Speech and Voice Coaching for Business Professionals

Did Voice Coaching really help them make more money?

2008-07-11T06:34:00.007-06:00

Yesterday I received a call from a skeptical sales manager, named John, who had read my "Can Voice Coaching Increase Your Sales?" blog entry.

He said, in a sarcastic and monotone voice, "Those robotic sales agents that you talked about who had a high school education; how are they doing? You said you believed that your voice coaching and speaking skills for success programs would increase their sales 3%. Well did it? In this global economic down turn, I have my doubts…I couldn’t resist calling your toll free number to find out?"

"Thank you for calling", I said in a very confident, engaging and well articulated voice. "I have Good News to report"… "Great", he said again in his flat, monotone voice. I was hoping he was noticing the contrast in our voices.

I continued. "So far I have trained about 75 sales agents in that particular company and we have completed quality assurance on their vocal progress for a period of 2 months. According to the company calculations, sales have steadily increased. Isn’t that fantastic news? In fact many of the agents who have taken the voice training are helping those who haven’t yet had the opportunity. The whole sales force will soon be moving forward to increased income."

I went on to tell him that the "voice trained agents" sounded and were much more confident, competent and motivated than the untrained sales agents. I mentioned that their sales managers reported that, when they listened to the random calls of the voice trained sales agents, their customers sounded more comfortable and relaxed and were more willing to buy the product. They also said that the customers seemed to perceive the company and the product as being very reliable.

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The answer to the question is that Voice coaching has helped these sales agents to make more money, to feel much better about themselves and their product and most importantly to be more motivated to satisfy the customer. That is what it is really about: satisfying the customer’s needs, while feeling good about yourself and your product.

With the right voice training skills for sales success, you stop working the numbers and start focusing on engaging the customer with your voice. You speak persuasively, easily and feel 100% comfortable on every call.

Let’s face it as a telephone sales agent you talk at least 8 hrs. a day over the phone. You soon realize that it is not so much what you say as how you say it! The Voice coaching secret is that the customer likes you because of the tone of your voice, because you sound confident, knowledgeable, credible and caring: Like you care about his/her needs.

Some people come by this naturally and others spend years acquiring these voice skills. However with voice coaching you can start making good money right away. Here are a couple of tips for John, who inspired this blog entry and who also happened to be a monotone speaker:

Breathe before you speak and be sure to speak on the exhale, giving your voice more power.

Start emphasizing the important words in your sales pitch by raising or lowering your vocal pitch on those words.

Stop trailing off at the ends of your sentences to avoid sounding like you are bored.

Are you a sales agent/manager ready to discover how voice and speech coaching can increase sales and customer loyalty? For more details use this link.
VPS Full Mastery Voice Program

Not sure you want to get started right now. Take the first step to learning to speak more powerfully and effectively over the telephone.
The Your Voice Is Power in Business CD program

Can Voice and Speech Coaching help an English as a Second Language speaker?

2008-06-18T17:39:00.011-06:00

In the Voice Power Studios weekly free voice training analyses, I am often asked for accent modification help by business professionals who are highly educated and highly qualified for their jobs, but due to their foreign accents find that their co workers cannot easily understand them.

These frustrated English and a second language speakers tell me that they are speaking with correct grammar and many of them have tried to communicate more clearly by speaking slower. And this is a good idea; however speaking too slowly and deliberately can give the impression of not having a clear, accurate and powerful response and/or not knowing the English language very well. In addition if you use a lot of filler words like (ah) or (uhm) you will definitely lose the attention of your listener who may be an important client, your boss, or the CEO of the company.

Want to find out the quickest way to use your voice to increase your speaking skills?

Voice Coaching can ease the pain and discomfort of your speaking skills, no matter what the language. When I point out that an ESL speaker is speaking too fast, running their words together and not pronouncing clearly and that they probably do this in their native tongue also, they are astonished. Yes! One can mumble, be soft spoken and talk to fast in Mandarin, Japanese, Russian, Hindi, Spanish, French, Portuguese or English, to name a few.

