Greg's Right FIT #366

Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week. 

In this issue: 

- Thoughts on Momentum
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Thoughts on Momentum

• Part of building momentum is bringing others along for the ride. To encourage participation, put as much consideration into how you say it as what you're saying. The power of your voice is a powerful persuader, and easy to overlook.
• I'm thinking about the 8-minute call to friends and its effect on happiness. The time limit gets it on the calendar. It's easy to commit to, and one can cover a lot of ground in 8 minutes. The happiness part is all about sound of a friend's voice. 
• If we agree the sound of our voice carries much power, it only follows we should practice using it. Or at least start the day warming it up. Counting 1-10 out loud making the odd numbers sound as low as you can go and the evens as high as you can go is a start. (courtesy of Lake Bell)
• Do you consciously match your speaking style to that of your listener? If so, you're probably an effective communicator. To lead others it helps to meet them where they are. 

Being Human - Get some inflection

"The human voice is the organ of the soul.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

One of the challenges I had when running an inside sales team was that whatever the amount of experience the salespeople brought to the job, most of them hadn't sold complex, bigger ticket items on the phone exclusively. There was usually some form of in person contact in their background.

Selling face-to-face you have your full arsenal of communication tactics at your disposal. In addition to the words you choose you have hand gestures and facial expressions, but you also have your prospect's words, hand gestures, and facial expressions. It's been said that something like eighty percent of communication is non-verbal. These new salespeople were coming into a situation where most of the sales communication tools they developed were ineffective. 

I couldn't do anything about the prospect end of the conversation, but we could focus on the one tool the salespeople were bringing with them. 

Their voice. 

Over and over again we'd listen to their calls, and when I asked for their feedback they said, "I didn't know I sounded like that. It's so boring."

Since the only tools we had at our disposal were our words and voices, we needed to go big with those two things. Of those two, I found the voice to be the easiest to manipulate because "boring" meant they were doing two things: no volume, no inflection. 

To demonstrate, Zig Ziglar had an exercise in one of his books that I modified for my purposes. We'd say the same sentence over and over emphasizing a different word each time, to illustrate how simple inflection can change the meaning of the sentence, "I didn't say he kicked his dog."

Like this: (read them out loud)

"I didn't say he kicked his dog." (someone else said it)

"I DIDN'T say he kicked his dog." (strong denial)

"I didn't SAY he kicked his dog." (inferred it, maybe)

You get the idea. Fill in the rest of the meanings yourself!

"I didn't say HE kicked his dog." (____________)

"I didn't say he KICKED his dog." (______________)

"I didn't say he kicked his DOG." (_______________) 

More inflection = a less boring sounding salesperson. 

It didn't have to just be loud either. Going quiet is pretty effective too. Using loud and quiet inflections turned the salesperson's voice into an excellent communication tool. 

Try it. 

Random Stuff

"Drop me a pin."

"What's a pin?"

This week I've returned to my hometown for a few days. Today I went to meet a friend and took the same route I used to drive in 1993 on my way to work in downtown Denver. Every time I visit I'm amazed at how the city has changed, but the views from the highway look the same. The crisp, cold, clear morning air showcasing the front range brings back a flood of memories as I snake my way through traffic, exiting three stops before my old off-ramp. 

One of those memories is going to a Denver Bronco football game at the old Mile High stadium with friends I've known since grade school. I was visiting my parents, showing off the second child. It was a season opener, so the weather was good. It was against the Bronco's rivals, the Kansas City Chiefs, so the game was good. This Bronco team was great, eventually winning the Super Bowl. All these events coalesced into me staying out a bit too late, ending up bit over served, losing track of my friends, ending up at some random downtown bar, and needing a ride back out to the suburbs where my parents lived.

My lovely bride isn't from this city and when we lived here after college I bicycled a lot. I not only rode a lot, I covered long distances. Well, I rode a lot, covered long distances, and I often ended up with flat tires at the far end of those rides. I would find a payphone asking to be picked up. She would have to drop whatever she was doing, bundle our daughter into her car seat, hop in our little white sedan, and head out to places she had never been, guided by instructions from a directionally challenged man. "Start by heading toward the mountains."

This night my directions were particularly rough. We had cell phones, but tonight it's not going to help. To make sure she finds me she wisely wakes my old man (it is near 2am) and together they wander the streets of downtown Denver until happening upon me.

I'd like to think this late night trip into the city center, trying to interpret a drunk man's instructions, brought her and my old man closer together, but I'm pretty sure if she's reading this, my lovely bride's cute little jaw is clenching, and bad thoughts are going through her head. 

Thank goodness for GPS enabled smartphones.