Colin Peoples writes in…

“What’s your philosophy around voicemails? Should I leave one or not? If so, what should I say?”

Thanks for the question, Colin.

Let’s dig in…

First, I want to address the elephant in the room.

I have a sneaky suspicion Colin is majoring in minor things.

Or as my old man used to say…

Stepping Over Dollars To Pick Up Quarters

My advice…

Before you focus on leaving the perfect voicemail (quarters)…

Make for damn sure you’re doing the basics (dollars), first.

• Are you targeting the RIGHT prospects?

• Are you making ENOUGH calls?

• Are you following up like CRAZY?

You can have “The World’s Greatest Voicemail Strategy”…

But if you aren’t getting the basics right, your voicemail strategy is about as useless as a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest.

Make sense?

Ok, moving on.

Now…

Let’s assume for a minute you are nailing the basics, then what?

Should You Leave A Voicemail?

There’s generally two trains of thought on this…

One is… ALWAYS leave a voicemail.

The other is… NEVER leave a voicemail.

Who’s right and who’s wrong?

Heck if I know.

I’m sure they both have their supporting arguments.

My guess is it’s some of both.

All I know for sure is what I’ve learned from experience.

After making thousands of cold calls across multiple industries, I can count on both hands and feet the number of times I’ve gotten a call back as the direct result of leaving a voicemail.

Statistically speaking…

You probably have a better chance of getting your wife’s approval on a 4-day golf weekend with the bois than you do of getting a prospect to call you back because of a voicemail.

That being said… I do leave voicemails.

But my one rule is, I…

Never Leave A Voicemail On The First Call

As I said earlier…

I have no idea what’s “right” and what’s “wrong”…

I only know what makes sense to me.

And to me, the smart play is NOT leaving a voicemail on the first or even second call.

The reason being…

By not leaving a voicemail, you keep the leverage…

Therefore, you can keep calling.

Inversely, if you leave a voicemail on the first call you are now handing the leverage over to your prospect.

The ball is now in their court to respond if they see fit.

I’m not a fan of losing leverage, so I try to hold on to it as long as I can.

How long you hold out is up to you.

Next, let’s talk…

What NOT To Say In Your Voicemail

Last year, I dabbled with the following voicemail…

“Hey Jeff, it’s Max. Spoke with [whoever answered]. Buzz me when you get this."

This little doozy works for a number of reasons, none of which I’m going to explain in this newsletter.

Just know…

It dramatically increased my call back rate.

The problem was…

When they called me back to see what’s up, and realized it was a deceptive sales call…

They got pissed.

Lesson learned.

Don’t be like me and try to get cute.

It’ll come back and bite you in the ass.

Believe me…

A few more call backs aren’t worth sacrificing your credibility over.

So, if you are going to leave one, here’s…

What TO Say In Your Voicemail

I recommend keeping it simple and brutally honest…

Like we do in our cold call script:

“Hey Jeff, it’s Max. Wondering if yall ever do any “Due Diligence” around your insurance program? I know you’re probably happy with your current agent… but may be wondering if you’re leaving money or coverage on the table. I can provide you those answers without disrupting your current agent relationship. If you’re interested in a quick chat, here’s my number.”

No games…

No gimmicks…

Just brutal honesty.

Because, remember, like we discussed in last week’s newsletter…

Because our methodology is based around converting cold prospects into buyers…

We need to…

Build Trust As Quickly As Possible

And that’s just not do-able if we’re playing stupid sales games.

Legendary Ad Man David Ogilvy said it best…

“Your customer is not a moron, she is your wife.”

And we should treat them as such.

No games…

No gimmicks…

Just brutal honesty.

Here allow me to demonstrate…

Remember above I mentioned our prospecting methodology was based around cold prospecting…

Not networking.

If you’re reading this newsletter and that sounds intriguing to you…

Consider checking out our Producer Playbook.

It’s our step-by-step playbook for doing just that.

It ain’t for everybody but it is for somebody.

Maybe that’s you.

*wink wink*

See how easy that was?

In Closing…

When it comes to leaving voicemails…

There’s no right way to do it.

Just make sure you’re targeting the RIGHT prospects, making ENOUGH calls, and following up like CRAZY.

Because that’s what actually moves the needle.

Everything else is lagniappe.

Ok, enough out of me.

Hope you have a helluva week.

See you next Sunday.

Kick ass take names,

Maximus F Revenue IV

P.S. If you liked this newsletter I have 3 suggestions…

#1. Check out The Producer Playbook 

It’s our step-by-step guide to building a $1,000,000 book via cold prospecting…

And costs less than a night out with friends.

#2. Join Max Revenue HQ

It’s our community by Producers in the trenches, for Producers in the trenches.

We’ve got almost 500 Producers already inside.

And it’s absolutely FREE (for now).

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