One of my most successful clients, an international sales executive who speaks 4 languages plus English is now using his voice to call his sales team to action. Having completed our Your Voice Is Power in Business Mastery Program, he chooses his words wisely and presents them powerfully, dynamically and confidently to solve problems and motivate and inspire his staff.

In his profession there is a long sales cycle and long-term relationships are key to business success and increasing potential income. He was so impressed with the immediate improvement in his speaking skills that he decided to sound consistently energetic, clear, confident, expressive, and credible in all his business and personal communication.

Voice Coaching has worked so powerfully for him that his sales staff has taken notice and asked him to teach them the Secrets to Using your Voice to Become More Successful.

The first secret he said is to never trail off at the end of your sentences because it leaves a negative impression in the ear and mind of the listener.

Example: Hi! This is Sandra McKnight how may I help you.

The (second secret is to pronounce clearly the ends of all your words) no matter what language you are speaking. This type of articulation automatically makes you sound more authoritative, credible, clear and powerful.

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Want to read more articles! and/or listen to Sandra speak.

Leadership, Charisma and Power!

2008-04-14T17:41:00.018-06:00

Charisma: A special charm or allure that inspires allegiance or devotion.
Leadership: The ability to guide others.
Power: The ability to act or do with great influence, force or authority.(1)

I believe:
• All three of these are reflected in the sound of the human voice.
• That the human voice is the catalyst for creating action and,
• That the power of the human voice can make a difference for the better in a family, an organization, a corporation or a government.

Leading by being in control is no longer effective. One needs to lead by engaging with others—even if you are the head of a family, a community, a big company or a government. A leader’s vision and message needs to be well crafted and articulated, however the ability to engage others is, in large part, conveyed by the sound of his/her voice. If we look at 100% communication: 55% is body language, 35% is voice tone and 10% is the message content. (2) Verbal Judo (1) Webster’s New World Dictionary

A charismatic voice sends a powerful “sound message”. Think of Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Barbara Boxer, Ronald Regan, and Oprah Winfrey. Their individual spirit is heard in the sound of their voices! Even though you may not be aware of it, you react immediately on a “gut level”. And if their sound touches you positively you open to their message. You go on to decide if you feel they are confident, caring, responsible, powerful, credible, and trustworthy.

Want to discover how to improve your voice with a free voice analysis?

Your voice can also connect with the heart, mind, soul and imagination of your listener and call them to ACTION. Your voice can project your personal charisma and lead people to a new understanding, or strategy, which influences them to take action and support your plan, or position. That support base then gives you, their leader, a position of power from which to make a difference.

I teach the art of the speaking voice from two perspectives. First correcting the common speaking problems such as:
• Speaking too fast,
• Mumbling and trailing off at the end of sentences,
• Speaking in a non-expressive monotone,
• Speaking softly and timidly.
• Speaking too loudly and harshly.

And second making you aware of your communication intentions.
• Who are you?
• What are you saying?
• Why are you saying it?

When you have answered these questions, you can use your voice to project your intentions clearly and dynamically. Simply said. Your message, which is made up of both your thoughts and your feelings, reflects your spirit and charisma and your voice and body language deliver that message to your audience.

Most would agree that charismatic leadership is necessary to lead organizations, companies, and governments. I believe that we are all leaders not only in our own lives but also in the lives of our friends, families, and associates and that you reach your life goals more quickly and effectively by using your voice to articulate your ideas, passions and feelings to your family, friends and colleagues and yes even to strangers. After all, he or she is only a stranger because he/she has not heard Your Voice!

Want to find out the quickest way to use your voice to increase your speaking skills?

Can Your Voice Increase Sales? Absolutely!

2008-02-21T11:25:00.015-07:00

Recently I had a call from a Sales and Training Director in charge of 300 telephone sales representatives. She said, “Most of my sales reps speak 8-10 hours a day and after a couple of hours, they sound robotic, tired, and uninterested. I believe that our company could increase sales by training our sales reps in voice and speaking skills.

