Are you a voicemail blabberer? Do you just freeze when you hit someone’s voicemail?

The phone is ringing, and all of a sudden you hear “Hi. This is Jane. Please leave a message . . .” Your heart starts beating really fast.

The next thing you know, you start blabbering. “Oh, hey Jane. It’s Mike. Okay, that’s . . . yeah, it was great meeting you the other day. Give me a call, if you really want to. I know you don’t know me, but if you want call me. Yeah, call me. Here’s my number. It’s, um, 310-iamuputight.”

That might as well be your number since it could not be more clear how uptight you are. What you want to do instead when you leave a voicemail message, is to set the stage to start the relationship.

Think about how exciting it is when you get a good voicemail message. Compare the above voicemail message to something like this: “Hey Jane. It’s Mike. How are you doing? It was great meeting you the other day at Whole Foods. I checked out your YouTube videos that you were telling me about. They were hilarious! Call me. I have to share something with you about that.”

Do you see how the person receiving that message would feel very differently after hearing it than the feeling they would have after getting the first message? This second message was upbeat. It was exciting.

The second message makes the person want to call you back. You’ve established the relationship. You’re actually the guy who they want to call back, as opposed to the “ah” and “um” guy who stumbles through the message or hangs up without leaving any message at all.

Virtually everyone has Caller ID nowadays. Don’t ever hang up. They will see that you called. Leaving no message will make them not want to call you back just as much as leaving a bad voicemail message.

Click here to hear me talk more about how to know exactly what to say to a woman when you’re leaving a voicemail message and in any situation.