Читать книгу Personal Development With Success Ingredients - Mo Abraham - Страница 151

•Rate – The speed with which we speak. Many people speak too rapidly. Very few speak too slowly. A slower pace is particularly important in telephone sales, as our attention-focusing skills – body language, eye contact, clothes, observation of the other person’s attention level – which have been developed in face-to-face conversations, become useless on the telephone.

•Pitch – The level of our voice. A good speaker may overcome many flaws, but a monotone is a massive handicap.

•Volume – The loudness with which we speak. Speak too slowly and no one would hear you; speak too loudly and you’ll make your listener physically and mentally uncomfortable.

•Variation – This is critical, and makes the above three elements effective. There is really no optimum single Rate, Pitch, or Volume. Rather, it’s the correct mixture in each of these areas that allows us to maximize the impact of what we say.

•Conviction – The firmness and apparent confidence that what we say is true without question. Conviction sells; it reassures; it is believable. Lack of it only adds to any doubts.

•Pronunciation – Slurring of words and poor pronunciation is not conductive to a confident, upper-class voice.

•Jargon and Useless Expressions – This refers to habitual phrases which add nothing to the meaning of what is being conveyed.

Next step is to improve it.

•Signs on Your Phone – Speech patterns are habits. As such, they require on-going efforts to alter. Placing appropriate signs on your telephone will help greatly to remind oneself of needed changes. Examples might be ‘slowly’ (for too fast a pace), ‘It is true!’ (for lack of conviction), ‘softly’ (for too loud a voice), or anything else that will be of help.

•Enhance Variations – Proper blending of all vocal elements requires variation. There’s no one perfect rate, pitch, or volume. Rather, it’s a mixture of highs and lows, loud and soft, fast and slow, combined with the proper words themselves, that will yield the desired result.

•Enhance Power and Conviction – The key to doing so is to stand in a large room and speak to a person or recording device in the back of the room, but do not alter your volume. Initially your audience of one will probably have difficulty hearing you. Keep trying. Soon you find yourself enunciating more clearly, using your lips to form the words more accurately, utilizing your diaphragm for more strength. When you have reached this point, which may take several weeks, try the same thing but this time do so while seated. This is a lot tougher.

•Enhance Your Vocal Range – If your pitch seems to lack variation, or if you feel you are weak at either the high notes or the low, it’ll require some extra concentration on your vocal range. This can be accomplished in any of three ways:

oSinging, with emphasis on the vocal scale where you are weakest, is of great benefit to you, though not necessary to any listeners

oHumming for five minutes at a time is also effective, and may be less emotionally disturbing than singing. Again, focus on the weaker end of your voice range

oReading the same poem aloud three times, once each in higher, medium, and lower keys, will also work

In all these areas, remember to listen for resonance – it will feel like vibrations in your chest and throat. The more, the better. If you can feel nothing, place your hand on your chest while you sing or recite. Feel for a buzzing. Keep doing it. It may take weeks before you observe changes, but you will eventually broaden your voice range in this manner. The change is quite likely to be permanent.

Clearly, any improvement in either general selling skills or industry-specific material will greatly increase our billings. Time spent on voice development, will allow us to gain maximum benefits from the skills we already possess, with consequent enhancement of our production!

Neglect of the voice leads to problems, which reduce results. Theses problems, however, are largely preventable with proper upkeep. It may be surprising to some that extra care beyond normal good health needs to be given to the voice. Yet, for us – salespeople – our voice is our primary working tool. No voice, no income.