This is a Guest Post from Peter O’Donoghue of  Sales DNA.

If you didn’t read my  last blog post then it might be a good idea to head over here and find out why the following voicemail will get you 50% call backs from your targeted prospects.

As a reminder, the voicemail is:

“Hi John, It’s Joe Bloggs from ACME INC. I was in a meeting this morning and your name came up. I have a couple of quick questions that only you can answer. Can you give me a call back on 0000000000”

So what happens when the prospect hears the voicemail?

Firstly, they are intrigued and curious. Why are they calling me? Why did my name come up in a meeting? What questions can there be that only I can answer? These internal questions and inner dialogue will compel the other person to want to call you back to find out just what is going on.

Secondly, they call. What do you think the first thing they want to know is?

“Why were you talking about me?”

What would you say?

The main thing is that you have a natural and probable answer that will act as a bridge to the thing that you really want from the call – a conversation.

Here are a few ideas:

“Hi John, thanks for calling back. Yes, we had an internal meeting today.”

That’s it. It’s not complicated or underhand and can lead to a natural bridge to your value statement.  A complete example can go like this:

“Hi John, thanks for calling back. Yes, we had an internal meeting today, where we completed phase 1 of a project with ABC Corp. In six months, we reduced their staff churn from 29% down to 19% and we are on track to save them over 500,000 this year. We wanted to help other companies in that industry and as a top 3 player, we immediately thought of you. How is staff churn affecting your business at present?”

OK, let’s break it down to some component parts:

1)      The fact that it is an internal meeting is delivered smoothly and confidently with no apologies. It makes sense and it’s natural.

2)      You have ‘name dropped’ a company that is in their line of business and probably a competitor.

3)      You have proven value in business terms – percentages and money.

4)      There is a little ‘ego-stroke’ – “as a top 3 player.”

5)      It ends in an assumed question “How is staff churn affecting…” It either is or it isn’t and if you have done your homework well then you will know that it probably is. It is open and bridges straight into a conversation.

Now you might be thinking that this might be deceiving and the other person is likely to go:

“Hey wait a minute. You tricked me into calling you!”

I guarantee you it isn’t and they won’t. It naturally flows and as long as you make your reason sound natural, focused on them and relevant, the other person will be more than happy to engage in a conversation with you.

For more golden nuggets like this sign up for my free sales newsletter using the links below…

Peter O’Donoghue is the Director of Sales DNA who help Business To Business Sales Professionals increase sales profitability with Sales Training and Telesales Training.  Sales DNA work with clients in Europe and Worldwide through their Online Sales Training.  Visit his blog at  www.salesdnaltd.com/blog.