I just read a piece of sales advice that made me want to throw my phone across the room.
A prominent sales author – someone with thousands of followers and multiple books – was suggesting that salespeople leave voicemails offering “fun” and “extra game tickets” to prospects. In 2025. To Millennial and Gen-Z buyers who can smell manipulation from three states away.
But that wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was seeing dozens of comments from salespeople saying they were going to try these “proven” tactics immediately.
Here’s what I want to know: When did we decide that terrible advice becomes good advice just because it’s old advice?
The Fundamental Problem with Most Voicemail “Strategies”
Every piece of outdated voicemail advice I see makes the same fatal assumption: that what you’re selling isn’t valuable or relevant to your prospect’s needs.
Think about it. Why else would you need to trick them with fake “fun” or leave misleading messages that hide who you really are?
Here’s the thing that should terrify every salesperson who follows this advice: If you believe your product or service isn’t worth a prospect’s time, that belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s going to impact everything you do down the sales funnel. Your presentations will lack conviction. Your proposals will sound apologetic. Your closing will be weak.
You can’t sell something you don’t believe in. And every manipulative voicemail tactic screams, “I don’t believe this is worth your time either.”
The “Stealth Cold Call”
One of the most popular pieces of terrible advice is the “stealth cold call” strategy. Just leave your name and number, the theory goes. Let them think you’re a customer with a problem. Yes, this is still taught in 2025.
Let me walk you through what actually happens with this brilliant strategy:
Your prospect calls back, expecting to help a customer. Instead, they discover you’re a salesperson trying to sell them something. Now they’re not just uninterested – they’re angry. They feel deceived. And rightfully so, because you deceived them.
Maybe this approach had some merit back in the day when an upset prospect could only tell a handful of people that you were untrustworthy. But now? That prospect might post a Google Review that follows you for the rest of your career. They might blast you on LinkedIn (I’ve seen it). They might warn their entire industry network about your company’s deceptive practices.
Is that really better than just not getting a callback?
I don’t think so. I’d rather get no callback for the right reasons than get a callback for the wrong ones.
The Generational Disconnect is Real
Here’s what most sales trainers refuse to acknowledge: What worked on Baby Boomers fifteen years ago backfires spectacularly with today’s buyers.
Millennial and Gen-Z decision makers didn’t grow up in an era where salespeople were automatically granted respect and attention (as we know, a HubSpot survey shows that only 3% of people today trust salespeople). They grew up with the internet. They can research everything. They’ve been marketed to since birth, and they can smell outdated sales tactics in their sleep.
When you leave a voicemail talking about “fun” and “extra game tickets,” you’re not being creative. You’re being condescending. Today’s buyers see right through it, and they judge you accordingly.
They want substance, not gimmicks. They want to know why you’re calling and what value you bring. They don’t want to play games with someone who’s supposedly a business professional. As a special added bonus, a lot of Boomers and X’s have adopted similar habits.
What Actually Works in 2025
Here’s the reality of teleprospecting (which still matters today) and leaving voicemail (which you’ll do on 9 our of 10 dials): The objective of voicemail isn’t to get a callback anymore.
Think about it. Nine out of ten people don’t answer their phones. Period. That’s not going to change no matter how “fun” your message is. Twenty years ago, the “contact ratio” between dials and conversations was 1:3. Now it’s 1:10. There’s no sales technique that will beat that number.
But here’s what most experts miss: A well-crafted voicemail creates awareness and curiosity. When you do it right, 25% of prospects won’t call you back – but they will look you up on LinkedIn to see if you’re real.
And that’s where the real engagement begins.
This is the power of social media that old-school voicemail advice completely ignores. A voicemail can lead to LinkedIn engagement, which can lead to a meaningful conversation, which can lead to an appointment – but only if your voicemail makes you sound like someone worth investigating further.
The Four Rules for Modern Voicemail
If you’re going to leave voicemails – and you should – follow these rules:
Rule #1: Lead with your strongest reason to connect. Your first sentence should contain the most compelling reason someone should care that you called. Everything else is noise.
Rule #2: Be honest about who you are and why you’re calling. Don’t try to trick anyone. Today’s buyers appreciate transparency, and they punish deception.
Rule #3: Give multiple points of contact. Don’t just give a callback number. Give them a callback number, a text number (voicemails don’t generate an active response often, but today, half of those responses will be through text if you leave a text number), your email, and invite them to look you up on LinkedIn.
Rule #4: Make it easy to find you online. Give them enough information to look you up on LinkedIn. Make sure your LinkedIn profile tells a compelling story about the value you provide.
The Bottom Line
The number one rule of sales hasn’t changed: They can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist.
A well-done, short, to-the-point voicemail builds awareness even if it doesn’t provoke a return call. It plants a seed. It makes you real in their mind. It gives them a reason to pay attention when you follow up.
But all of that only works if you approach voicemail as a professional tool for professional communication, not as a platform for amateur hour manipulation tactics.
Your prospects are smarter than you think. Your competition is probably still following terrible advice from the 1990s. That’s your opportunity.
Stop trying to trick people into calling you back. Start giving them legitimate reasons to want to engage with you.
The difference isn’t subtle. And neither are the results.
