Speak like a Manager: How to leave a voicemail

Do you feel nervous when leaving a business voicemail? Do you say too much or too little? What should you say and how much should you say? Watch and learn exactly what to do and what NOT to do to leave an effective voicemail. You’ll learn a system you can follow every time, based on the who, when, why, and what of your call. Watch and practice to improve the professional quality of your messages and increase your chances of getting what you want.

Take a quiz on this lesson at https://www.engvid.com/speak-like-a-manager-voicemail/ .

Continue improving your professional English with the rest of the Speak like a Manager (SLAM) series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxSz4mPLHWDamTa4xW7tkb-roADpiT5Jf

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. Do you get nervous when leaving a voicemail for someone at work or in a business situation? Do you wonder what to say, how to say it, or how much to say? Well, you're not alone. Most people make one of two mistakes when leaving a voicemail: They either say too much - they go on and on, and they ramble, and there is no end; or they don't say enough and they don't leave enough information. So, in this lesson I'm going to show you exactly what you should say and what you should not say. All right? I'm going to give you some general guidelines, and then I'm going to actually give you three examples at least of full conversations, full... not... sorry. Not conversations, but voicemail messages so that you can follow that pattern, and learn and practice to leave your voicemail. Okay? So, let's get started.

So, first of all, these are some of the things you should not do, and on this side are things you should do. So, let's look at these guidelines. Now, this lesson is part of the series of lessons that I have on "Speak Like a Manager", so whether you're a manager today or you aspire to be a manager in a work context, this lesson will help you along with several other lessons of this kind. Okay? Just a point for you. All right.

So, these are some mistakes that people make. Sometimes when leaving a voicemail, they leave no name. That doesn't help; no one knows who to call. Or they leave no number, because they think: "Oh, he knows my number", "She knows my number" - no. Don't do that. Make it easy for the other person. Or the message is left, but it's a very vague message. "Hi. This is Rebecca. Call me back." Okay, that doesn't really tell the person very much. Right? What did I want? No. You have to be more specific.

Sometimes people call repeatedly; they make repeated calls, many calls, and leave no message. And today that's a really bad idea because people can see the number that called, and if they see that you called, like, five times and you didn't even leave a message, it's very frustrating. Okay? So, don't do that. It's not only frustrating, it's also not professional, so don't do that. Or they have... Sometimes people call again and again, and they leave many messages. So, you can't do that either. You can't leave too many messages for someone; they may be away, they may be at a meeting, they may be at a conference, and you can't fill up their voicemail with just your messages. Okay? All right.

Next is sometimes people zoom through their name and number because they know their name and number so well that they say it really fast, but that doesn't help the person who's receiving your call. They need to hear your name and your number. Okay? So, these were some of the bad practices; now let's look at the good practices, the best practices.

So, when you're leaving a voicemail, you want to make sure to leave your first, or your first and last name. Now, that depends on whether you know the person, you don't know the person. If you know them, you can just say: "Hi. This is Rebecca.", "Hi. This is Maria.", "Hi. This is John", whatever. Or give your full name: "Hello. This is John Smith." Okay?

We're going to run through the exact conversation, so don't worry. First we're just establishing some basic guidelines. So, you want to leave your first, or first and last name. You want to leave your contact information or number. If it's a number, if it's an email - whatever that may be. You want to leave a specific message about why you're calling. Okay? You want to call once and leave a message. All right? Don't keep calling. And maybe if you don't hear back from them-okay?-you could call a second time. All right?

It depends on the situation. Of course, if something is urgent, then that's a different context, but I'm speaking generally. So, you could try a little later in the day or after a few hours. Again, leave a second message possibly, but usually not more than that. And if that... If you don't get a reply or a response from that, then you could call once and try another method, you could send an email, you could send... Message them. Right? Text them-right?-on your phone. So that's another way. […]