So I decided to use my voicemail different, what I’ve decided to do is what most business owners would “NEVER” do… And that’s update my voicemail each and “EVERY” day without fail.

What’s the point of spending a few minutes each night updating my voicemail you might ask, well for starters it shows that you’re on the ball and have a fresh message each day, so that is very refreshing for people to hear, especially those who contact you all the time. It also shows that you’re around and that you’re business is bubbling away nicely (sort of like blogging, if you go to a blog post and see the last post was 2 years ago, sort of makes you leave very quickly as there is now life on that blog).

So what I do each night before bed with my voicemail is, call in and state they’ve reached me and my company and the day, date and month, then I give them a different message for leaving a message and finally a unique thought of the day, tip, snippet of knowledge from my business experience, life experience or someone elses business or life, that has inspired me.

This strategy has since gotten me a lot of positive feedback from others who noticed it, and some have even decided to do it themselves…

I hope you take on this strategy also, as it’s one that will certainly see you stand out in your marketplace, and it can be one of your many ways of beginning to be very different to others in a marketplace full of “SHEEP” following eaching other…

If you’re going to be a sheep, be a Black one … BAAAAA LOL!!!

Well this could be the case if you’re locked into the old way of thinking about cold calls, and it’s not your fault becuase you’ve been trained by a sales trainer that didn’t know any better either. The sad facts are, we quite often “leave a message anyway” because we feel so relieved that a real person didn’t answer the phone to “shut us down” and abruptly hang up, so it doesn’t hurt to blurt out your sales pitch!

This can be more of a frustration over time than a relief, because what happens when the sales manager does your KPI and you quickly realize that you “weren’t even close” to reaching your goals. You show that you’ve been making lots of calls and playing the numbers, however, you’re Not Getting Any Results!

When you learn a smarter, more open, way of channeling your sales message with more a more conversational, exploratory, yet low-pressure methodology, you’re going to find you “want” to connect with a live person, whether it’s the gatekeeper or prospect themselves. You’re going to find yourself wanting to dig out the receptionist, becuase all of a sudden there is no “sales rejection” and that feels really nice.

You might end up chatting with someone other than the prospect, but instead of trying to “dig out” who they are and bombard your way right over the top of that person, you ask their direction for the right way to go about finding that person. You will ask them questions that will open them up to conversationally telling you exactly where they are no problem at all.

Once you have this intelligence and befriended the receptionist in a low-pressure, to the point and open way, you’ll have a far better chance of getting through when you call back as they requested.