If you get stage fright at the thought of making a sales call and leaving a voicemail, preparation can go a long way. Knowing what you’re going to say before you dial – and even running through the script a couple of times – can make you feel more in control. If you want to know exactly how you’ll sound and where improvements have to be made, leave yourself the voicemail and listen to it back. You can also use a breathing exercise to help yourself relax and keep your voice steady.
A relatively unprofessional one — like mine, for instance — does the opposite: It encourages prospects, recruiters, and potential connections to run in the other direction.

If you’re contacting the same people with marketing voicemails and emails, you shouldn’t repeat information verbatim. By mixing up your approach, you make it more likely to get a response to at least one method. Also, your voicemails should be more personalized than your emails. For example, you could send an email to a contact – and 500 others – asking for feedback about a specific product they recently bought.
Your voicemail is important. Keep in mind, this is essentially one of the first impressions the hiring manager will have from you. You need to make sure your voicemail is as professional as possible. Whether you are trying to be funny, trying to show off your singing abilities or shouting in the car with the windows down, chances are the hiring manager won’t be impressed. Go into a quiet room and record a simple, “Hi, you’ve reached Kim Costa. I’m sorry I missed your call, but if you please leave your name, number and a brief message I will get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks!” You really can’t go wrong with this. Trust me when I say that hiring managers probably don’t want to hear your high school’s fight song.