Knowing How to Sound Your Very Best - Every Time

• 00:04 So you've initiated the call, you're on the call,
• 00:07 how do you really come across your best?
• 00:09 I gave you a few tips earlier, and I want to reinforce those now.
• 00:13 For starters, have a pleasant tone of voice.
• 00:16 No one wants to talk to a grumpy person.
• 00:21 I know it sounds ridiculous and cheesy,
• 00:23 but actually smiling when you're talking on the phone will help.
• 00:26 You'll have a more pleasant tone and don't ask me why, but somehow it works.
• 00:31 And if you even look in a mirror of yourself smiling,
• 00:33 you'll have a more pleasant tone.
• 00:36 Standing yields sound better.
• 00:39 You'll be able to breathe more fully, you'll be able to gesture more,
• 00:43 you'll be able to resonate more.
• 00:46 So standing when you talk can actually help.
• 00:49 It's not essential, but if you want to give yourself that final 1% extra,
• 00:54 it can be incredibly helpful.
• 00:56 When you're talking to a client, customer, prospect,
• 01:00 don't ever make them feel rushed.
• 01:03 I understand, there may be times when you are rushed.
• 01:08 You can always apologize, and in a non rushed way say, I apologize,
• 01:11 I have to leave now to catch a plane to come see you for the meeting tomorrow.
• 01:15 Give a reason but otherwise, let them talk, don't rush.
• 01:20 Also don't hop right in if you're talking to someone who is
• 01:25 an existing client, customer prospect, or a boss, and
• 01:29 you already know them, it could be seen as too rude, to abrupt.
• 01:34 Have little small talk.
• 01:36 Ask how they're doing.
• 01:38 If it's a beautiful day where you are, say how beautiful it is, and
• 01:41 ask how their day is.
• 01:41 Now if you sense they're incredibly rushed, or
• 01:44 they're one of these people who always wants to get in and out and
• 01:48 off the phone as quickly as possible, you can dispense with a small talk.
• 01:53 But if you're not certain, it's better to just spend 30 seconds, 60 seconds,
• 01:59 on some pleasantries before hopping into the main purpose of your call.
• 02:04 It's got to be proportional.
• 02:06 If it's really just one quick question from a colleague in the Cleveland office,
• 02:12 sure, call up, ask, get it, and get on.
• 02:15 But if it is a client, a colleague, someone else you report to, and
• 02:19 you know you're going to have to talk to them for ten minutes, and
• 02:23 you haven't talked in a few days, well 30 seconds, 60 seconds, it's proportionate.
• 02:28 It's only one-tenth of the ten minute phone call.
• 02:32 So try to have some small talk.
• 02:35 Next, how are you coming across?
• 02:38 And by that do I mean that you're using a lot of fillers?
• 02:45 When you're uncomfortable, this comes out when you're talking to clients,
• 02:48 prospects, bosses.
• 02:49 When people are uncomfortable they're thinking, what do I say?
• 02:53 And that's when the fillers, the uhs, the ums, the ers,the you knows,
• 02:58 the so's come out again, and again, and again.
• 03:02 My recommendation, record yourself and listen to it.
• 03:06 You need to hear yourself speaking on the phone.
• 03:09 So the homework, is I need you to call somebody, have a conversation.
• 03:14 Get a second cell phone, or use your laptop or iPad,
• 03:18 to record just your part of the conversation.
• 03:21 It doesn't matter what the other person does.
• 03:23 And I need you to really count your uhs, your ums, your ers, the you knows,
• 03:28 and see are you coming across well.
• 03:31 Beyond that, do you come across as someone interesting?
• 03:34 Do you like the quality of your voice?
• 03:37 Do you sound fully conversational?
• 03:39 Or do you sound like you're reading a script?
• 03:42 Nobody wants to sound like a script reader, and
• 03:44 nobody wants to listen to someone who sounds like they're reading a script.
• 03:50 How many of us get phone calls, sometimes daily,
• 03:55 from some sort of telemarketer?
• 03:58 And you can tell, it takes less than a second to tell when someone's reading.
• 04:03 We all have built into us this instinctive ability to detect when
• 04:08 someone's reading to us on the phone.
• 04:11 You don't want to sound like you're reading.
• 04:14 And by the way, this applies to conference calls, any kind of call.
• 04:18 I do not recommend you ever read on the phone to someone, they can figure it out,
• 04:23 they can hear it.
• 04:25 Of course, there are exceptions.
• 04:27 If you are doing a quarterly conference call, and you are the CFO for
• 04:31 a publicly traded company, and you have to read legal boilerplate or
• 04:36 your lawyers say you're going to prison, by all means read.
• 04:39 But realize that at that moment, you're not trying to really communicate,
• 04:44 you're just checking a box.
• 04:46 For any other time when you're talking to someone and you've initiated the call,
• 04:50 especially, you want to just talk, you want to be conversational.
• 04:54 So I need you to record yourself having a conversation, ideally work related,
• 04:59 with another colleague, perhaps a friend, a buddy, a peer, an equal, and
• 05:03 just talk to them as if you were talking to a client.
• 05:07 Record it, listen to it.
• 05:10 Figure out what you like, what you don't like.
• 05:13 That's the homework, do it right now.

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