How often have you heard the phrase “Smile when you dial” when people talk about the best approach to take when making sales calls? Well this may surprise you, but I always tell the salespeople I train not to follow this rather cheesy and over-simplified advice.

Why? Well, take a minute and think about what most sales people sound like when they call you. Now I’m guessing you’re thinking of someone who sounds almost deliriously upbeat. These are the type of calls that seem to be especially annoying if you get one first thing on a Monday morning, when you’re still half asleep and wishing it was still the weekend!

I’m pretty sure that when you’re called by someone who uses that tone, you immediately think “this is a sales call”, and you then put your defences up. This then makes it a lot harder for the salesperson to get you to listen to what they’re selling.

So think about how you sound when you’re making your sales calls. Do you sound like the majority of other salespeople out there, who take this over-the-top “brighter than sunshine” approach? If you do, I can guarantee you can dramatically improve your results over the phone simply by turning down the dial a bit.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying for one minute that you should try to sound dull or lifeless on the phone! Obviously, your prospects won’t buy anything from someone who sounds bored or miserable, but I know most people feel there’s nothing more grating than being cold-called by someone who sounds as though they should be presenting children’s TV.

It’s true that your success in selling over the phone will be heavily influenced by the tone you adopt, but it’s important to strike the right balance between making sure you’re friendly and positive while still sounding like you’re having a normal conversation.

Research has proved time and time again that we like to buy from people who we feel are the same as us. Our subconscious mind looks for evidence that the salesperson is either similar to us (so we’ll like them more) or evidence that they’re not like us (so we won’t like them as much). One way you can do this is to mirror the way your prospects speak.

Over the years I’ve noticed that the really outstanding salespeople I’ve trained actually change their tone and pace of speech from call to call, because they’re mirroring the way their prospects talk. This helps them to effortlessly build rapport with their prospects, who very often end up placing orders or agreeing to sales appointments simply because they feel they really “clicked” with the salesperson.

So here’s a summary of how to stand out from the crowd, and give yourself an edge over your competition when you’re selling over the phone:

• Sound bright, articulate and enthusiastic when you make your sales calls, but don’t go over the top and sound unnaturally happy.
  
  
• Match your tone and pace to the way your prospect speaks, so you can build rapport with them and help their subconscious brain to lap up all of your convincing sales arguments!

And most importantly, you need to listen intently to what your prospect tells you during the call. This, more than anything else, will give you the best chance of getting the results you want.