19. Oh yes, sexy phone voice!

Your voice is a big part of first impressions, and when you're on the phone it's your ONLY impression. I share five handy tips to truly connect with the person on the other end of the line.

Transcript

Hello, this is Sally. Yep. That's pretty much how I answer the phone. Your voice is such a big part of first impressions when you're on the phone. It's your only impression. So what does your phone voice say about you?

I'm Sally Prosser and you're listening to That Voice Podcast. No matter who you are or what you do, your voice matters and unless you've sworn a lifetime vow of silence, then this is the podcast for you.

Welcome to episode 19 of That Voice Podcast. This episode is all about phone calls. You can tell an awful lot about a person by the way they speak on the phone, and when my little sister and I were on the online dating scene, anyone navigating the wonderful world of online dating, I feel your pain and people that know me well know that I really should be doing a spin-off of all my unbelievable dating stories.

Anyway, back to voice, one of the things that my sister and I used to say is, you must do the phone screen. And sure enough when dates didn't go so well, it was often because we missed this crucial step and it was how I ended up on one date with somebody who greeted me with "hi Sally, nice to meet you." Needless to say there was just no way that we could recover things from there and so when we successfully did this phone screening we'd be like, "Oh yes, sexy phone voice" and that's what inspired the name of this podcast. You can tell a lot about the person on the phone, you can hear their warmth, you can, he hear how genuine, they are. You can hear how educated they are. You can learn so much that you will never learn from endless text message exchanges or emails or any form of written communication.

The voice will always give you so many more clues, so it's one of the reasons we want to use it. Now I will say I haven't always had a good phone manner. In fact, it's been a lot of the feedback I've had in various roles that my phone manner is cold and abrupt and a lot of people would meet me in person and say, wow, you sound really serious and kind of mean on the phone, but you're actually really nice. And after getting that feedback from a couple of different people, I really made an effort to sound more friendly on the phone because the last thing I wanted was people to think that I was being serious and mean because anyone who knows me knows that I'm not like that at all. So, I've been working on how to put warmth into my voice and how to sound warm and approachable and all of the qualities that I'd like people to know me for. So, you might be thinking about what your own phone voice says about you.

And today I thought I'd go through five tips, five tips for how to give a better impression on the phone. Now I'm not talking about when you're talking to your family or your friends, often that doesn't really matter. They know who you are and they've already met you. I'm talking about those phone calls where it really is the first impression. You might be making a sales call, you might be making a call following up after a job application, you might be in a job where you're making lots of calls. So it could be sales, cold calls, you could be in reception you could be in recruiting. There's lots of different professions where you're making these calls constantly. So it's so important that you can give that good impression on the phone. And the lots of corporate teams I work with, this is the reason I'm brought in because they're on the phone so much and they want to make sure that their voice is putting out the vibes, I guess, that they want it to.

So here are the five points to make effective phone calls. Now the first one is not to speak with too high pitched voice.

We have this voice. I often call it phone voice, where when we answer a phone or make a phone call, we go, "hi, how are you going?" Or "hi, it's Sally here. Have a caught you at a bad time?" And we shoot up into the stratosphere when we're on the phone. And this relates to the episode called pitch perfect. I cover not living in the stratosphere but coming back down to earth. And it's really important on phone calls that we do stay on earth because the last thing you want is a high pitched voice on the other end of the line.

Number two, we want to watch the rising inflection.

And this was covered in an episode just a couple of weeks ago called, Do you do this? At the end of every sentence? When we're making a phone call, especially if we're trying to give the impression to the person on the other end of the line that we're really competent if we're ending each phrase with a rising inflection. It's that inflection of wanting validation. So if we ring up after job application and say, "hi, my name's Sally, I'm, I'm just ringing to check if you've got my application I sent in and yeah, just just to make sure you got it. And yeah. If you have any other questions." You know what I mean? Like that would be a pretty disastrous phone call if it went like that, but all of these rising inflections, just plant seed after seed after seed of doubt in the person who's listening's mind.

So go for it. Own it. I know it's hard making cold calls and I know it's hard following up after job applications because you do feel like you're on the back foot. I mean I used to be in journalism, I used to be constantly calling people who didn't want to speak to me and not only do I want them to engage in a conversation with me, but I was trying to convince them usually to go on camera to do an interview. So it was essential that I was able to sound like I knew what I was talking about.

Okay. Number three. My third tip would be to say your name slowly.

How often do people leave a message or even when they first call you and they say their name so fast, you forget it as soon as they've said it. Now, the reason we say our name fast is because it's just so incredibly familiar to us. It's one of the most familiar things in the world to us, but it's very easy for other people to miss. So one easy thing you can do, especially when you're trying to do those first impression calls, is to say your first name and your last name more slowly than the rest of the phrase. It might feel a bit unnatural. It feels unnatural saying your own name as it is. I work with a lot of journalists and one of the most awkward things we work on is the sign off - "Sally Prosser, 7 News." Just hearing your own name can make you giggle.

It feels very, very awkward. But remember, it's not about you. It's about the person on the other end of the line. And it's really important that they remember not only your voice but your name. Probably your name is more important to remember than your voice. So say your name slowly.

Number four. My number four tip for making more effective phone calls is to expect to leave a message.

So if you're making an important phone call, expect that they're not going to answer and have something prepared to leave as a message. Don't be caught by surprise by the message bank. Getting a message is definitely something that can happen. I mean, even more often than not, you get a message bank rather than an answer. So make sure you have something drafted up so you know how to confidently leave a message. It can be really, really handy.

And don't just hang up. How often do you make a phone call and then as soon as you get the message you just like freak out and hang up. Leaving a really nice message can be easier than speaking live because you can prepare it right.

And number five is just to make phone calls. Just do it.

I mean, we live in this world where everybody is just texting or emailing, you know, phone calls are almost a dying art, especially millennials. I was talking to some uni students the other day and they say when they get a call from somebody, they think it's an emergency because why else would you be phoning? Unless there was something that was wrong - and isn't it crazy? It's like as soon as the phone rings, it turns into some sort of ticking bomb. So this is our advantage.

This is our opportunity in a world where people are making less and less phone calls when we make them, we can stand out from the pack, take that opportunity to make that follow-up phone call, pick up the phone and call instead of email and make that voice to voice connection. Now I should take some of my own medicine. I am a heavy emailer and I do like messaging and you know what? Call me out. If you want to get in touch with me and I'm just writing and writing, just pick up the phone. Say, "Sal, you told me to make more phone calls and here I am talking to you." And of course with what I do, it's pretty important for people to hear my voice. So yes, point taken, I will start making more phone calls myself. So there are your five points to make more effective phone calls. Number one, lower your pitch. Number two, use falling inflections on the end of statements. Number three, say your name slowly. Number four always expect to leave a message, so prepare it. And number five, when it comes to phone calls, make them.

Next week it's my final interview for season one of That Voice Podcast and I couldn't be happier to be talking to an amazing doctor, author, and a very dear friend of mine - Sonia Henry. We're going to be chatting about spoken communication skills for doctors also about how the written and the spoken word go hand in hand. And also Sonia's been doing so much national media with her book. The book's called Going Under. It's fantastic. Pick it up for a Christmas present. And I have done media spokesperson work and know how tough it is, so hopefully Sonia can give us some tips and tricks for how she dealt with that pressure. I'm really excited and I hope you'll join me.

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