If you’re like most investors, the phone is going to be a pretty big part of your life.

This is one of the primary communication tools you'll use to follow up with leads, close deals, and make money. If you’re going to be effective in your business, you need to know how to manage your phone time – there’s just no way around it.

In my business, I get many phone calls from motivated and unmotivated sellers. I also get a lot of calls from people trying to sell properties I don’t want. I used to spend hours and hours talking to these kinds of prospects every day, and my conversations with these people would be a complete waste of time… but what else was I supposed to do??

Let’s be honest; we won’t do business with everyone who calls us. It’s usually quite the opposite. It takes a lot of searching to find that one person who needs what we're trying to help them with. So, how can we eliminate 90% of the callers who aren’t serious about closing a deal?

I created a voicemail message to help me deal with this issue. The idea behind this message was to pull out some useful information before I spent another 10 – 15 minutes calling them back. This one message saved me hundreds of hours (and that’s a conservative estimate).

The Seller's Journey

Before we go further, it's important to think about the seller’s journey.

From the moment they first hear about you to the moment they get an offer. This process needs to feel smooth, consistent, and easy to follow.

If your mail says one thing, your voicemail says something totally different, and then you ghost them for three days, you're creating confusion and doubt.

Sellers shouldn't have to guess what's going to happen next, and they shouldn't have to wait long to find out whether they're getting an offer and what the offer amount will be. Make it easy, make it fast, and make it clear.

Automated Greeting (Call Back)

You can listen to the first three-quarters of the message here…

After a year or so of using this message to screen my calls, I realized that even though it was very helpful in acting as a 24/7 “phone gatekeeper,” I still had to spend a lot of time calling these people back. So while it lessened the severity of the issue, it didn't necessarily solve the problem.

Automated Greeting (Website Push)

My solution was to build a buying website. Once this site was online, I revised my direct mail message and voicemail script instead of asking people to call me to simply instruct them to visit my website and submit their information online. And once they did, I could send them an automated offer—rather than spending 30+ minutes on a conversation that went nowhere.

I still allowed my prospects to call me. Because let's face it, many people still want to talk with someone on the phone. But if they chose that medium, my voice message explained in a compelling way that I was glad they called me, but it would be in their best interests to visit my website and submit their information.

Here's a clip from the first half of the message…

Note: In this example, I state my website URL (edited out in the clip above). This isn't completely necessary if you're already listing the website URL on your mail piece. I just took this extra step in my message to clarify my instructions.

Automated Greeting (Short Call Back)

Years passed, and the ‘website push' version of my greeting performed well for a long time.

However, I started noticing a trend as the real estate market heated up and I worked in more competitive markets.

Fewer people were willing to listen to my two-minute-long voicemail greeting and leave a message because they had other options to sell their property.

When I worked in markets with many other land investors pursuing the same landowners, I no longer had the benefit of “no competition” in the market. If I wanted people to call me and leave me a message, I had to make the process easier for them.

I could do this by shortening the automated greeting, not pushing them to a website, and calling them back for a real conversation.

The obvious downside of this approach is that someone has to spend time on the phone with these prospects.

The benefit of saving time doesn't apply with this approach (which is a major drawback). BUT, when you're working in a market with competition from other land investors, you need to lower barriers and make the experience easier for your prospects.

Here's a clip from this shortened version of the voicemail greeting…

Note: It helps if the caller can hear a few ringtones before the message starts playing (so it doesn't sound like an answering system where nobody is waiting by the phone).

Answering Calls Live

Do you know what works even better than a shorter voicemail?

Answering the phone live.

When you (or someone on your team) picks up right away, it sends a clear signal that you’re ready to do business.

But I get it, most of us don’t want to be glued to our phones all day. How can you make this happen without letting the phone monopolize your life?

There are two solid options you should know about:

• PATLive: This is a live answering service with real humans who can ask all the same questions and collect all the same information you would normally collect yourself on your first call with a seller. Learn more about how PATLive works.

