In teaching, about the worst thing a teacher can do is to try to be something they’re not. The students will spot it every time. The resulting chaos in the classroom is impossible to stop. In your phone work, you need to be yourself – and with a little practice, develop the following skills.
1. Good Communication Skills
You need a voice quality that is clear, pleasant. One of the ways to “test” the voice quality is to record yourself, have someone listen to you on the phone, or record yourself on the phone. It will be very revealing, but you will begin the journey to better self-expression. The last thing you want to do is leave a voice mail that is unclear!
2. Accept Rejection
You have to face the fact that you will be rejected, but it isn’t you that is being rejected. As Robert Henri, the American painter put it: “You pass people on the street. Some are for you, some are not.” Not everyone wants to talk to you when you want to talk to them. Be a good listener, which means sensing the mood of the person with whom you are speaking!
3. Organize
Use a script, but like all good conversationalists, be ready to abandon the script whenever the person you are talking to decides not to follow it! One of the best lessons you can learn about talking on the phone is how to get off the script as fast as possible. In teaching, a lesson plan is developed. The problem? The students haven’t read it! You have to have the confidence and flexibility as well as a belief in yourself to go off the script at a moment’s notice, knowing that you will stay on course and Sell!
4. Ability to Project
Are you enthusiastic? Are you friendly? If you are not, you better be able to sound like you are! What makes a superior actor is the ability to throw themselves into the role…to lose their “self” into the character they are trying to portray. Want to sell more of your services? Cast yourself into a role. Then convey that role over the phone!