Last night, my friend and I were contemplating ideas on what the best possible message was for a follow-up phone call after a number close.

So how do you get her to call you back? Well, here are the rules on voice-mail:

1. It must build comfort
(i.e. I saw this "XYZ" the other day and it made me think of you. )

2. It should have an instantaneous appeal to her emotions
(i.e. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but "XYZ" team is definitely going to lose the game this weekend! C & F)

3. It cannot imply neediness
(i.e. of what NOT to say: So why don't you ever call me back?)

4. It must be unique
(i.e. I could totally kick your ass in tennis! C & F)

5. It couldn't hurt to be funny
(i.e. You could call her when your standing right next to her. She will look at you and roll her eyes. Look back and say, "hang on a sec, I gotta take this." If she doesn't answer, you whisper in her ear, "you should probably pick up, it might be someone important!)

6. It should be positive and energetic
(i.e. of what NOT to say: yeah, so my friend just got into an accident and he kind of died. By the way, do you want to hang out sometime?)

Some more examples:

My friend left a message that I found rather amusing. But he did so by exaggerating the direct opposite of the rules listed above. I thought it was clever.

"Hey Danielle, holy shit I gotta tell you something really, really, important! But you gotta call me back right away."

Of course she called back; he just played it casual like he didn't know what she was talking about. Or else, he forgot what he was going to tell her. Be C & F with it though, or she will just think your weird.

Another thing we tried:

We left a voice-mail of us pretending not to know we called her in the first place. So the message was our "casual conversation" (which is hilarious even if she doesn't call us back).

"Dude, change the channel, why are we watching 'Made in Manhattan'?"
"Uh, because J-Lo is in it, obviously."
"In case you didn't get the memo, J-Lo really sucks!"
"I don't like the fact that she has short hair, what do you think about women with short hair?"
"Depends on the girl; some can pull it off while others fail deeply."
"Yeah, my ex-girlfriend accused me of breaking up with her because she had short hair. . .And that was only partially true."
"Haha, your ridiculous!. . ."

This isn't a script, its just an example. Keep the conversation going until the machine cuts you off. (some more advice: be sure to listen to the message before you send it through.)

I dont personally leave messages. In this day in age with caller ID and such they know who called if they see a # they don't recognize. I prefer to leave them wondering, and preserve the mystery.

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Been around the world twice, Talked to everyone once...

Respectfully disagree. You need to be able to maintain comfort with her. Thus, she needs to know who you are, and likewise, you need to be availble potential options.