What is a Voicemail Drop and Should you use them?

We live in a post-caller ID world. What do you usually do when you get a call from an unrecognized name or number? If you’re like most of us, you probably ignore it or decline it. In fact, 80% of calls end up going to voicemail.

According to RingLead, the average sales rep leaves 70 voicemail messages per day. That adds up to an average of 25 hours/month/rep.

But here’s where the digital world meets the analog world, allowing you to harness the strength of phone calls while getting around our proclivity to screen them and to opt out of the call-listen-leave-same-message tedium: voicemail dropping.
 
What is a Voicemail Drop?
At its simplest, voicemail dropping — also referred to as a pre-recorded voicemail — is literally ‘dropping’ a pre-recorded message into someone’s voicemail inbox. Their phone doesn’t ring, but they do get a notification that they have a new message. Voicemail automation is a type of inside sales technology that is designed to accelerate the process of leaving voicemail messages.
 
How Voicemail Drop Works?
The moment a call goes to voicemail, a Voicemail Drop system enables reps to select a message from a library of prerecorded voicemail messages and then “drop” that voicemail with a single click and then jump to the next call.
 
How to Use It?
It’s effective. While it’s easy to ignore or decline a phone call, people are far less inclined to delete a voicemail without at least listening to it. In fact, voicemail drop providers like Drop Cowboy boast a response rate between 5-20%.

• It’s affordable. Depending on the provider and plan, it can cost just a few cents per message delivered.
• It’s far-reaching, working with both mobile phones and landlines.
• Its user-friendly and intuitive. You can quickly upload a recorded message, or make a new one from your account dashboard.
• It’s a time saver.

 
Instead of individually calling dozens of numbers, waiting for the call to go to voicemail, listening to the greeting, and leaving your message, you can record one personalized message for a segment of your call list and instantly send it out with one click. Save those messages in your personal library, and the right message is always waiting and ready to go.
 
How much time would that save per rep or sales team? If one rep spends an average of 25 hours/month, then a team of five reps loses 125 hours per month to voicemail alone. Take those hours back.

Finally, you can connect and engage without having to bother or interrupt prospects at home and work. They hear the message and respond at their convenience.

Using Voicemail Dropping with Prospecting
Prospecting is an art and a science.
If you’re involved with sales in any way, you’ve probably got a tried-and-true method for prospecting already (hint: email). You’ve got your favorite tools and services and likely an email prospecting template or two.

So here’s the good news: adding voicemail dropping to your prospecting arsenal is easier than you think. In fact, you have the skills and know-how already.
The golden rule is to treat a voicemail drop like you would a cold email: personalization and relevancy are of the utmost importance.
 
If it’s true for email prospecting, it’s true for voicemail dropping.
Other Potential Advantages of Voicemail Drop
Voicemail Drop systems also present some other advantages to sales reps. Some of those advantages include:
 
Quality-Using prerecorded voicemails ensures that every voicemail message sounds perfect and lively. Reps often sound less enthusiastic toward the ends of their workdays after leaving many manual voicemail messages.

Optimization-Using prerecorded voicemails enables managers to test which voicemail messages get the most responses. This data can help reps optimize reps’ sales 1communication.
​
Personalization– Prerecorded voicemails can be framed around campaigns to enable speed while also maintaining a degree of personalization. As an example, a prerecorded voicemail could mention the name of an ebook that a prospect downloaded when reps are calling down a list of leads that downloaded that particular eBook.