Pro Phone

Before the internet, newspaper want ads, just printed Telephone Representatives Wanted, or Tele Sales, or Customer Service.

They all meant the same thing, phone work. Talking long hours on the phone, into your ear, (before headsets), canned presentations repeated endlessly over and over again to many who just hung up on you. Continuous manual phone dialing with more no's than yes's. Disappointments over and over again.

Many products and services jumped on the landlines and realized the importance of bringing their ideas directly into the home, via the telephone. How wonderful, capturing your prospect and keeping him on the phone for at least three minutes, usually long enough to interest him and sell your product. Road services, window installations, home siding and of course magazine subscriptions. It was a numbers game of course, the more you called, the more sales you would eventually make. It did work for those who really decided to make it worth their while, and concentrate by honing their presentations. Calling their relatives and friends asking their advice and honest critique. Many hangups and refusals of your delivery.

Your voice is a give away as to how your call is going to be responded too. Your voice is your POWER SUIT. When you dress professionally people will take you serious, its the same for your voice delivery and presentation. Happy, smiling salespeople, television ads, newspaper and magazine ads, etc, always get attention and sales. That also applies to telephone solicitations by warm blooded people dialing the phone for a living.

If you are not a happy voice, your calls will not be productive, fun or challenging. The person on the other end will kill the misery quickly with a hang up, and if you are in sales with commissions, you are going to starve. The more hangups, the more reason for you to either hone your skills or get out of the game and seek a different career. Honing your skills in the long run can get you into broadcasting or voice overs even background speaking for movies and television, and even the internet.

But, practice does make perfect. Hang ups are like slammed doors to an outside salesperson, but they teach you a great deal, you learn from your mistakes when you go back and review your presentation and wonder why it didn't work this time and what can you do to make it work the next?

Honing your skill may include recording a message on your own phone and listening to it. Yes, that telephone recording can identify you as a professional or a non professional. My telephone recording on my personal cell phone got me a great paying position selling golf packages and time shares, and all I applied for was a clerical position in a local resort.

They were so impressed by my voice, they called me immediately to offer me a better position, which included a heavy background in all types of sales. I give HAPPY FONE!!! Yes, you smile when I am on the other end calling you, because I am really having fun and sounding like it, and I really do like talking to you. And if you do hang up on me, its with a smile and we are still friends.

Your audience of course will vary with your delivery and presentation. A more mature audience you might be calling will expect professionalism with a bit of humor. No sense of humor? better find work elsewhere, because people person jobs require a sense of humor and to a certain degree, witticism and intelligence and excellent diction.

Walking the talk and yes, that means being sincere, honest and smiling with your voice. Don't retaliate to irate people, be polite and professional, tell them to "have a good day" with a smile, and move on to the next call. Everyone likes a happy person, or a happy dog or even a happy cat or happy feet, so go with that flow and be happy. Voice the world with your enthusiasm and genuine happiness but, most of all professionalism. Be the best! Be the happiest.

Practice your diction, watch newscasters on television or speeches, or listen to books on tape. If you like a favorite singer and If you can listen to a book on tape, means the narrator has excited you enough to continue listening to the story, or listening to the song, no matter how long it is. The voice attracts.

Prepare your delivery like an actor prepares for his lines in a movie or play. Be real, feel real and talk real. Do not be condescending or patronizing, the person on the other line will hang up quickly if you cannot be strong with an honest and smiling presentation. Your voice is unique. Polish your delivery in the car on the way to work, or call yourself on your cellphone and listen to how you sound and ask yourself "would I buy from this person if he or she called me?"

When you personally feel confident with your skill, when you feel it is really you, you are now a professional. Your sales will go up, your confidence will soar higher, and people will love listening to you like listening to a book on tape. They will want to interact with you, smile with you and even laugh with you, even if they cannot buy your product, they will remember your name and your company, and that is your purpose. To advertise and sell, whether it be now or at a later date, when they call you back to place the order, and also maybe that's why "they didn't kill the messengers."