“Right now, my reps work the numbers and feel that if they talk to X number of people per hour, they are sure to close X number of sales. This is a commission only job which requires a high school education, however, I believe with a better sounding voice and speaking skills each rep could take home a big paycheck, grossing over $50,000 a year. “ My goal is for our sales reps and our company to increase sales 3% in the coming year”.

“How can you help”?

There are many businesses that depend on their telephone sales reps and the smart ones make this kind of a call. The Insurance business, the security business, market research business, and the mortgage lending business, just to name a few, all would benefit from sales reps that sound articulate and engaging and who are able to speak easily with people from all walks of life.

Our “Your Voice is Power over the Telephone training program” gives your reps control of their voice and enables them to sound consistently enthusiastic, well spoken and engaging so they can close more sales in a shorter time.

Are you a sales manager ready to discover how voice and speech coaching can to increase customer loyalty and increase sales?
For more details use this link.
VPS Voice Coaching Workshops
Your Phone Voice Tune-up!

Not everyone is born with a voice that makes people sit up and listen. People like James Earl Jones, and Meryl Streep captivate an audience when they speak.

Your telephone sales reps can do the same with the right speaking skills for success. Just as you give your sales reps high-speed computers and a good phone, you must give them the voice training techniques they need to sound engaging, credible and persuasive every time they pick up the phone and feel 100% comfortable while they doing it.

As a telephone sales rep you spend most of your day with a headset glued to your ear. And working the numbers causes you to speak very fast in order to process as many calls as possible in a day. That combined with bad pronunciation, a monotone voice and trailing off at the end of your sentences usually causes a customer to stop listening and can make it harder for you to close. In some cases a customer is irritated to the point of ending the call.

Speaking more effectively and persuasively is easy and with conscious practice you can improve quickly. Here are a couple of tips for you telephone speed talkers.
1. Start the call by taking a breath to center yourself before you pick up the phone.
2. Say the ends of all your words. This takes time and slows you down.
3. Stop trailing off at the ends of your sentences so you don’t sound like you are bored.

To learn more and discover how much more successful and profitable you and your company can be with voice and speech coaching.
Use this link for details for On-site or Tele-workshops
VPS Voice Coaching Workshops
Your Phone Voice Tune-up!

Not sure you want to get started right now.
Take the first step to using a speech coach to learn to speak more effectively over the telephone.
To get more details use link.
“The Your Voice Is Power in Business” CDs

Do you want a Leadership Voice?

2008-01-03T15:55:00.002-07:00

Do you want a Leadership Voice?

Do you want to command attention, and inspire and motivate people to take action?

Lately while conducting Voice Power Studios’ weekly free voice analyses, I have found both men and women telling me that in order to advance in their jobs they need to sound like a leader. There have been so many requests for a leadership voice that I felt our readers needed to know more about this.

An independent consultant from a leading accounting firm said he needed to build trust and credibility in order to be more influential in his presentations. Another VP in a leading pharmaceutical told me that he was too soft spoken and didn’t articulate clearly. An IT professional mentioned that he spoke very fast in a monotone voice.

Here are some of the other leadership voice problems that people are revealing.
• I talk to fast.
• I speak to soft and timidly.
• I run my words together.
• My meeting colleagues don’t listen.
• I often get a defensive reaction from people when I speak.
• I sound as if I am impatient.
• I am so busy talking and getting my point across.
• My boss doesn’t think I have enough authority in my voice to be a project manager.
• I am the youngest and brightest on the IT staff and I don’t know how to communicate with the older more established people.

Want to find out the quickest way to use your voice to increase your speaking skills!

What makes a leader’s voice so important in this world today? A leader’s voice communicates his/her vision and the strategy for manifesting that vision. A leader’s voice makes that vision come alive in our heart, mind and imagination. The leader’s voice inspires and motivates us to trust and believe in him or her. Yes! A leader’s words are vital, however the way a Leader expresses those words makes you join his/her team.

Want to discover how to improve your voice with a free voice analysis?

How do you sound like a leader? A leader needs to have a voice that is confident, articulate, strong, flexible, engaging, persuasive, expressive, credible and intelligent. A leader projects at all times, speaks at @140 words per minute, uses good grammar, pronounces words clearly and powerfully, expresses his original ideas powerfully and dynamically by modulating the pitch and volume of his voice.

