Okay – SO this blog post may offend some folks – well perhaps alot of folks. I guess that all depends on YOUR voicemail and the recipients of your message. I will not take total credit for this rant – for it was a summer read of Jeffrey Gitomer’s ” Little Red Book of Selling” that gave me the encouragement to change things up alittle, think outside the box when it came to among other things – voicemail.

Does this sound familiar:

“Hi – You’ve reach Joe Kalupchuck, from ABC Realty. I’m either on the phone, with clients or driving right now. Please leave a message and I will return your call just as soon as I am able. Or for immediate assistance please call 780-trunk-number and have me paged. Thank you and have a nice day”.

Or same as above – but it starts with “Hi – You’ve reached Joe Kalupchuk, from ABC Realty. Your call is important to me….” blah blah blah same as above ending.

First off – the person who is calling you – really does not have the time nor the interest in ALL the things your are doing besides answering your phone. This is irrelevant to the caller – and takes waaaay too much time to listen to.

Second of all – you said you would return their call – but then you say ‘for immediate assistance call…’  Why? Why should your  caller call your trunk/pager number when it goes straight back to your phone that you (just) did not answer. Are we going in circles or what? Or are you saying that only if a person PAGES you, that you will return their call? Otherwise they take their chances on you taking your time returning your cell phone calls? Why should they get IMMEDIATE assistance if they have to hang up and call again and leave another message. Gosh wouldn’t it be MUCH faster if you told them to just leave you a message on your cell phone and you’ll return it asap. We all know that trunk/pager numbers go to your cell phone as well. It just seems so redundant to tell someone to hang up and call again for immediate assistance. When in fact that it is NOT immediate and in reality it would be much faster just to leave a message on your cell phone or text you? No?

Thirdly – ‘have a nice day’, ‘your call is important to me’ ‘I’m either on the phone, with clients, buying shoes, out to dinner,walking the dog…’ whatever – this is all useless info to your caller. Your caller is trying to get a hold of  YOU or leave YOU a message. Don’t assume your caller has all the time in the world to listen to all that useless information. Sorry – but its true. And especially if you have 10 bookings to make and all the Realtors have the same loooong voicemail….oooiiiigh. Not fun.

Lastly – as in the words of Jeffrey Gitomer – your voicemail is your voice to the world. Leave an imprint on all who call you. This is your chance to leave an impression that goes waaay beyond the sound of the beep (oh yah – that’s another useless tidbit – leave a message at the sound of the beep – really – really NO!). Give someone a reason to smile and  say “that was a really cool message – that is someone I could work with” or give them a reason to spread the love…’hey Susie , I called this Realtor, Joe Kalupchuck , and he had this really cool voicemail message…’ Get it? Got it. Good.

Happy Voice Mailing!

p.s. “Hi – You’ve reached Jennifer Kennedy. I’m out selling homes right now. With four teenagers to feed and two in braces, rest assured I’ll get back to you shortly. thank you!”

Additional “AGENT 101” Articles…

Jennifer Kennedy
Broker | Owner

KENNEDY Real Estate
Your Edmonton REALTOR® | Edmonton Home Stager

Call us today…780-485-3010 and GET SOLD!
Area Specialists | Lifestyle Marketing

REALTORS® : Looking for a great Team environment to grow your business…see our Brokerage Model for info on how to make that happen!

 

 

Tags: edmonton home stager, Edmonton Homestager, Edmonton Realtor