Tweet

Effective Phone Techniques

Written by: Michael Beck

Article Overview: People like to be around people, who are appropriately positive, appropriately enthusiastic, and who reflect a belief and confidence in what they’re doing. By listening to yourself as you use the phone and being sensitive to how you sound to others, you can develop an excellent style ...

Effective Phone Techniques

Now that we’re better aware of some of the pitfalls to avoid (read my article “Tele-phony”), let’s discuss how to be an effective professional on the phone. People like to be around people, who are appropriately positive, appropriately enthusiastic, and who reflect a belief and confidence in what they’re doing.

There are several ways to sound positive and enthusiastic:
• Be positive and engaged in your phone work, but not artificially so.
• Make your calls during the time of day when you have the most energy and the best attitude. This will play to your natural cycle of energy.
• Smile! You’ve probably heard this before and it’s true. When you smile as you talk, your smile can be “heard”.
• Get proper nutrition to feed your body, your mind and your attitude. Ever notice how you become impatient when you’re hungry? Ever notice how you have trouble staying focused when you’re hungry? Ever notice how your attitude dips when you’re hungry? Don’t neglect this important aspect of phone success.
• If you’ve been on the phone for a while (an hour or more), take a break to refresh yourself and rejuvenate. Your attitude and energy level will rise and your voice will reflect it.

As far as being and sounding professional goes, there are a number of very important techniques to employ:
• It’s good to develop a script so you remember the important points you want to make, but most of us don’t write the way we speak. Get out of the habit of writing properly, and instead, write how you speak. It will make you sound more natural and will keep you from having to read your script.
• Practice saying your script so it sounds like a completely natural conversation for you and your style.
• Work to have a conversation instead of a presentation. As you get into your conversation, ask questions. Be consultative. Remember, this is about your prospect, not about you.
• An excellent way to establish yourself as a professional is to introduce yourself as someone who helps people or businesses solve problems, rather than as someone selling insurance.
• Another GREAT technique for setting yourself up as a professional is to be respectful of your prospect’s time. After introducing yourself, simply ask, “Do you have a few minutes to talk?” If you’ve been clear with your introduction, they’ll know who you are and what you want to talk to them about. Their answer to your question will be very revealing.

Here are a couple of additional pointers:
• If you feel like you sound like a telemarketer, you probably do. Change your approach/style.
• If you feel that you’re “over the top” with enthusiasm, you probably are. Tone things down to a more professional level.
• If what you are saying makes you feel uncomfortable, your prospect will undoubtedly feel uncomfortable as well. Change how you say what you want to say so it comes out professionally and naturally. This way, you and your prospect won’t become uncomfortable.
• If you feel like you’re coming across as being pushy, you probably are. Change your approach to reflect your own style of expressing yourself.
• If you feel like you’re not doing enough phone work, you probably aren’t. Find a way to say what you need to say in a professional manner and in a way that protects your attitude and energy, and get to work!

In conclusion, by listening to yourself as you use the phone and being sensitive to how you sound to others, you can develop an excellent style of telephone marketing that will set you apart from other marketers, will establish you as a professional, and will boost your rate of success tremendously.

Related Articles
  The Close
  Different Call Handling Techniques
  Sales Training Techniques that Work!
  Cold Calling Techniques
  The Top 5 Techniques 1980

Article Tags: attitude, belief, confidence, dips, energy level, habit, natural conversation, neglect, pitfalls, proper nutrition, several ways, smile, style work, tele, time of day



Related Forum Posts
How do i answer the phone? - I learned this technique from a successful businessman who earns over a million dollars a year. He just uses his name like this... Phone rings... " This is Dwayne..." It kind of throws people off who have a preplanned script and gets right into it. Phone rings... " This is Dwayne..." No Hello, no good morning/afternoon/evening Phone rings... "This is Dwayne..."
Re: Can you read body language and convert it into a sale? - I can definitely read their mood by how they speak on the phone. You can usually also tell by the way they respond to the things you are saying. Phone sales aren't as easy as when you see them in person, but I still believe their tone can tell a lot.
Re: Bad SEO techniques? - There are few more techniques which also known as the Bad SEO Techniques or Black Hat SEO Techniques. Such as: - Relying on keyword metatags - Purchase Links (From Spamming or blacklisted sites or doing purchase links on high level for site marketing) - Horde Page Rank: This is one of my favorites, because it's one that most webmasters don't understand yet. This is because it changed over the past year or two. The concept people have in their mind is that page rank is a key part of site rankings and linking to other sites "leaks page rank" from your site. However, the world has changed. - Swap Links: Another oldie, but not goodie. Search engines want links to represent endorsements. Swapped links represent barter, and they are trivial to detect. Don't swap links for the purpose of building page rank. It's a waste of your time - Implement duplicate content - Use Session IDs on your URLs - Use lots of Javascript - Implement your site in Flash
Re: Bad SEO techniques? - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":1jr37kqx]There are few more techniques which also known as the Bad SEO Techniques or Black Hat SEO Techniques. Such as: - Relying on keyword metatags - Purchase Links (From Spamming or blacklisted sites or doing purchase links on high level for site marketing) - Horde Page Rank: This is one of my favorites, because it's one that most webmasters don't understand yet. This is because it changed over the past year or two. The concept people have in their mind is that page rank is a key part of site rankings and linking to other sites "leaks page rank" from your site. However, the world has changed. - Swap Links: Another oldie, but not goodie. Search engines want links to represent endorsements. Swapped links represent barter, and they are trivial to detect. Don't swap links for the purpose of building page rank. It's a waste of your time - Implement duplicate content - Use Session IDs on your URLs - Use lots of Javascript - Implement your site in Flash[/quote:1jr37kqx] Hi Jeff, Thanks for adding to the list. I have one question, though. How would one implement Session IDs for a URL, and what benefit would come from doing so?
Re: Can you read body language and convert it into a sale? - [quote="mbrand2222":3738chdj]I can definitely read their mood by how they speak on the phone. You can usually also tell by the way they respond to the things you are saying. Phone sales aren't as easy as when you see them in person, but I still believe their tone can tell a lot.[/quote:3738chdj] Hi Mary, Would you have a specific example you could share with us on how you cab turn an unfriendly tone (from a client) into a positive one or even a sale?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

BUILDING A HIGH PERFORMING TEAM

Build Corporate Credit for Your Small Business

How To Become A Member of the Paparazzi

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.