A Sales Voicemail Script That Crushes It

Summary:

• Most sales calls go to voicemail. This makes it essential to leave a structured, effective message that encourages callbacks or further engagement.
• A voicemail script should quickly identify who you are, why you're calling, and the specific benefit you offer to the prospect.
• Include social proof and actual results in your message to build credibility and make your offer more compelling.
• Clearly state the next step you want the prospect to take and give them a reason to do so, making it easier for them to follow through.
• Always repeat your contact information at a slower tempo to ensure the prospect can easily recall or note it down.
• Consider pairing a voicemail with an email (one can reference the other) for a powerful one-two punch that increases engagement and response rates.

As a salesperson or sales manager, you and your team make outbound sales calls for one reason—to close deals. But most of the time, you’re going to hear a voicemail instead of a live answer. It’s frustrating, but it’s the truth.

Rather than getting upset, you should realize how important it is to leave an effective voicemail. The right message can encourage prospects to call you back—or even pick up as you’re leaving your message (AKA Live Voicemail).

Unfortunately, sales reps often leave unstructured sales voicemails that bore or confuse their prospects. And sadly, some reps hang up their phone calls without leaving voicemails at all.

Don’t do this. Leaving a personalized voicemail can earn you a callback and it doesn’t prevent you from calling again.

Why Should You Leave a Voicemail?

Unlike social media and email messages which often go unseen, voicemail messages are regularly heard—or if they’re using an iPhone with Live Voicemail enabled, transcribed and read as you leave your message. But in either case, you have a very limited window to make the right impression—only 3-5 seconds for most prospects.

Learn More: Turn Live Voicemail Into Conversations

This is why it’s so important to have a voicemail script. You need to captivate your prospect so they listen to your entire voicemail and do one of the following:

• Accept the call as you leave your message
• Call you back after hearing your message
• Follow through on some other call-to-action

Remember, the goal of your sales voicemail is to advance the sale. Although you’d love your prospects to have a live conversation with you, it’s not always necessary.

As long as your voicemail makes them more likely to answer your next call or piques the prospect's interest enough to check out an email you send, then you’re getting closer to making the sale.

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Creating Your Voicemail Script

Here are the questions every voicemail script should answer quickly and clearly:

1. Who Are You?

Your prospect needs to know that there is a real person on the other end of the line.

Immediately identify yourself with your first name, last name, and your company name so they know that someone is taking responsibility for this voicemail—unlike typical automated sales voicemails.

“Hi, this is Sally Jones from XYZ Company…”

2. Why Are You Calling?

It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to sell. You’re calling because your prospect has a problem or a burning desire—and you have the solution.

If your sales voicemail script doesn’t address this right off the bat, your voicemail will likely be deleted or ignored. This is especially true for Live Voicemail, where a prospect will most likely only glance at the first sentence or two of the transcription before deciding whether your call is worth picking up.

Learn More: Live Voicemail Best Practices & Scripts

To quickly provide a reason that will interest future or current customers, consider including one or more of three things:

• A specific, meaningful benefit: If you want your prospect to answer or call back, you need to tell them why they want to speak with you.
• Actual results: Telling your prospect that you’ve done this before with an example will add credibility to your claim.
• Social proof: If you can mention a company name or person you’ve helped that the prospect knows (or has at least heard of), it will make your claim more believable.
• Prior interaction: Have you spoken in the past? Recall those details in your script. For example, “Last time we spoke, you indicated cost reduction would be a priority in Q3. I wanted to…”

This basic information will help you provide a compelling reason for a live conversation. For example, let’s say you helped Mark’s Cafe and John’s Pizza bring 50% more diners into their Boston restaurants. This is great social proof for any other Boston restaurant you’d like to help, so leave a brief message without missing any of these details:

“Hi (prospect's name), this is Sally Jones from XYZ Company. We recently worked with Mark’s Cafe and John’s Pizza in Boston on a referral strategy that brought over 50% more diners to their restaurants in the last month. It’s easy to set up and could help you generate similar results with little effort each month.”

3. What Is Their Next Step (& Why Should They Take It)?

Do you want your prospect to call you back, open your email, or be available for your next call? Whatever their next step is, you need to make it clear.

Provide your contact information and ask them to call you back, tell them to check the email from your email address, or let them know when to expect your next phone call.

But you also need to give them a reason for taking your desired action. Instead of trying to “sell” them your product or service, ask them to let you see if you can improve their life.

You’re letting them know that there is a way to improve their business, and they have an opportunity to determine whether that makes sense for them. Since you’ve already shown that it likely will, they should be interested in taking the next step.

Continuing with our previous sample sales voicemail script, this is how we would call the prospect to action:

“Hi (prospect's name), this is Sally Jones from XYZ Company. We recently worked with Mark’s Cafe and John’s Pizza in Boston on a referral strategy that brought over 50% more diners to their restaurants in the last month. It’s easy to set up and could help you generate similar results with little effort each month.

If you could give me a call back at 555-555-1212, I’d like to ask you a few questions about your restaurant to see if this program would be a good fit. Looking forward to hearing from you. Have a great day!”

4. Repeat Yourself

Your prospect won’t remember everything you just said. And they definitely didn’t record your name and phone number the first time you uttered them.

Don’t expect your prospect to replay the message. Instead, reduce friction by repeating your contact information at a slower tempo.

Put it all together using our previous example, and you might end up with something like this:

“Hi (prospect's name), this is Sally Jones from XYZ Company. We recently worked with Mark’s Cafe and John’s Pizza in Boston on a referral strategy that brought over 22% more diners to their restaurants in the last month. It’s easy to set up and could help you generate similar results with little effort each month.

If you could give me a call back at 555-555-1212, I’d like to ask you a few questions about your restaurant to see if this program would be a good fit. Again, my name is Sally Jones and you can reach me at 555-555-1212. I look forward to hearing from you!”

4. Pair it with an email

Voicemails and emails are a powerful combination. When you use them together you can dramatically increase exposure and improve response rates. Consider this script.

“Hi, this is Sally Jones from XYZ Company. No need to call me back. I am actually sending you an email right now with the subject line “Restaurant Referrals.” It introduces a process that’s generating hundreds of weekly restaurant reservations for NYC restaurants like yours. Just wanted you to keep an eye out for it, and if it looks like something that might help you, we can connect after that. Thanks for your time and have a great day!

With PhoneBurner, you leave this voicemail and send the email in the same click using our workflow automation.

The Right Tools Help Your Sales Voicemail Scripts Land

A vast majority of sales calls go unanswered, so it’s hard to understate the importance of an effective voicemail message. Even modest improvements to your voicemail scripts can dramatically improve your callbacks, responses, and sales from cold call campaigns.

If you want to have successful and professional voicemail messages, quickly offer a solution that addresses your prospect’s burning pain or desire. Then, make it easy for them to take your well-defined action to make their life better.

Play with the template above and watch your sales numbers grow as you perfect your sales voicemail scripts. And remember, the more efficiently you can dial, the more prospects you can reach—for effective voicemails or high-quality live conversations.

PhoneBurner can help you dial up to 4x faster while improving the quality of your calls and reducing potential spam flags. Start a free trial here to see it in action for yourself.

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