Full disclosure - I hate voicemail. My business associates (clients, employees, etc.) know my preferred method of communication is live conversation, email, or text with voicemail as a last resort.

I only leave voicemails if:

• I am calling someone at a scheduled time and they did not pick up

• I am connecting with a referral and do not have their email address

• I need to connect with someone and I don't have access to email (which is rare)

• I want to annoy someone

The majority of voicemails I receive are from vendors. Unless they state in the first five seconds that they were referred to me by a trusted source, I hit delete. I admit that I rarely listen to a voicemail from someone I know in it's totality - I simply call the person right back.

Apparently, many sales people do not share my disdain of voicemail. In a recent on-line discussion, about 66% of participants still utilize voicemail as a prospecting tool. They claim leaving short, concise, enticing messages will result in a large percentage of callbacks.

Most of the pro-voicemail people are in the business of selling sales training services such as prospecting best practices. Those who sell technology, financial services or other non-sales consulting products think leaving voicemails when prospecting is a waste of time, especially when calling on senior levels.

Is my anti-voicemail stance justified? Let me know....but don't be a wise guy and leave me a voicemail.

A former colleague of mine works for a global 100 firm as a program manager. Her duties include helping business units choose technology vendors and negotiate the service contracts. As you might expect, she interacts quite frequently with sales reps and sales managers.

Sound like a fun job? Wrong.

Every time she recommends a vendor, her reputation is on the line. Countless times, sales teams that receive her blessing fail to impress the business units. Before she introduces a vendor to a business unit, she asks the sales person to do three things:

1. Send the business unit a meeting confirmation email that includes the agenda and objectives for the meeting
2. Schedule a conference call with her 48 hours prior to the meeting so she can help the sales team prepare
3. Once the meeting is complete, summarize the key points / next steps in an email and copy all attendees
   

What percent of sales teams follow her lead? About 10% do all three. The rest of the 90% are either too stupid or lazy to do so.

She is not asking for much. The fact she has to ask at all is the root of the problem.

Most sales people / teams today are not interested in doing the "little things" that make a huge difference. As such, the "bar" that classifies a sales rep as a professional is quite low.

Why is it so hard to get sales reps to do the "little things"? It's just common sense - right?