Tonality in sales

An SDR asked me the other day:

'How do I work on my tone?'

It's probably one of the most important parts of human communication. It's also one of the least discussed.

Words account for about 7% of effective communication. Tone is around 38%. (Dr. Albert Mehrabian, UCLA).

The other 55% is body language but we can disregard that over the phone.

Interesting to note:

- You can say the wrong thing in the right way and get away with it.

- But if you say the right thing in the wrong way you won't.

So let's work the question backwards.

What do we not want in our tone of voice?

- sounding overly enthusiastic and salesy

- sounding subservient

- sounding desperate

- sounding flat or monotone

- sounding scripted & robotic

- finishing sentences in an upward tone (implies a question and lack of confidence)

So how do we ensure our tone hits the right note?

To be clear - salespeople should never put on some awful fake 'business voice'. People see right through it.

The correct tone needs to come from a part of us that we tune into.

I'm of the belief we all have the resources inside of ourselves - we just need to find the appropriate tools for the relevant situation.

Your voice in the pub may not be the most professional.

If you're naturally hyper and high-pitched you may want to tone it down a little.

If monotone you need to work on varying your intonation.

So in having the right tone we need the following to be true:

- absolute self-confidence in order to command authority

- sounding human & natural so you're highly relatable

- complete clarity in why you're reaching out

- self assured enough to speak to senior management as an equal

- an understanding of the importance of varying your tone for richness of communication

- being at ease with any outcome of a call & not pinning all your hopes on a yes (otherwise known as not giving a sh*t...in a positive way)

Sometimes the odd fumble is useful as it makes you human. If you're 100% slick you may come across as a bit of a smartarse.

Don't forget pace as well.

There is a lot of power & authority in slowing down, pausing...and being comfortable in not filling the silence.

I used to think whoever fills the silence loses...

Anything else people think is important?