How Can Businesses Improve Outreach Without Making More Sales Calls?

You can make fifty calls, have a handful of worthwhile conversations, and still spend most of your day listening to beeps, saying “hello” into dead air, or hearing the sound of endless “your call cannot be completed as dialed” recordings. That‘s where ringless voicemail drops can change the game. Instead of calling a customer and waiting for them to answer, companies can now send them a message in the form of a pre-recorded voicemail that is delivered directly into a person‘s voiceless box where enabled by the system and adherent to the rules. 

It changes the game because now the sales rep isn‘t spending every minute trying to get someone on the line. If the goal isn‘t to take the place of a real call -- and it shouldn‘t be-- the goal is to streamline that initial step, and give prospects an easy way to hear who‘s calling and why. For companies with large outreach efforts, that one small change can add up to an incredible amount of time saved. And let‘s be honest, that‘s what sales reps are always running short on.

Why are ringless voicemail drops effective for sales teams?

Traditional cold calling requires a lot of work before any positive results are obtained. The telemarketer enters the number, hang on for a while, hears a recorded greeting, and then either talks or leaves a message. Multiply that by hundreds of calls, and the dialer is wasting a lot of time on minutiae. Ringless voicemail drops take a slightly different approach for the audio portion. 

A company can gather a message, determine the target demographic, and then utilize a platform to place a message into accessible voicemail systems without the interruption of an active call. This can be effective for follow-up care, appointment notices, new sales contacts, customer notifications, and other types of business-to-business or consumer-to-business communications. 

The main thing to recognize is how the message is crafted. A lengthy sales pitch generally is not effective. Since people are busy, you want to explain who you are, why you are reaching out, and where you want them to go. A brief, realistic, professional message that makes the listener feel like this is a valuable service can do the trick. It is nothing more than utilizing the voicemail in a more targeted way.

How does voicemail drop software central to your process?

Most of the campaign technology runs on a voicemail drop system that gives marketers a place to house all of their campaigns and manage their messages. Nothing is more boring than having to directly send a message to each individual contact. By using a dropship system you can upload the actual voicemail recording, build your campaign, perform contact management, schedule campaigns, and track the campaign‘s effectiveness (dependent on platform). This where automation really shines. 

Think about a sales rep who is trying to get in touch with several hundred leads. Sending a personal voicemail to each of these people would be mind numbing and prone to error. Automation could be used to take care of that and free the sales rep up to have more meaningful conversations with real prospects. Good platforms will also have campaign reporting, contact management, integrations, and controls to manage multiple outreach campaigns. However you shouldn‘t just pick a platform because it has a ton of features. 

Without a doubt that‘s how you end up paying for ten features you never use. Pick a platform with straightforward usability, consistent message delivery, reporting, and controls.

How Might Automated Voicemail Outreach Facilitate Follow-Ups?

Follow-up is the stage where many sales now quietly die. A lead might be interested today but not in a position to speak right now. An agent might email the lead, plan a cold call tomorrow, find this was forgotten the next, then three weeks go by. Automated calling voicemail can enable a company to stay rather more steady. Rather than completely relying on a person to remember to follow up, a well-run campaign can enable calls to consistently continue. 

This does not mean spamming a client. No one wants that. An effective follow-up should be more of a message than a buzz. Perhaps the client will have asked for extra details. Perhaps he will previously have spoken to the sales team. Perhaps there is an upcoming appointment. Whatever the case, the message should be more quite relevant. Further, a little personalization could go a long way. Even something as easy as relevant information or the caller‘s name will make a sales voicemail seem more operational than a bulk message. Some companies will pair outbound calling voicemail with SMS, email, CRM sending, and person-to-person calling too. That can set up a broader operation instead of just straining a single channel. Usually, the best campaigns aren‘t that much about doing more. They are more about having each one make more sense.

What questions should I be asking about a platform for a voicemail campaign?

When selecting a voicemail platform, It is important to think about more than simply finding the cheapest solution. Business need to identify what they require from the system. A small sales team may only require simple campaign management and reporting. Larger companies will require CRM integration, multiple campaigns, permissions, reporting, scheduling, and stronger administrative controls. 

Recording quality is also important; a rushed, muffled, or spoonered voice can be far more damaging than just a normal sounding message. Campaigns need to be user friendly enough that no training manual is needed right next to the operator while working. Another important factor is compliance; automated messaging is not a technology to take lightly. 

Rules that apply to calls, voice-mail messages, consent, customer communications, and automated marketing can vary by jurisdiction, message category, receiver, or circumstance. Businesses need to read the laws that apply to them and implement consent, suppression, and opt-out mechanisms as necessary. The right platform can have useful controls in place, but software alone will never make a campaign within the law.

How do Companies Capture Employee/Agent Attention through Voicemail Messages?

A campaign can succeed or fail on the strength of the message alone. You can have savvy use of technology and a well-maintained contact file but if your voice mail sounds like it‘s being spoken by a drone, people will delete before they listen. The first thing to work on is the opening. State who you are and what organization you‘re calling from, then quickly describe why you are calling them. Don‘t give them your entire company‘s back-story, no one asked for it. 

