Getting a busy executive to take your call isn't brain surgery.

It can be a lot harder!

With voice mail and human sentries, it becomes necessary to take countermeasures. This doesn't mean crashing the gates. Appreciate that you probably won't have real-time conversations precisely when you want to have them.

Instead, put your efforts into developing superb voice mail scripts to get clients and prospects to call you back.

Example: When I was consulting to a company that stages job fairs, it was common to receive fewer than 10% call backs from messages left on voice mail. By the time my scripts were introduced, that result soared to 70%.

What did I do to make such a dramatic impact?

(1) I postulated that a major breakthrough could be achieved. You'd be amazed at how much we disable ourselves from improving our results. We do it by assuming that we simply MUST use the timeworn, unworthy voice mail scripts that have been handed down to us. "Hello, this is Gary Goodman with Customer Satisfaction Dot Com. Please call me at..."

(2) I addressed the WIIFUM question: "What''s in it for me?" As you'll note in the message I delivered in point (1), there is no reason for the person to call me back, no benefit in it for the listener. In a second, you'll see how I implied a very powerful inducement.

(3) There's no urgency, no reason to call back NOW! I am participating in a direct mail promotion that "expires" within 72 hours of receipt of the piece. You'd be amazed at the number of people that breathlessly call in, asking "Is it too late to get in on this?" Urgency and scarcity sell. Most important, they sell NOW. You know what they say about a bird in the hand.

So, let's get to the script I devised for the job fair campaign. The aim of the call was to sell booth spaces to human resources managers at hiring companies. The events were usually co-sponsored by leading newspapers that permitted us to say we were phoning on behalf of them.

"Hello, this is Gary Goodman calling on behalf of the Daily Planet. I'm on a deadline. Would you please return my call right away at...?"

Yes, this utterly simple message increased our call back responses so much that we had to reorient ourselves from being mostly an outbound unit to an inbound one. We were swamped with replies!

What was so powerful about this message? The three criteria I listed above will tell you:

(I) We postulated a huge response and we got it.

(2) We addressed the WIIFUM question by implying that the recipient of the call was going to be interviewed, was going to experience the proverbial "15 minutes of fame."

(3) Urgency was introduced at the same time with the word, "deadline."

We didn't say we were reporters, that was inferred by the listener. No one complained, and we sold a lot of booths.

If you're a seller and you're NOT on a deadline, don't bother writing a voice mail script!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top speaker, sales, service, and negotiation consultant, TV and radio commentator, and the best-selling author of more than 12 books. He conducts seminars and speaks at convention programs around the world. His newest book is DR. GARY S. GOODMAN'S 77 BEST PRACTICES IN NEGOTIATION, and his latest audio program is Nightingale-Conant's "Crystal Clear Communication: How to Explain Anything Clearly in Speech & Writing." He can be contacted about training and speaking invitations at gary@customersatisfaction.com.