Yes! You may have the best of intentions and have prepared an outstanding presentation for your business meeting, however if your voice is too quiet spoken or harsh and loud, or monotone or too fast and your words mumbled and run together. People are not going to rally around your ideas.

Record yourself giving a presentation or even reading from a novel and listen back carefully. Then ask yourself this question. Is my voice one that can motivate, inspire, and influence and lead a team, a company, an organization, or division to success!

Do you want “Speaker Power”?

2007-11-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

Do you want to feel completely at ease and close every sale?

Mr. Chen, sales director for a multinational Hong based company, is very outgoing, energetic, intelligent, charming, fluent in both Chinese and English, and loves talking with people. He talked very fast, in both English and Chinese and his English pronunciation needed some improvement.

“When I present in English at a western sales conference or a multinational company, I want to feel completely at ease and close every sale,” he stated.

“Mr. Chen, whether you are speaking Chinese or English, if you expect your listeners to assimilate your meaning, you should be speaking at about 140 words per minute”.

“But they will get bored,” he replied, “and I will lose their attention.”

“ On the contrary, when you say your English words clearly it will slow your speech and help you to channel your wonderful energy toward engaging the audience—Say your words as clearly as possible and make doubly sure you say the ends of all your words.”

“When you speak fast, people have trouble concentrating, get frustrated and stop listening. They can even become slightly hostile, feel you are wasting their time or speaking down to them. By the time you are ready to close the deal, you may have lost their interest and enthusiasm.”

Want to find out the quickest way to use your voice to increase your speaking skills!

While giving his speech to the workshop, he succeeded in pronouncing his words clearly, which helped him to slow down and made him much easier to understand. However, I was stunned to see this dynamic man stand completely still and read his speech from behind the podium.

“How did you feel?” I asked.

“I just don’t like talking so slow. It makes me feel self-conscious,” he said.

“Why? You are letting people really hear your message loud and clear. Why did you read your speech and never come out from behind the podium? I would have expected a man with your charisma to come forward and talk with the audience.”

He explained that standing behind a podium was the standard way of giving a speech in China and that when you take the time to think out what you want to say and choose the right words to say it, you are in control and sound more eloquent.

“Perhaps in formal situations,” I replied. “Do you always present with the slide show in the middle and you standing off to the side behind the podium?”

“Yes!”

“From my experience in dealing with western sales audiences, I can say with great assurance that the client first decides on a gut level, whether you are sincere, honest, credible, and reliable and then listens to what you are saying. You need to get your client to trust you in a short time, to feel that you and your product are reliable and that you care about his needs. That is what closes the deal.”

“Selling requires you to get up close and personal with your audience, both physically and emotionally. You want your audience to have a very favorable gut response first to you and then to your words. Never forget, you are the message! The audience reacts first to the way you look and sound and then to your words”.

“I would like you to start again and take a risk. Memorize your opening talking points or use the bullets on your slides and come forward and talk with us in that dynamic manner I heard you using during the break, when you were talking with the executive next to you. Begin your speech and tell the audience how the outstanding characteristics of your product will benefit us. Make us envision it. If we can envision ourselves using your product, we are one step closer to buying it.”

Want to discover how to improve your voice with a free voice analysis?

Because it can be both very exhilarating and a little threatening to talk with an audience without an intervening barrier, Mr. Chen started speaking fast again. However, he stopped and started again. This time all his attention was on engaging and persuading us. He slowed down, took charge of the audience, and had us in the palm of his hand.

The recognition of his newfound “speaker power” was evident on his face as he reiterated, “It is really important to come out from behind the podium and speak with the people.”
“Mr. Chen, with your charisma and your stories and anecdotes, if you stay close to the audience, you will close all your sales! I guarantee it.

How Can you use your Voice to increase your Business Success?

2007-10-24T10:48:00.003-06:00

"Is it possible to project your voice and not sound overly authoritative?"

Voice coaching is key to being a dynamic and confident business leader.