• Stride CRM Voice AI Agent: It sounds like a real person, it asks all the same qualifying questions, and can even follow up with more questions depending on the caller’s answers. Best of all, it costs significantly less than a call service like PATLive. Learn more about Stride's Voice AI Agent.

If you're curious how Stride's Voice AI Agent works, I'll give you the overview in these two videos:

https://youtu.be/uvE0mDPn4W0

Try Stride Today!

If you're a Stride user and are curious how to set this up in your own CRM, I'll explain how to do it in the video below.

https://youtu.be/DkuBUUjvby4

If you’re serious about converting leads and making progress quickly, either of these methods can give you a real advantage.

When you can gather a prospect's information without spending your own time to answer live calls, it's a MASSIVE step towards eliminating wasted time.

These days, I don't even pick up the phone when a prospect calls me. My phone system is programmed to route callers straight to the right place and gather the information I need efficiently.

Want My Voicemail Script?

When I created my first automated voicemail message, it took me a TON of time to figure out what to say, how to say it, and how to convey the right tone in a way that would keep people on the line long enough to take action.

It ended up working quite well, but even so, I've revisited this message several times over the years and continually tweaked and improved different aspects of what it says.

You can do the same thing. If you want to craft your message and convey these points in a way that will resonate with your target audience, I'm confident you can do it.

That being said, I also know how time-consuming it can be to create this kind of communication that conveys the right message and compels people to act.

If you want to get this job done quickly and get your voicemail message up and running, you can download all of my scripts below, along with some professionally recorded renditions of each message (I've included them in a male and a female voice, so you'll have some options to choose from).

Here's everything you'll get:

• Voicemail Script #1 (Call Back)
• Voicemail Script #2 (Website Push)
• Voicemail Script #3 (Blind Offers)
• Voicemail Script #4 (Short Call Back)
• Professional Voice-Over Audio File of Script #1 in a Male Voice (sample)
• Professional Voice-Over Audio File of Script #1 in a Female Voice (sample)
• Professional Voice-Over Audio File of Script #2 in a Male Voice (sample)
• Professional Voice-Over Audio File of Script #2 in a Female Voice (sample)
• Professional Voice-Over Audio File of Script #3 in a Male Voice
• Professional Voice-Over Audio File of Script #3 in Female Voice
• Professional Voice-Over Audio File of Script #4 in a Male Voice
• Professional Voice-Over Audio File of Script #4 in Female Voice
• Video Tutorial on How to Upload Files to OpenPhone (FREE – see below)

What Can You Do With These?

This information gives you different ways of delivering the same proven messages. If you'd rather record the message yourself or hire someone from Fiverr as I did (i.e., if you want to change the message or insert any specifics like your name or website URL), you can do it by working directly with my scripts.

And lastly, I've included a short video showing how to take these audio files (or the ones you create yourself) and upload them to a service like OpenPhone.

Can you succeed without this? Of course, you can! There's nothing wrong with writing, recording, and perfecting your message (just like I did). But if you're looking for a faster solution and would rather implement the work I've already done, feel free to check it out!

Note: When you sign up as an REtipster email subscriber, I’ll send you an instant $20 off “Discount Code” for this item. And if you enroll in the Land Investing Masterclass, you'll get access to this item for FREE. There's no pressure, of course—I just want to be sure you're aware.

And lastly, I've included a short video showing how to take these audio files (or the ones you create yourself) and upload them to a service like OpenPhone.

Alternatives to a Voicemail Greeting

Is a voicemail greeting going to elicit a response from every prospect who calls you?

Of course not.

The whole idea behind this approach is to weed out the callers who aren't serious, so only the most motivated sellers stick around to leave you a message.

One of the drawbacks to this approach is that some callers may be hesitant (or perhaps they don't like listening to recorded messages) and will hang up before leaving you a message.

If you're concerned about this and want to pull out even more deals from the people who call your number, that's where a virtual receptionist service like PATLive or an AI Agent like the ones in Stride CRM can be useful.

If you follow these steps, you won't even have to pick up the phone. With a few clicks, you can have a world-class voicemail recording (or live receptionist) answering your calls and collecting all the vital information for you!