![\"phone\"](\"http:\/\/www.curved-vision.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/phone.jpg\" "\\"phone\\"")
….or to put it another way, if you can’t talk to people on the phone, how are you going to present yourself to them? Okay, not every situation involves the phone but lots of them do – and increasing number in today’s tele-orientated-world. It’s a very peculiar kind of presentation – one where you are limited to one medium only.<\/p>\n
Your phone makes particular demands on your voice: for example, it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t transmit the full range of frequencies you produce when you talk and it can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be sensitive to all the subtle variations in nuance that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re no doubt putting into your voice. (Actually, phones can<\/em> be made to do that, but they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re simply not financially viable.)<\/p>\n When I say this, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m referring to things that \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsignal intent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122: for example we can turn a sentence into a question by putting an upward inflection at the end to imply the question mark. You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to do much of that in \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreal life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 but on the phone things are potentially different as huge amounts of your energy get swallowed by the phone.<\/p>\n Does that mean you needn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bother with all these effects? Absolutely not! You see, unlike adding things to your voice, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not possible to take something away from your voice without doing it self-consciously \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the second you start to be self-conscious about your voice you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re sunk. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll sound shifty and untrustworthy on the phone and your chances of closing the deal will plummet.<\/p>\n If anything, you should exaggerate these features of your voice, for two reasons. The first is the obvious one that if you work hard enough at least some of the subtle effects might begin to carry through. Of course, it may feel exaggerated to you but not on the far end of the line.<\/p>\n There’s a second reason – a more subtle one. As phones suck energy out of your voice, putting in extra effort at your end of the conversation will simply mean your voice sounds bright and cheerful at the far end. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry about going over the top \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (almost!) impossible to do that using a phone (with respect to your tone of voice that is, not what you say!)<\/p>\n Stand up as you talk<\/strong> (or at least sit upright, not slouching). It makes your voice brighter, it makes your breathing easier and more likely to be based upon your diaphragm (the sheath of muscle across your stomach) which in turn will make your voice sound more mature, richer and more trustworthy. Phones make you sound tinny: if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re breathing by moving your chest rather than by using your diaphragm, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll sound shriller still.<\/p>\n Drop your shoulders<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c again this will make your voice sound richer and more convincing.<\/p>\n Smile<\/strong> and (if you normally do so) gesticulate<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this is a great way of putting energy into your voice.<\/p>\n Warm up your face<\/strong> before you make a call, or even answer one: all you have to do is yawn and waggle your jaw a little, but the effect will be to make your diction a lot clearer and thus easier to understand. For important calls I recommend you go as far as actually rubbing your cheeks and lips for a couple of seconds to stimulate the muscles before you use the phone.<\/p>\n Quite apart from the obvious benefits of all this, if the person on the far end of the line isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t having to spend \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmental energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 figuring out what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re saying they will have more \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmental processing capacity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to actively listen to what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re saying, which makes you more likely to be remembered\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in a direct head-to-head with a number of other potential suppliers this can only be a good thing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ….or to put it another way, if you can’t talk to people on the phone, how are you going to present yourself to them? Okay, not every situation involves the phone but lots of them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-presentation-tips","category-voice-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}