Here are four sample voice mail messages you can start using today to separate yourself from the other 95% of voice mails that get ignored, deleted and never returned.
The duration of the global semiconductor shortage just keeps getting shorter -- and with it, investor confidence in semiconductor stocks like Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD), which closed down 6.1% Tuesday. If you recall, market researcher International Data Corporation (IDC) predicted last week that the dearth of semiconductors, which has hamstrung markets for everything from PCs to automobiles over the past year, will begin easing later this year. Speaking at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California, reports CNBC, Su pointed to a number of new semiconductor manufacturing plants coming online over the next few months as evidence that, while supplies will remain "likely tight" through the first half of next year, the chip shortage may end sooner than some investors expect.

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.
Keep the conversation going, and give prospects an easy way to return your call by shooting them a quick email once you hang up the phone. Salespeople are used to being on the phone all day -- but not all prospects are.