I wanted to share my recent experience while working off of a prospect list. On average, it is taking sometimes 7 or more phone calls within a 3 day period to get some prospects on the phone. So don’t give up if they are not responding quickly, your persistence will pay off if you keep calling until you get them. The 3 things I hear the most when prospecting a decision maker who is hard to find are:

He/She’s not in the office right now, may I take a message?

He/She’s in a meeting right now, may I take a message?

He/She’s on the phone, may I take a message?

1. The First thing is to be cordial with the gatekeeper and use their first name.
2. Leave a message or voice message the first time, but you can also say, ‘I would like to send him some information by email regarding what we were going to talk about today, do you have his/her email address so I can send that?’ (most will give it if they know it and feel comfortable giving it, or they will give you theirs and forward it) Now you have a reason to call later the same day to make sure they were able to receive the email in their inbox.
   • Or you could say, instead of me having you take down a long message, how about if I just send him/her a quick email?…In the meantime please let him know that I will be sending an email shortly. This is considerate to them because they were probably busy when you called.
   • If you have already left a message with no return phone call or are calling more than once in the same day and have already left a message and they say something like, ‘so and so is not available, may I take a message?’, try this…

‘No that’s ok, I am going to be on the phone and I don’t want him to call and miss me. I will just call back a little later this afternoon if that is ok. But you can let him know that _______ from ________ called’

Or you could try…

‘No that’s ok, I was trying to catch him before I stepped out of the office for a bit. I will try to reconnect with him when I return to the office.’

Either one gives you the green light to call back. I cannot tell you how many times this has worked for me over the years and again today!