Your tone of voice in sales...

Tonality is hardly ever taught by sales trainers...

Yet it's often one of the most crucial aspects of selling, particularly over the phone. 

So why is it avoided? 

In my mind it's due to a few factors.

Tonality is almost intangible, hard to pin down & even harder to train.

Whereas a script or framework is easy - a set of words or questions to guide you. 100% tangible. In black & white. 

If sales is part science & part art then...

- Words are the science

- Tonality is the art

But tonality is often misunderstood by people & can lead to even weirder 'put on' voices to sound much worse. 

I've heard so many throughout the years & it's like listening to a bad actor. 

If you overdo it and fake a certain level of confidence, you'll end up sounding arrogant and will piss people off.

Yet the one piece people seem to miss, is self image...

How you sound is usually a mirror image of how you see yourself.

View yourself as just another salesperson? 

-That's exactly how you'll sound. 

See yourself as an equal to that MD you're calling? 

-That's how you'll sound. 

If you don't believe you're equal to the person you're calling you'll sound subservient. 

If an actor is asked to play the role of a high powered CEO & doesn't believe it, they'll come across as wooden. 

Work on your self image, and you'll unlock a much more natural sounding & superior tonality...which will command more authority. 

This, alongside other technical aspects of voice control to develop a deep richness in communication. 

But it requires practice, coaching, constructive feedback, and more practice...as you're building better beliefs, behaviours, habits & new muscle memory in terms of the delivery.

And you can't just sound authoritative at the start & fall back to type during the call. It's incongruous & will come across as fake, disingenuous & confusing. 

There's also a fine line between sounding assertive vs pushy, or confident vs arrogant. 

This is why your underlying beliefs & self awareness are absolutely vital. 

Yet positive, sustainable change doesn't happen overnight. 

I trained my voice for years as an actor. 

Before that, when I worked in sales in my early 20s, I sounded like a 'two-bit salesman' (in the words of my first sales director). 

So I honed my voice & tonality over a period of years.

The change it brought about in my sales results was significant. 

If you feel this is holding you back, or you run a sales team with these very issues, DM me - I might just be able to unlock one of your biggest sales problems.

#sales #selling #tone