"I'm not getting appointments. No one is picking up. No one is returning my call."

It's been my experience as a sales coach, as well as my firm belief, that you can get an appointment with the prospect, people will pick up the phone or reply to your email or even return your voicemail message.

It's possible… But one thing has to be in place.

All salespeople can be great , but there is a skill they must possess. It's so important that if I was only allowed to teach one thing to a sales team, it would be how to improve the quality of the sales call. That is, if you have something of value to say, people will want to hear from you.

Consider these two voicemail messages:

Call #1: "Hi, my name is Bill. I understand you're the person who buys the <>. I am confident my company can save you money. I'm hoping to find a time when we could meet?"

Call #2: "Hi, my name is Bill. I understand you have a trade show coming up in a few months. I can help make that event a huge success for you and will call again."

In the first call, Bill is getting into a product/service-based conversation. It can only end well if he has the lowest price. In the second call, Bill does his homework and not only will it be a solutions-based conversation, it will be at an entirely different level within the organization.

The difference in those two calls is a skill set all salespeople must possess. It gets to the core message from Dale Carnegie's, "How to Win Friends and Influence People" when he wrote, "You can get what you want when you figure out with the other guy wants and help him to get it."

By improving the quality of your sales call, you have a stronger message to deliver, will leave a better voicemail, and will drastically increase the odds of connecting with not just a Buyer, but a decision maker. Net result? A better, more profitable sale.