The Global Economy and Business

When we use the telephone in our business transactions the communication tools available to us are very limited. The person you are communicating with cannot see you. He/she cannot read the expression on your face. If he/she doesn’t understand what you are saying, he/she cannot watch your lips. You can neither gesture nor touch your interlocutor. You cannot see the  person’s reaction to what you are saying. You cannot write, out anything or draw a diagram if he/she doesn’t understand your point.

You have only three communication tools at your disposal:

 

1. Your voice.

2. Your inflection.

3. Your words.

 

Therefore you must make the best of them what really isn’t that hard to do.

Voice

Speak into the mouthpiece, not over or around it. If you do this, people can hear you and understand you much more easily. It also means that you can then speak in your normal conversational voice. Have you ever noticed how on a long dis­tance call some people automatically raise their voices and some liven shout into the phone? We are not talking about when the connection is bad; most of the time this is just human nature. You don’t have to do this if you just speak into the mouthpiece.

The phone is a marvelous device, designed to carry your nor­mal speaking voice almost anywhere in the world. So let it do its work.

Inflection

Some people freeze up on the telephone. They speak unnaturally, without any inflection. When they do so, the party on the other end often misses much of what they say. In­stead of speaking into the instrument, forget you have it in your hand. Imagine that the person you are talking to is standing or sitting right in front of you. Speak to the person, gesture, stand, sit, pace. Be as natural as if you were carrying on the conversa­tion in person. Your voice will then have the right inflection and convey the unspoken messages you want to convey.

Words

Speak distinctly; don’t swallow separate words, whole sentences and great ideas. This may mean speaking just a little slower than you would if you were talking to the other party in person. Don’t be very sophisticated. Try to use the shortest and the simplest words you can.

 

To the above three points we should add another one that you should try to follow whenever you are talking to anyone, in person or on the phone - concentrate. Concentrate both on what you want to say and on what the other person is saying to you. This is even more important when on the telephone than in person.

Be a great orator and the greatest listener!

If you keep the above points in mind and introduce them into practice you will find that you are getting more benefit out of your time on the phone. And the people you are talking to will feel the same way.

If there is more than one point you want to cover, make a few notes and have them in front of you. If you have a lot of things to cover, make an outline. In any case be ready to take notes.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 2nd, 2006 at 8:19 pm and is filed under Helpful Tips for your business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.