4 Ways to Make the Most of Pre-Recorded Voicemails

Voicemail drop is rapidly becoming a must-have feature for startup and enterprise sales teams alike. Not too long ago, the ability to automatically leave a pre-recorded voicemail was simply a nice-to-have option, but teams have discovered the time savings, productivity increases, and voicemail quality improvements that come with them.

If a sales team of 10 reps leaves forty 30-second voicemails per business day, they can be wasting over 16.5 hours each week leaving messages, or over 66 hours a month! Not only does voicemail drop increase productivity, but they can also increase callback rates and improve rep performance.

By using pre-recorded voicemails, reps can ensure they consistently leave complete, high quality, and concise messages that properly deliver their points.

To ensure you team is using pre-recorded voicemail drops effectively, here are four easy ways to get the full effect using pre-recorded voicemails:

Enunciate and be Expressive

Making one call after another can get exhausting, and the last thing reps should do is leave boring, tired sounding voicemails. One of the best benefits of voicemail drop is that reps can record an upbeat, energetic voicemail and use it over and over again. Interestingly, it’s the human element that makes the message sound real, so reps shouldn’t sound too scripted–record the voicemail like its a live message with natural pauses, accenting the right words and syllables.

Using voicemail drops allow reps to save their energy for live sales conversations. If they are draining themselves trying to leave one perfect voicemail after another, they may not be ready when a lead actually answers the phone. Now, they can save their energy for a real conversation.

Categorize your Voicemails

Of course, I use Revenu.io for every call, every day. Since we allow an unlimited number of pre-recorded voicemails, I have a number of different messages ready for every situation. For example, reps could categorize and record voicemails by lead source, contact attempt, or even reference an email in their cadence to increase the chances of a callback.  

For instance, right now I have 18 unique pre-recorded voicemails. This is how I would use them for someone who fills out a pricing request form online:

Contact Attempt 1:

• Voicemail Drop Label: Pricing Request #1
• Message: Hi, this is Anna at Revenue.io. Thanks for reaching out and inquiring about our pricing! I’m looking forward to walking you through it and learning more about your team. Give me a call back when you’re free at xxx-xxx-xxxx. We’ll talk soon!

Contact Attempt 2:

• Voicemail Drop Label: Pricing Request #2
• Message: Hi, it’s Anna again at Revenue.io. I hope my email found you well. You reached out yesterday, and I’m eager to talk more about your team’s needs. My phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx, speak soon!

A/B Test your Voicemails

Sales managers often monitor metrics like call volume, talk time, and even the percentage of voicemails reps leave in comparison to their daily calls. Voicemail drop actually allows both reps and managers to track the success of pre-recorded voicemails, providing them with the ability to test messages and easily determine which are most successful.

Begin testing by altering only a single factor between two voicemails. Ensure each voicemail is left enough times that a statistical significance can be calculated. Then, standardize the factor that created the most callbacks, select another variable to test, and repeat.

A standard report from Revenue.io with call back rates for pre-recorded voicemails.

Collaborate

Collaboration goes hand in hand with A/B voicemail testing. Competition is healthy within a sales team but mutual success and growth is invaluable. If members of your team are calling similar lead sources of prospects, ensure they work together to optimize their conversion rates and move leads down the sales funnel. They should actively share strategies and test results. For example if you find that Rep A’s Cold Call Voicemail results in 5% callbacks, but Rep B’s creates 10%, make sure that all reps start employing Rep B’s message.