Guide from the Free Sales Email Grader
How to Leave a Sales Voicemail
This guide is coaching advice, not the result of a measured study. We could not find a study that tested what to say in a sales voicemail. What we can share is a clear, published method from sales coaches, and it is simple: keep it short, make it about them, skip the pitch, and point them to your email.
What the research covers, and what it does not
Gong looked at whether leaving voicemails on cold calls helps. Its data was about how many voicemails to leave and what happened to email replies afterward. It did not test the words in the voicemail.
So the advice below comes from coaching, not measurement. It is still worth following, because it keeps the message short and respectful of the listener's time.
Based on: Gong, 2024
Say who you are
Start with your name and where you work, said slowly and clearly. The listener cannot scroll back, so the first few words matter most. This is a writing practice, not a study result.
Writing practice, not a study result.
Give one piece of context about them
30 Minutes to President's Club (30MPC) recommends one short line of context: something about them, their company, or teams like theirs. One line is enough. A voicemail is too short to hold several points, and one real detail shows you picked them on purpose.
This is the author's coaching method, not a measured result.
Based on: 30 Minutes to President's Club, 2024
Skip the pitch, and point them to your email
The same method says to leave the product out of the voicemail and not to ask for a callback. Instead, tell them to look for your email, where they can read the details when it suits them. The voicemail becomes a friendly heads up for the email, not a pitch they have to remember.
This is coaching advice from the source, not a measured callback rate.
Based on: 30 Minutes to President's Club, 2024
Keep it short
The method keeps voicemails brief, and a good target is about half a minute or less. To check yours, read it out loud at a calm pace with a timer. If it runs long, cut back to who you are, one line about them, and where to look for your email. The timing is your own estimate, not a study number.
Based on: 30 Minutes to President's Club, 2024
An example voicemail
This voicemail is invented to show the pattern. The names and companies are made up.
Invented example, for illustration only
Hi Priya, this is Sam from Acme.
I noticed Northline is hiring three dispatchers this month.
I'll send you a short email today with one idea on late ETAs.
Look for it from Sam at Acme. Thanks, Priya.
Check your voicemail script
Type your script into the Voicemail Script Checker, one of the free tools on this site. It is a coaching checker based on the published advice above, not on measured voicemail data. It checks for a pitch, a callback request, length, context, and who is calling. Find it under More free sales tools on the home page. It is free, and nothing you type is stored.
Try the Voicemail Script CheckerSources
- Gong. Should you leave voicemails when cold calling? (2024). Read the source
- 30 Minutes to President's Club. Should you leave voicemails when cold calling? (Data-Backed Answer) (2024). Read the source
Advice marked as writing practice is common sense for clear email, not a study result. See where all of our guidance comes from. No statistic on this page is invented.