The single worst mistake in answering is to say something like..."Hi, this is Amy, thanks for calling Wonderful Web Widgets, how can I help you?"

Now, you may be thinking "what's the big deal, that sounds courteous and professional". Well, you're right, it is, but that's not the problem. The problem is, just because Amy's phone rang, it was not really an inbound call! And it shouldn't be answered as such. Amy's response is a mistake, because;

The caller is responding to Amy's outbound call (whether she realizes it or not, the broadcast message is just like Amy calling outbound). And the message included an offer - "to speak to a consultant about web widgets for your business, press 1 now".

Don't see it yet? Sometimes it's not obvious. To understand, you need to put yourself in the place of the prospect. Remember that most folks receive your call and hang up, or press "2, to be removed from the call list. And of the folks who press "1" to speak to Amy, some are negative callers who will only ask to be removed - so for them, Amy's mistake really doesn't matter - there's no way they'll be interested in your web widgets, ever.

The folks you should be focused on are the ones who pressed "1", and who have a positive interest. Remember, your message just interrupted their day, and sure, they are interested, but since this is a cold call, many of them will have a pretty high level of doubt, suspicion, or wariness. So, consider the prospect's mindset as you look in on the scenario...

Prospect hears: "to speak to a consultant about the benefits of web widgets for your business, press 1 now" ... A few seconds pass as the respondent listens to hold music ... Amy connects and says: "Hi, this is Amy, thanks for calling Wonderful Web Widgets, how can I help you?"

Now do you see the problem? Amy made two mistakes in one, in this example.

1. She said "thanks for calling", but the respondent will think "I didn't call you, you called me"...

2. She asked how she could help, but the respondent pressed 1 "to speak to a consultant about the benefits of web widgets" - and Amy knows that, or should...

If you consider a prospect who has a certain level of wariness along with interest, Amy's response will do nothing to increase interest, and may reduce it. Worse, her response will probably increase the respondent's wariness or suspicion. Which is obviously not the best start to a phone conversation with a prospect!

So what's the answer? Amy needs to acknowledge two things: 1 - that she called the respondent, and knows that they responded. 2 - that she knows why they responded. So, a much better response could be:

"Hi, this is Amy with Wonderful Web Widgets, thanks for responding to our call...Would you like to speak to a web consultant?"

For the prospect who is positively interested, the second response flows smoothly and naturally from the recorded message, allowing the conversation to proceed without raising the prospects doubts. Like I wrote earlier, this mistake seems so trivial, you'd be surprised to listen to how many experienced broadcasters ignore this advice. Since this is a numbers game, isn't it best to begin all of the conversations the smoothest way possible?