marketing+sales: 6 Reasons Why Prospects Don't Return Your Calls

Some cold calling experts suggest that you leave a message when you receive a prospect's voice mail. Unfortunately, many salespeople feel that this is an exercise in futility, because most of the time their prospect does not call them back. If that sounds familiar, here are six reasons why your prospects might not return your calls.

1. Your voice mail message is too long. The majority of voice mail messages decision makers receive are far too long. Decision makers are too busy to listen to a long, rambling and disjointed message. That means you need to get your message across in 30 seconds or less. In fact, I suggest that you try and limit your message to a maximum of 20 seconds.

2. Your voice mail message is too cryptic. On the reverse side, a short, terse voice mail with no details will not likely motivate someone to call you back. You must give a prospect enough information to capture his or her attention and say, "I need to talk to this person."

3. You leave the same voice mail message. It is important to keep trying to connect with your prospect, which often means leaving multiple voice mail messages. However, if you want someone to call you back, you need to leave a different message every time you call. Plus, it must be compelling.

4. You sound like every other salesperson. The average executive receives dozens of sales calls a day, so if you want a busy executive to call you back, your message must stand out from every other call he or she receives. I once sat in a vice president's office as he listened to his voice mail messages on speakerphone and was fascinated how similar every sales call sounded. I was equally intrigued by how quickly this person deleted the messages, too. His finger hovered over the delete button, and in most cases, he erased the message in the first few seconds.