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# Get more conversations: leave a voicemail and stay on the line

> Your lead is more likely to talk to you later if you leave a voicemail today. Hanging up the moment their voicemail picks up, or calling the same lead over and over, gets you fewer real conversations.

## Call like a doctor's office

Imagine you work at a doctor's office and you're calling a patient with their test results. They're expecting your call.

You don't call 15 times in a row and hang up every time their voicemail answers. You call once. You leave a message saying who you are and why you're calling, and you give them a number to call back.

That's what people expect from a real business, and it's what carriers expect to see from one too. Your goal isn't to trick someone into picking up. It's to do business with them.

Ask yourself:

- If an unknown number called you for several weeks and never left a message, would you ever call it back?
- The next time that number called you, would you be more or less likely to answer?

## Leave a voicemail when your lead doesn't answer

Leave a voicemail when your lead doesn't answer. Leads who get a voicemail are more likely to have a meaningful conversation in the future than leads who don't receive a voicemail after a missed call.

Keep it short:

- **Who you are** 
- **Why you're calling**
- **The best number to reach you.**

## Stay on past the first few seconds

When a call connects, give it a moment. If you hang up as soon as you hear a voicemail greeting, the lead gets a missed call and nothing else: no voice, no name, no reason to call you back.

Those few seconds are the whole opportunity. Stay on, and you get to leave a message. Hang up, and you've spent a dial to tell someone that an unknown number called and said nothing.

And from the carrier's perspective: calling the same number over and over, especially back to back, and never leaving a message, looks more like abusive behavior than a legitimate business.

## Don't call the same lead over and over

In Lineage's own call data, calling the same lead again and again in a row stops paying off:

- **Calling at a future time does more than calling back to back.**
- **Leads who do end up answering a 3x or 4x dial hang up faster.** Even if they do answer, you're less likely to have a meaningful conversation and get an appointment set. Typically it's the recipient answering suspiciously, then hanging up. Opportunity lost, lead cost wasted.

Spacing those calls out, and leaving a message, does more than calling back to back.

## Keep your numbers healthy and connect better

Carriers and your leads can only see how you call, not who you are. Calling like a robo-dialer costs you:

- **Fewer callbacks**, because a missed call with no message gives the lead nothing to respond to.
- **Shorter calls** when a lead does pick up.
- **More spam flags on your numbers.** Agents who regularly called the same lead four or more times in a row had their numbers flagged 3 to 4 times as often.

Calling the way a real business calls is also what keeps your numbers working. It's the best evidence to the carrier that you're a legitimate business, and the best indicator to your leads that they should answer your next attempt.

## Need help?

- **Knowledge base:** [Browse all help articles](https://help.lineagecrm.com/en/)
- **Email:** [support@lineagecrm.com](mailto:support@lineagecrm.com)
- **Live chat:** Click the chat icon in the bottom-right corner of any Lineage page