Sales Training Classes:

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Sales Training Tips:

Sales Classes Tips For Voice Mail Messages

1. Slow Down

Many people leave phone messages as if they were talking to a live person, at the same speed. But it's not the same. Visual cues are absent, the listener may not know your speech patterns, familiar words and phrases are slurred or run together, and the listener can't interrupt to get clarification. And the electronics of the recording device may degrade voice quality.

Tip: When you leave a message on voice mail or answering machine, consciously slow down and pronounce words carefully. As my third grade teacher used to say, "Enunciate."

2. Repeat Your Phone Number

Many callers start by rattling off their name and phone number, then the body of the message, and they hang up. The problem is, as the message taker writes down your name, the phone number flies past. Now they have to replay the message from the beginning.

Tip: Always mention your phone number (or fax number or e-mail address) twice, both at the beginning and end of your message.

3. Set the Stage

Prepare the listener before you give a phone or fax number, an e-mail address, or any information you know they'll be writing down.

Tip: Just before you leave that kind of information, start with a lead-in: "My phone number is..." "Here's my e-mail address..." "Our company's address is..." Give the listener time to get mentally ready for what's about to follow.

4. Spell Your Name and Any Unusual Words

Unless you're John Smith or Mary Jones, spell your name after saying it. If your name is unusual (like mine) or foreign or hard to understand over the phone, it isn't enough to pronounce it clearly. You have to spell it for the listener. Also spell out the names of streets and cities. The same applies to company names. Most people know IBM and Microsoft, but you can't just rattle off a multi-part company name and expect it to be understood. Also, many Internet companies' names sound like Alice in Wonderland nonsense when you hear them for the first time. Pronounce names clearly and spell them out.

5. Take Your Accent into Account

LA is a polyglot city, a city of many languages, and many of us speak English with a foreign accent. Accented speech can be hard enough to understand face to face. Over the phone, and filtered through an answering medium, it can be impossible to understand. Accent can even be a problem when you leave a message for someone in a part of the country with a regional speech pattern, like parts of the South or New England.

Tip: If you speak English with an accent, speak extra slowly and carefully when leaving a phone message.

6. Avoid Phone Tag

You call and I'm out. I call you back but you're out. On and on it goes. Phone tag!

Tip: Using e-mail can eliminate the problem altogether, but if you must speak person to person, don't just ask someone to call you. Include in your message a specific time when you'll definitely be in.

7. Say Who the Message is For

A voice mail system may serve more than one person in the same office. Be sure to mention who your message is for. Don't make some poor secretary go from office to office asking, "Is this message for you? Is this message for you?"

8. Plan Ahead

Some people, when a machine comes on, freeze like a deer in the headlights, as if they never thought they might get a machine. Then they try to wing it and make up a message off the top of their head. The result is often incomplete and confusing.

Tip: Before you dial your next business call, ask yourself... "What will I say if I get a machine?" Then jot down the key points. Armed with this mini-script, you'll be poised and efficient as you leave your message.

9. Keep it Simple and to the Point

Some phone messages go on and on and on, and the poor message taker is forced to listen to all of it.

Tip: A business message is not the place for free associating or personal chitchat. Stick to business and state your point in as few words as possible.

10. Make a Mistake?

If you misspeak some part of your message, don't just correct yourself on the fly, as you might if you were talking face to face. Start that part of the message over again and repeat it correctly. Don't Say: My address is 786 Southwest-I-mean-east Madison Avenue. Say: My address is 786 Southwest.... Sorry, the correct address is 786 Southeast Madison Avenue.

11. Use a Different Medium for Complex Messages

Try not to leave complicated messages on an answering machine or voice mail. Use a more suitable medium like e-mail, a letter, a phone call, or a face-to-face meeting.

12. Tell Callers How Much Time They Have

And last, a tip directed to the owners of office voice mail and answering machines. There's nothing more frustrating than being cut off in mid-sentence by that damned beep. It means the person has to call back to leave the rest of the message.

Tip: In your greeting message, tell the caller how much time they have. Is it 30 seconds, a minute? Can they leave a message of any length? Isn't that a reasonable business courtesy?

Now, why not tear out this checklist and send a copy to coworkers, staff, and friends. If we all polish our message leaving skills, the wheels of business will turn a little more smoothly.

Source: Stan Fine, PhD link

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