Whether you are giving a presentation, speaking in a business meeting, or in a telephone conference call, people will listen more readily when you speak with a confident, resonant, well-articulated voice. Why? Because a powerful, self-assured voice gets your message heard and inspires and persuades your audience to stay involved.

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to work with the business professionals who attend my Hong Kong Executive Speaking Skills workshop. Miss Teresa Yu, a senior management trainer for a Hong Kong banking institution, who is at the height of her career, very knowledgeable in her field, and who speaks both Cantonese and English fluently asked, “Is it possible to project your voice and not sound overly authoritative?”

“Miss Yu, “it all depends on your intention when you speak! Who is your audience for this presentation?” I responded.

“My speech is designed for the senior executives in the bank and my objective is to report on a new and innovative program that I hope they will adopt in the bank. I was in charge of the research on this program and have been asked to report on the program benefits and my recommendations for its implementation in our banking institution”.

“Great! Please start when you are ready.”

“Thank you, Miss Yu. “I didn’t hear your recommendation and the energy behind that recommendation that will guide your senior executives in making their decision. Your banking leadership needs to hear how much you believe in this new program”.

“I would never dare challenge my senior management”, she said emphatically. “It is only my duty to report the findings and not to influence or ever challenge the authority of the senior executives”.

Her gestures and voice tone, told me that she was embarrassed and a little bit angry that I would suggest that she change her intention toward her audience.

Want to find out the quickest way to use your voice to increase your speaking skills!

“Why are you speaking to these people?” I ask very gently.

“Because it is the culmination of my research. I am required to report my findings. It is not my responsibility to tell the senior executives what to do. Respectfully, they will make their own decision. I have always conducted myself with the utmost professionalism.”

“Miss Yu, I respect and agree with your point of view on this. However, this workshop is a place to try new approaches and see if they might be applicable to your delivery style. I believe we are all learning all the time.”

“Absolutely”! Says Miss Yu.

“I am glad you agree. May I suggest that you speak with more vocal energy and enthusiasm? This approach will make the benefits of the program come alive in the minds and imagination of your bank executives. After all they have not had the benefit of all of your research. In order to make an informed decision, they need to be able to visualize how your bank will change for the better or worse if they institute this new program”.

“Please start at the beginning again. Remember, your voice will convey your enthusiasm for your material and convey that to the bank executives. For now, don’t worry how you may be interpreted. Concentrate on using your vocal energy and enthusiasm to make the benefits of the program come alive so that the executives can make their best decision.”

She begins and sees the reactions on the faces in her audience. They are really listening. They are interested and involved in her speech and she feels the power of the audience involvement.

After three minutes, I stop her and she exclaims, “This is great! The audience is really with me. It is a subtle difference, however it is so much easier to speak. I feel like I am in a dialogue. There is no wall between the audience and me. I have never ever felt that before in a presentation.”

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“You are absolutely right. You are doing brilliantly.” Please continue and add more descriptive adjectives when describing the benefits of the program. Let me show you with a totally unrelated example.

If I say, I drove to the store and bought a big cake you know the facts and probably will not retain the information.

However, if I say, It was a dark, rainy and sultry afternoon, when I got into my pink Cadillac and drove along the slick asphalt to buy a delicious chocolate mousse cake at the French bakery”, you will retain more because the many descriptive adjectives make the reality come alive in your imagination”.

She continues and now she is using her voice training to engage the audience in the story of a new and innovative program in which she totally believes. In Miss Yu’s mind, there is no longer a wall between her and the bank executives. She is making sure that the executives can visualize the program working in their institution.

“How do you feel Miss Yu?”

“I don’t feel that I am being too authoritative or challenging my audience. That was my great fear. I see that projecting a confident, dynamic voice allows me to engage my audience in a whole new way. My fear of not showing the proper respect is a non-issue.”

“Teresa, you have excellent presentation skills. Now you need to use your vocal energy, enthusiasm and descriptive adjectives to get your story heard. Remember your Voice is the powerful tool that carries the message forward and engages your audience.”

Your Voice is Power in Business whether the audience is 1 or 1000.

Want to discover how to improve your voice with a free voice analysis?