Voicemail

Treat a cold call voicemail as a handoff to email. Give the prospect a reason to find your message and a way to reply. A voicemail can lower the chance of a later phone connection and raise the chance of an email reply.^{1, 2} Leave one when you have a specific reason, a useful email, and a clear path to it. Skip it when the message would add no context or when preserving future phone connects matters more than creating another route to a reply.

Decide before you dial

Next action

If email contains something relevant

Leave one

If no specific reason

Skip the recording

Next action

• If email contains something relevant, Leave one
• If no specific reason, Skip the recording

Choose the voicemail's purpose before you record it. The decision depends on the next action you want from the prospect.

Cold calling prospects rarely produce callbacks.³ Use the voicemail to get an email reply.⁴ Leave one when the email contains something relevant and the voicemail can help the prospect find it. Skip the recording when you have no specific reason to give the prospect.

A follow-up voicemail is a reasonable choice after you have already had a conversation with the person.⁵ Value-focused voicemails also fit best with existing accounts or existing relationships.⁶ With a genuinely cold contact, make the context and reason for the call do the work.

Account for the time. A caller can make 25% more cold calls in the time it takes to leave a voicemail.⁷ Skipping the voicemail and calling back later in the day may help you reach the person by phone.⁸

Record the voicemail

1

Start with context

2

Give a targeted reason

3

Point the prospect toward

1. Start with context
2. Give a targeted reason
3. Point the prospect toward

Keep the recording focused on getting the prospect to the email. Give enough context to earn the next step, then let the email carry the fuller message.

Build the message in this order:

• Start with context about the prospect to pique interest, and save the pitch for the email.⁹
• Give a targeted reason for the call that includes relevant information or value.¹⁰
• Point the prospect toward the email so the voicemail has a clear destination.¹¹

A high-quality voicemail can explain why you are calling and encourage a response.¹² Listen to the recording as if you had never heard from the sender. If the reason for the call is unclear before the email comes up, tighten the context and remove anything that sounds like a general introduction.

Send the email

Make the email the destination promised in the voicemail. It should carry the detail and give the prospect a useful reason to respond.

Gong data shows that leaving voicemails increased the email reply rate from 2.73% to 5.87%.¹³ Track email replies as the outcome of the handoff, and keep future phone connects as a separate measure.

Use voicemail within a contact strategy that mixes calls and emails with other ways of reaching the right prospect.¹⁴ Let the voicemail establish relevance and the email carry the substance. Keep the connection between them clear enough that the prospect knows why the email is in their inbox.

What not to do

Leave out a "touching base" or "checking in" voicemail because it gives the prospect no targeted reason to spend time on it.¹⁵ Keep the sales pitch out of the recording. Prospects may delete the voicemail as soon as the selling starts.¹⁶ Point the prospect back to the email instead of asking for a callback.¹⁷ Begin with context that gives the prospect a reason to keep listening, rather than with your name.¹⁸

Before your next unanswered call, decide whether the email has enough substance to earn the handoff. If it does, record for the email reply, then judge the motion by both response and the cost to future phone connects.