Get Rid of Your "Salesman Voice" and Sell More
If you want to be effective at selling, you must get rid of any and all traces of "salesman voice." You know what I'm talking about... that breezy, TV-pitchman voice that's filled with false excitement.
Many real-life sales pros unconsciously talk in "salesman voice" because they've been subliminally cued by listening to other sales pros who have it. The problem with "salesman voice" is that it raises the hackles of your prospects, and makes them think of you as a salesman first and a person second.
Every time you sound "like a salesman," you're communicating that you're only there to sell and your credibility flies out the window. But not to worry. It's pretty easy to get rid of salesman voice. It takes about an hour. Here's how.
Set up a device that can record your voice. You're going to make three recordings and you want them to be as similar as possible in terms of content, so this works best you've got a script that you use for cold-calling, a standard elevator pitch, or something like that.
- Recording #1: Imagine yourself talking to a customer. Go through the script as if you were participating in a normal communication. Don't focus on the sound of your voice but rather the message you're trying to communicate. This is your baseline.
- Recording #2: Imagine yourself talking to your best friend. Go through the script as if you were relaxing with a coffee, across the table from somebody who really know you and likes you. Focus on your desire to help your friend understand your message.
- Recording #3: Imagine that you're on a TV show, playing a loud, obnoxious cartoon sales guy. Go through your script, and don't be afraid to ham it up a little. However, don't lose focus on the message, and stick to the script.
Now listen to #2 again. That's closer to the voice that you'll need in order to be really successful at selling. If you can incorporate that relaxed tonality into your day-to-day work, you'll find that prospects will warm to you more quickly and tend to give you more of chance to prove that you can be of value to them and not "just another salesman."
To illustrate this point, here's a clip from one of my favorite movies. In it, a budding salesman manages to communicate that he is a human being, even though he's using a phenomenally weak cold calling script. This is realistic because Will Smith worked very closely with Chris Gardiner, the man own whom the film is based. Indeed, Smith is consciously echoing the cadences in Chris's own voice, as I can attest, because I've interviewed Chris.
Compare that with the exaggerated salesman voice in the following cartoon video:
Sure, it's ridiculously exaggerated, but that's the point. If you want to sell more, you need to sound more like Will Smith and less like Philby Sellmore.
In short, it's all about the tonality in your voice. Sound like a salesman and you're probably going to lose the sale! It's really that simple.
RELATED POSTS: