Here we are referring to whether or not to leave a voice mail message when you do call a prospect, or even a customer.

Whatever you decide to do, test and keep measuring to find out what does work. One company tracked 1,000 voice mails and noted they had a response of 5%. They determined that the extra time it took to leave the message did not justify doing so.

They measured and made a business decision.

From my experience, if you do chose to leave a voice mail then you need to know that you are leaving it with the absolutely correct person, that the message is relative and interesting, that it is brief and clear! This should be as short as possible. You should practice it so that you are using the right tone, volume and it is interesting to the listener.

Repeat your number twice, pause before you say it and after you leave the number. You should also use the person’s name in the message.

I advocate leaving the same message twice about 3 weeks apart. Then shorten it and leave it again. We have had clients do this up to a year after the first call and get a response. This should be a fairly straight forward process for you and take seconds to do.

Anyone in sales will tell you that it is about timing. If you have done the planning right then this person should want to do business with you, when they are ready!

Let me know how you get on, or let me have your own experiences, please!