How to leave a voice mail

Very few people of any age leave good voicemails. The purpose of a voicemail is to make progress towards along a continuum whose end is getting what you want. A long voice mail isn’t going to zip you along to the end point of this decision.

A good model is to think of a voicemail as an oral version of a compelling five-sentence email; the optimal length of a voice mail is fifteen seconds.

Two power tips:
  • First, slowly say your telephone number once at the beginning of your message and again at the end. You don’t want to make people playback your message to get your phone number, and if either of you are using Cingular, you may not hear all the digits.

  • Second (and this applies to email too), always make progress. Never leave a voicemail or send an email that says, “Call me back, and I’ll tell you what time we can meet.” Just say, “Tuesday, 10:00 am, at your office.