Being effective at prospecting requires that you maintain a steady pace with your sales calls. That's how you ensure your sales funnel remains large enough so that you meet your sales targets year after year (and remember, that funnel has to be three times the value of your targets). In making those calls to new leads and prospects, sales people often complain to me that when they are intercepted by someone's voicemail, it too often becomes a black hole. No matter what you put into it, your efforts never see the light of day ever again-prospects don't return your calls and you spend more time than you think you can afford being on the phone leaving message after message.

It doesn't have to be that way! The key to mastering voicemail is to recognize its true character...and to use that knowledge to your advantage so you can sell more to more customers in less time.

Facing up to the facts about voicemail
Let's face it: nobody really likes voicemail. It's slower to use than other communications tools and yet we've all learned to accept it as a necessary part of our busy lives. To understand how you can leverage this imperfect technology to your advantage, exercise those empathy muscles that all successful sales professionals possess.

If you think it's tough being the calling party having to deal with that robotic message taker, put yourself in the shoes of the called party for a moment. While most will admit reluctantly that voicemail can help avoid calls they didn't really want to answer, it's still a major nuisance that taxes their time as much as it does those who are trying to leave the messages in the first place.

Recognize that not everyone leaves short, purposeful messages. In fact, too often it's left to the called party to trudge through each message to determine which ones require some kind action on their part. That's why, in the end, both the caller and the called party wind up feeling frustrated and overwhelmed. It has even prompted Michael Arrington of the widely read Silicon Valley-based blog TechCrunch to plead publically "think before you voicemail."

Here's another important fact to bear in mind. In sales, no matter how successful you become, you will always have to deal with voicemail. Finding ways to master it so that it helps you reach the goals that matter to you-that's what will set you apart from the other eighty percent of sales people in any organization. Treat it well and it can be a highly effective selling tool that helps you make a positive first impression on prospects. Treat it poorly and it will be a clamshell that will snap shut on you.

Three-step strategy to break open the voicemail clamshell
Over the course of more than a decade as a sales person as well as a sales trainer and coach, I've noticed that the most successful sales professionals out there have some common habits in how they use this particular technology to their advantage. Based on that, I've developed a three-step voicemail strategy that you can apply to your own business and start getting the results you're looking for today.

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