follow up system, you are leaving a lot of money on the table.
When following up, it is better to use various kinds of media because different people prefer different communication channels. Someone may not read an email, but will respond to an invitation delivered by regular mail.
Speaking to someone on the phone and contacting prospects by phone remains one of the most effective ways to follow up, yet calling prospects has disadvantages. People may choose to avoid talking to a salesperson because they may feel pressured to buy. They may also be too busy to answer their phones. This is where ringless voicemail comes to help.
Ringless voicemail is a fairly new technology that allows you to create a voicemail, upload it to a server of a voicemail service provider and send it to multiple cell phone numbers. The voicemail service then contacts the business landline of the prospect’s or client’s cellular phone service provider and delivers the message via the landline.
The provider of the phone service then locates the customer’s space on the server, delivers the message to the voicemail mailbox and sends a notification to the customer. Because there is no phone call, and no interruptions, ringless voicemail is not regulated by the same laws that regulate cold calling and the practice is not illegal.
RIngless Voicemail is a Scalalbe Volume Play
One of the biggest benefits of ringless voicemail to marketers is that it is as scalable as email or other types of marketing messages. You can record a ringless voicemail message once and then use it again and again.
The best approach to follow up is to create sequences based on different prospect and customer behavior and events in your business. Ideally, you want to have triggers for different kinds of behavior and events. For example, a prospect requesting more information about your products or services could be one of such events. A customer that comes for an appointment and buys from you is another event that could trigger the deployment of a funnel. You could also have follow up sequences to respond to appointment no-shows and follow up after appointments when you made no sales.
Ringless voicemail could be an effective part of all these campaigns. What’s more, it is also a very useful reminder tool that you can use to remind your prospects and customers about their appointments and service dates. For example, you could record a ringless voicemail that tells people that you are calling to remind them about an appointment that is coming tomorrow or, say, next week. If you do not specify the exact date, you can be using this same ringless voicemail message again and again all year round. If you prefer to do it weekly, you could send a ringless voicemail on Friday with a reminder about appointments that are coming next week. If last-day reminders are effective in your business, you could be sending them the day before with a reminder about “tomorrow.”
Contact Existing Customers
In addition to being a reminder tool and a sales tool, ringless voicemail can also be a great way to contact your existing customers, especially your new customers. Before people buy anything, they often wonder about what happens after they made a purchasing decision. They are used to hearing sales pitches with promises before a sale. What happens very rarely is follow up after the sale, yet this kind of follow up is not any less important because people often have post-sale doubts about the correctness of their buying decision. This is where ringless voicemail can help immensely and you know that it will be welcome and appreciated. When welcoming new customers, start with thanking them and then re-sell them on their buying decision. A great way to start the re-sell is to say “you’ve made a great decision because…” In your ringless voicemail you can also talk about most common issues buyers of your products or services may experience after making a purchase.
If you have something else to sell to the same customer, this would also be a great place to do so because a buyer is a buyer is a buyer. Many businesses spend too much time trying to get new customers when they can be making ample sales to existing customers. For example, it is much easier to sell another car to a person who has three cars in the garage already and an empty fourth spot than to a person who has never had a car before and has a lot of fears and doubts about owning a car.
To buy, people need to be in a certain emotional state. It often takes time for people to get into an emotional state, but leaving the state also doesn’t happen instantaneously, which is why upsells work so well in many businesses. Ringless voicemail can be a great tool you can use to capitalize on this and other opportunities in your business.
