Is Voicemail Reducing Your Sales Leads?

A potential customer is calling, but you cannot take the call. You have heard experts and business gurus say that you should personally answer as many calls as possible, but there will always be times when you are in a meeting or talking to another client on the phone, working on a client’s site, having lunch, dropping the kids off at school, or being about to solve a complicated problem that you don’t want to be distracted from.

That’s what voicemail is for. Right?

Well … that depends on how many potential customers your company can afford to lose.

Studies consistently show that most callers just hang up if their call goes to voicemail instead of being answered by a real person:

• 80% of callers who receive a voicemail system hang up. (Fortune Magazine, 2006)
• Callers who respond to print, media, or telemarketing campaigns are 8 times more likely to leave their information with a live representative than voicemail. (Sales Digest, 2007)
• When responding to RV, radio, or print ads, only 21% of 10,000 surveyed customers said they were likely to leave their name and phone number on an answering machine, and 68% were unlikely and 11% were not. he was sure. (ABC advertising via the New York Times, 2008)
• 70% of callers never leave a message when calls are answered by voicemail service. (Alex Drumheller, 2010)

An average of 75% means that for every message left on your voicemail service, three callers have hung up (and quite possibly called one of your competitors). That’s a high percentage of potential deals to turn down, and one that many companies don’t realize they are losing.

Let’s repeat that for emphasis. 75% of calls are lost.

Now that you know the problem exists, what are you going to do about it? Many companies simply cannot justify the expense of a full-time receptionist. The good news is that there is an affordable alternative.

For the fraction of the cost of hiring a receptionist, you can sign up for a live automated answering service. These services are executed from the call centers, which are staffed with professionals 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Your “virtual receptionist” greets callers using your company name at times when you are not available to answer the phone and sends you messages immediately via SMS and email. With some plans, the receptionist can even transfer the call to you directly.

For best results, you should select a call center in your home country. That way, you can be sure that your callers will be greeted by someone with good local language skills and familiar with local customs and sensitivities.

You can select the hours of the day and conditions (eg, “Busy” or “No Answer” your calls are redirected to the call center. And with live answering plans starting as low as $ 29 per month, It is probably one of the easiest and most profitable ways out there to increase sales opportunities.

Again, let’s repeat that for emphasis. Stop missing 75% of your calls for as little as $ 29 per month.