Despite the huge popularity of email in today's fast-paced business world, telephones and voice mail are still an important and vital part of business communication and new business development. Avoiding these 7 Deadly Sins of Voice Mail will ensure that you get the most 'bang' for your efforts on the phone.

While certain companies may find a receptionist more than enough to answer the phone, other companies may require significantly extensive call management.

Book more appointments with prospects by relinquishing old techniques that fail to build rapport and trust.

One of the simplest ways to get prospects listening is to acknowledge them.

Plenty of sales professionals dream of being able to make cold calls first thing in the morning so they can get appointments set in their calendar and start seeing an increase in their income. However, that scenario seldom occurs. Although a good number of sales professionals want to have calendars full of sales appointments, they rarely achieve that. The reason? They harbor a fear of cold calling.