Great chat. 
 
As we have heard ump-teen million times this year, first time sales engagements have changed. Many markets are consolidating and solutions are maturing. Now its time to tell your prospects something about 'them'. I have vendors call me all the time selling add-on solutions to SF.com, call centers saying that they are the best a IT cold calling, blah, blah, blah. The voicemails that capture my attention are the ones that have done their quick research and share their knowledge of my organization. They took the time to understand who we are. If sales people are smart they plan, but also use tools that specifically help in understanding current company info(SalesView, blogs, etc).

What makes this so fascinating is that evolving technology opens a huge GRAND CANYON size chasm that separates people who get this and those who don't. Leaving good succinct voicemails to support a follow up email, should get you a response more than 50% of the time. They may tell you to pound sand, but at least they respond. If you increase your series to two -call/email (wait 2 days) call/email you should get a better response. Calling someone without checking their Linkedin profile is just lazy and tailoring the message TO THEM in the first 10 seconds can make a huge difference.

It's an old data point, but some years back a survey was conducted asking buyers what their number one pet peeve was about sales people.  
 
The number one pet peeve: 
Sales people call on me without knowing anything about my business.  
 
Anecdotal validation of your point, one the largest deals I ever won started with leaving a voice mail for a decision maker that incorporated the very principals you discussed here. When I first met the guy face to face, after he called me of the blue, he told me saved that voice mail. So, leave a voice mail if you have done the work to make it a good one.

as a veteran inside sales rep/business development specialist I appreciate this post and the conversation that followed...a voice mail should not be your one & only hope,but INHO you should leave a vmail if you attempt to reach a prospect just don't pin your hopes on him/her returning your call/message when you're done, you've lost a potential sale if that's the case...what makes the difference, for me at least, is  
a) knowing who you are calling, their business and potential challenges well in advance of your even calling on them  
b) being simple short and sweet, no LONG diatribes about this or that or anything that will cause that index finger to reach for the 'delete' button, yes, DO stand out but don't be pretentious or assumptive  
c) an email in conjunction w/ the message that is sent as soon as you leave the vmail and you mentioning the fact you will be emailing the prospect and have them look out for that email d) that email must be simple short and sweet, once again focus on their potential business challenge and remind them in the email that you know they are busy and if they don't have the time to buzz ya back no worry, you will call them in a couple days after they digest your email and its info and any attachment 
 
set a time frame and have them know in advance you will follow up at x date and x time 
 
IMO people don't want their time to be wasted, it's the biggest challenge in reaching someone, if they review your email, info, collateral and feel that a conversation will be a waste of time they can either email in reply and say so (wish more decision makers would simply do this, it would save everyone a lot of time) or they can tell you when they call you back or you reach them. 
 
It seems to me that most people, decision makers/influencers, want to hear about a solution, a product, etc, that will be of great value to them, you need to focus on being persistent w/out being an jerk, you have to focus on what's important to that person and why you are calling them, no one wants to sell anything over the phone but everyone wants the process to move along smoothly.

opps, INHO should have been IMHO, in my honest opinion 
 
 
one last thing, the best cold calls I've ever had have resulted in my mentioning in my voicemail that I want to have a conversation about " ", and in that conversation NOT selling the prospect but rather focusing on asking really good questions and listening to the prospect, when you only focus on selling the other person on the phone yhou lose them as a prospect, or at least that's my experience. Have conversations about answers, not about selling.

I am not convinced that even if the voicemail is perfectly targeted to the audience, it is worth the time it takes to leave them. If you audience picks up the phone at all, Ie, a service worker, then I would rather bang out more calls, resulting in more connects and live talks, then leave voicemails which yield a very low response..We have done some metrics on this, and they don't lead towards vm being productive..but that might just be our market.

Lots of great comments here and yes this is always a hot topic. There are two distinct schools of thought.  
 
1 - Most of the comments reflect the tradtional sales process where you do your homework, collect relevant information and use voicemail not just to drive a response but to plant a seed for a conversation you hope to have with the prospect. 
 
2 - Alternatively, there is the school of thought where you "bang out" calls and hope to connect. This works well when you have a commodity product sold to a single buyer. You don't have to do pre-call planning you just need to connect with a prospect to get them to "do" something like download a trial or demo. 
 
How or if to use voicemail is really dependent on your sales model and what you are trying to accomplish so there is not right or wrong answer.  
 
But, if you use voicemail, the Why You Why Now strategy is integral to success! Thanks to all for participating.