Sales Voicemail Script Template
An 18-to-25-second voicemail template built on Gong's data that voicemails more than double a follow-up email's reply rate, and InsideSales/XANT's research on the optimal length window.
Gong's data shows leaving a voicemail lowers your future connect rate on that number by roughly 28%, but a voicemail paired with a follow-up email more than doubles that email's reply rate, from 2.73% up to 5.87%. The voicemail's job isn't to get a callback on its own. It's to make the email that follows it land.
Length matters too. Research from InsideSales/XANT on inside-sales calls found the strongest response window sits between 18 and 30 seconds, with results dropping roughly 2% for every additional second past that.
The template
"Hey [name], it's [your name] with [your company]. I'll keep this to ten seconds. I work with [their role/industry] whose [specific, relevant problem], and I found [one or two specific fixes]. I'll try you [specific day] at [specific time], or you can reach me at [your number]. Either way, talk soon."
Timing rules
Keep the whole message inside 20 to 25 seconds. Time yourself out loud before you use it live. If it runs past 25, cut a line rather than speaking faster.
Say your number once, and slow
Say it once, slowly enough to write down, and put it before your sign-off rather than after. The last thing you say is the thing a listener remembers, and that should be "talk soon," not a string of digits.
What to send right after
Send a follow-up email within the hour that references the exact thing you said in the voicemail. That's the sequence the data actually supports: voicemail as the setup, email as the payoff, not a voicemail hoping for a callback on its own.
"You mentioned in my voicemail [reference the exact reason you called]. Worth 15 minutes on [specific day] to walk through it?"
What to avoid
Don't pitch the product on voicemail. Don't say "just following up," it says nothing and asks nothing. Don't leave your number twice. Don't end on your phone number.
Practicing this out loud until it sounds like something you'd say to someone you already know, not something you're reading, is what actually makes it land. DialDynamics' daily drills are built for exactly that kind of repetition.