We all know how important it is to be a good listener. But I'm the lone voice in the wilderness talking about the vital importance of hearing. And I mean hearing from your customer's perspective. It's a grossly undeveloped sales skill in most sellers because no one has ever told them it's important or how to do it.

Here's your situation: You have prospects you're trying to reach on the phone. You're desperate for them to call back, but no one does. And you leave message after message after message.

Let me ask you this -- have you ever listened to your message to see how you sound?

Most sellers haven't. They've never taken that extra step to see what it's like to be on the receiving end of their messages.

So here's what I want you to do later today. Instead of calling your hot prospect right directly, call yourself first and test out that message. That's right. Call up, leave a message and then hang up.

Two seconds later I want you to call in to listen to your voice mail and hear yourself. The first time you listen, you're going to be appalled because your voice sounds so nasally, boring. You can't focus on anything else. That's normal.

You have to do it a second time. This time I want you to listen as if you're a crazy-busy person whose phone has been ringing off the hook all morning. You hate listening to voice mails so you're going through them as rapidly as you can. Your finger is on the delete button.

Now, hear yourself from that perspective. How do you sound? Typically, most people who do this exercise admit that they'd actually delete themselves. Ouch!

The reason I'm telling you this is so that you can change your message before you leave it. You need to figure out how to convey your value and pique curiosity before you call -- not after. And you can only do that if you can first hear yourself "as if" you're actually your own prospect.

So hear yourself, pinpoint where you're losing interest in your own message, fine tune it and try again. Ultimately, by hearing from your customer's perspective you'll be able to create that message that can't be ignored. And that's what makes it worth all the effort.

Question: What tactics do you use to evaluate how your sales message sounds from your customer's perspective? Enter your comments below.