Typically a good voice mail has one purpose. Perhaps you want them to call you back, or read an e-mail or follow up to something. Have a single goal for the voice mail and assume the recipient will perform one next action. Dial tone can also influence the effectiveness of your campaign. Aim to speak at a natural and conversational pace, pausing appropriately between ideas. If you are reaching very disparate groups, it may be wise to develop multiple messages. A message greeting a long-standing customer should sound different from a pitch for a new prospect. Run tests along those lines to see what works better; you might be surprised. The version you spend the most time writing may not be the winner. Testing will reveal your secret weapon.

Why Combining Voicemail With Human Sales Follow-Up Works

The inclination of the sales technology world to mention automation as if the ultimate aim is to remove people entirely is not necessarily that wise. There are still things in sales that come down to trust, questions, timing and judgment. Ringless voicemail drops can take care of an initial outreach step, but a human sales professional can pick it up for an answer or interested response. 

That sort of hybrid can be very useful. An initial voicemail allows the customer to learn a little about that company without feeling the pressure of speaking to someone immediately. If they do want to get in touch there is always a response. And it potentially can make the reps more effective because they are not constantly spending all day leaving the same messages. 

Instead they can go after those prospects that have responded to an initial message. That same approach applies on the customer service and account management side of things. Automated voicemail can take care of particular informational updates, while staff can better address the difficult customer situations. The technology becomes a useful assistant rather than an end in itself. And that differentiates. 

Companies who believe automating something will address their lack of a decent offer, weak audience selection or call to action are probably going to be disappointed. Technology can‘t make a poor process good, only better.

Which Outcomes Should Companies Measure from Using Voicemail to Promote Their Offerings?

As a business begins to use voicemail automation, they want to know that they are getting results for their investment. More voicemails sent is not the same thing as results achieved. Campaign reporting will tell a business what is happening with responses once the messages are sent. 

Key metrics can include delivery activity, response activity, callbacks, conversions and/or campaign activity on the account level depending on the platform being used. The advertiser can compare apples to apples in business results since different campaigns and customer lists can be compared. One campaign may get a lot of callbacks, but few qualified opportunities. A second campaign may get less responses, but higher quality leads. Evaluating volume alone would miss this difference. 

Tracking the entire customer journey will tell the full story. It may also be worthwhile to look at complaints, opt-outs and negative responses which indicate when an automated campaign is being overdone and the audience is being poorly targeted. The key to successful voicemail campaigns is quality, not necessarily the sheer volume of responses. Smaller campaigns that are highly targeted will often out-perform larger campaigns with less focused targeting. That‘s common sense and is often overlooked.

Conclusion: Smarter Voicemail Outreach Starts With Better Communication

Modern sales teams do not have to make more calls. They have to make better use of the calls, mails and other touches they have to make already. Ringless voicemails can offer them another touch point to a prospect or customer and take some of the drudgery out of classic voicemail drop software . 

Used with good ringless voicemail drop software, right messaging, targeted selectivity, human follow up and compliance you can build a strategy around this can be very effective. Don’t let the technology be the strategy. You need a reason for the message, relevance for the prospect, and when the reps need to stop pushing out and start talking to someone. 

This is the balancing act that makes this a good, profitable addition to your outreach mix. Done well it can make you more efficient without distilling your efforts into a bottomless void. And that can be very valuable for an overworked sales team.

FAQs 

What is a ringless voicemail drop?

Ringless voicemail drops, or RVM drops, are a way of delivering voicemails that will deliver a pre-recorded message directly to an enabled recipient‘s voicemail box with no ringing, if supported. Availability and legality may vary depending on the technology and legislation.

What is the functionality of voicemail drop software?

Voicemail drop software – Used by businesses to orchestrate automated voicemail messaging. May include features for recording messages, managing contacts, organizing campaigns, scheduling, delivery controls, reporting, and integrations with other business applications.

Do ringless voicemails work?

They can be a very useful tool for sales teams given a responsible use of the technology. Best to be used as part of a wider outreach approach where a voicemail is used as an introduction or reinforcement to a human contact rather than an indirect replacement.

Can companies personalize a prerecorded voice message?

Sure. Businesses can have different messages for different stakeholders, campaigns, stages of customers and follow up situations. The message should not be lost in the process of personalizing, and should not be used as an excuse for over-communicating.

Is the voicemail software is right for small business?

It is. Small business could see reduction of repetitive outreach for the limited number of sales people in the business. The appropriate solution should consider the size of the campaign, the workflow, budget, integrations and compliance issues.

Hypothesis 3: Does the use of automated voice mail eliminate the need for cold calling?

Not really, and any business that considers it as such should rethink this. Automated voicemail may help auto-dialing to manage the drudgery of outreach, but live conversations will still be essential in the case of questions, objections, and real desire to buy.