You Won’t Believe This “Tired” Sales Voicemail Message

in Call Recordings

sales voice messageI thought I had heard it all.

Until this sales voice message was sent in by a reader.

They actually received this call at their offices. I guess the rep was a bit tired of leaving messages. Wow.

Have a listen… 

LISTEN TO SALES VOICE MESSAGE

What are your thoughts on this one? Ever heard anything worse?

 

{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }

Demetrius Green November 15, 2012 at 9:55 pm

The sad part is I work for this company. They let us all hear the message when I was in training.

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Art Sobczak November 19, 2012 at 7:20 pm

Hopefully it prevents others from doing the same thing. And that there is good training in place to say the right things. Thanks for the comment.

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mohankrishna January 8, 2013 at 11:21 am

I have seen your videos in youtube regarding to cold calling excellent observation.

Thanking you ,
mohankrishna.J

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Melissa November 15, 2012 at 10:13 pm

I’ve done that. I usually try to re-record sometimes that’s not possible with some phone systems. When I plow through working through a migraine, I yawn and it drives me crazy.

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Art Sobczak November 19, 2012 at 7:21 pm

Ouch! Hopefully you minimize that 🙂

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Dan Seidman November 15, 2012 at 10:18 pm

Art, that’s funny. I do have a sales horror story with a guy calling on a prospect with narcolepsy (who, of course, falls asleep).

Keep passing these along!

Dan

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Art Sobczak November 19, 2012 at 7:21 pm

Please share the link Dan. Your stuff is great!

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Mary November 15, 2012 at 10:25 pm

is he a robot?

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Stacy November 15, 2012 at 10:45 pm

Sounds like a calling contest…I worked for a company in which once a quarter we would do a phone blast, contacting as many prospects as possible in a set time. The phone system kept track at how many calls you made…and of course, there were prizes for the rep who made the most calls. I never won because I wanted to make actual contact (and in many cases I did), find out if there was mutual benefit for the prospect and me to discuss further and take it from there. Out of those quality appointments, I did a fair amount of business, but no highest call number prize…oh darn.

Proper planning prevents piss poor projections

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Art Sobczak November 19, 2012 at 7:23 pm

Amazing. Let’s reward activity instead of accomplishment. I’m guessing you made more by doing the right thing.

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Brandon November 15, 2012 at 10:46 pm

That these situations exist is no mystery to me.

There are phone rooms and call centers there require X number of
calls per shift or Y minutes connected to a prospect.

I worked for a commodities boiler-room that posted “phone connect”
time records daily for each telemarketer. Over coffee and donuts each
morning the sales manager excoriated the telemarketers who did not
have the 400 minutes of connect time each shift (which were 13 hours,
by the way).

We were on the West Coast, started phoning at 6:00 am local time,
took a break for dinner, and came back for evening work hours.

Fatigue is no mystery. And cheating on the number of calls by making
calls like this become the escape valve for the weary telemarketer.

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Art Sobczak November 19, 2012 at 7:24 pm

Wow, 13 hours?! Hopefully you didn’t stay in that sweatshop long.

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Judi November 16, 2012 at 1:03 am

There are two schools of thought:
— one is that the more numbers you hit the greater the odds of your engaging someone through to results.
—the other is like Stacy described – fewer calls but more meaningful and targeted contact.

While most career coaches advise sending out cajillions of generic letters that are “me, me, me” focused, I teach my clients how to write a custom letter that is really about the company, even though it talks about the letter writer. It’s customized to the ad, and for cold contacts, I show them how to use the company’s ABOUT US page to customize the first paragraph.

I’d like to think that’s one of numerous reasons why so many of my clients find success after spending money on other coaches with no results. I feel compelled to add, however, that prior to becoming a coach my career was all B2B sales, and the most recent company included immersion in Art’s trainings – so it’s really no wonder that what I teach produces results!

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Art Sobczak November 19, 2012 at 7:26 pm

Absolutely Judi, seeking a position is sales, and the same techniques apply, with yourself as the product. Thanks for sharing.

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Arthur November 21, 2012 at 1:29 am

All companies have the same problem. They do not spend any time teaching their sales force how to use their voices. We expect radio DJs and voice-over actors to be professionals, but for some reason the sales people who are “on air” 8 hours a day do not think that their voice is important. Granted, you always see the same advice everywhere: smile, get up, speak from your diaphragm, etc. Well, ladies and gentlemen, you can drive that camry around your neighborhood for 10 years non-stop, but you are not going to be any closer to becoming a racer. If you want to be a racer, you have to train like a racer. Singing lessons or a voice coach is a must. Can’t afford it? Buy CD and practice in your car. You must dedicate to it at least 1 hour a day. There is no way around it. A person on the other side of the line has to picture how you look. It happens automatically, and we have no control over it. For a person who has never seen you, you look exactly how you sound. When a secretary picks up a phone while browsing her facebook page, your voice (not material) is the only thing that can bring her back to reality. Which brings me to another very important factor – delivery. I swear, people need to put some emotion into what they say. It is painful to listen to a comedian who simply recites his material. It is even more painful to hear a phone robot read his script.

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Art Sobczak November 21, 2012 at 3:17 pm

Well said! I agree with everything, and preach it in my training classes. We are performers just like voiceover artists, actors, and singers are, and should fine-tune the projector of our message. There are some companies that provide some attention to this, but most don’t. My friend, Susan Berkley is one of the top voiceover talents and trainers in the biz, and she has great resources for businesspeople in general http://www.GreatVoice.com

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Tara June 7, 2013 at 2:56 pm

@Arthur – this is such a great point – why why why are sales people not taught how to speak on the phone?

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