Especially where the sales knowledge is great and the sales process is perfectly declined, there is often a serious problem: the voice unconsciously sends disturbing signals. Because even if the words are well chosen and rehearsed, many salespeople do not notice that their voice sends a completely different message.
Double messages through unconscious signals from the voice
Whether we like it or not, our customers perceive all the unconscious signals of the voice sensitively and react to them immediately – and not always pleasantly:
- For example, if you feel pressure to sell, your customer will hear it and react in a wait-and-see or negative manner.
- If you recite a learned "sales success formula", your voice signals feigned interest.
No real interest in the customer? Don't have your own conviction about the quality of the product or the service? – This does not motivate any customer to listen to you.
Voice in sales: The tone makes the music
The background is obvious: Modern brain research shows that the limbic brain, which controls emotional reactions, always reacts earlier than the mind brain. This emotion comes across in the tonality of the voice. The vernacular says "The sound makes the music". It is therefore economically worthwhile to pay closer attention to the effect of the voice.
The first step is to be aware of the levers that the voice and manner of speaking in the decisive moments. The following factors have emerged from the "classic" know-how of voice training, many years of experience in sales and management tasks as well as the latest additions to brain research:
- Emotions: recall positive body patterns in the interlocutor
- Provoke reactions of the mirror neurons
- Attention: activating energy pathways in the brain with special voice frequencies
- create an acoustic field of security and trust
- take the lead with vocal alpha signals
- Channel customer perception to benefit aspects through Sense Focusing®
- Influence rhythm and clearly call for closure
Five essential voice moments in sales
In the near future, I will give you tips for the 5 most important stages in the sales pitch, what you need to consider vocally and how you can best prepare or use your voice in each case. You will receive the first tip today.
The five situations are:
- Acquisition: Voice reveals everything
- "I am happy to present to you ..." – The voice as a representative of the company
- Oh no, a complaint! – Convincing in conflict discussions
- The salesman as a good listener? Actively listen to the voice of the customer
- With the alpha voice purposefully to the end
1. Acquisition: Voice reveals everything
Every day it proves bad telephone acquisition anew: The audibly routine tone of the greeting in the start of the call alone leads to a quick "No, thank you!". But how does the door to a customer's keen interest open? Research shows that the brain processes language relatively slowly. It took 0.2 seconds to understand words from the speech sounds. This is exactly where the opportunity lies, because the voice sound works much faster. Adjustment is not possible. Does the voice unconsciously address the listener as a potential commission or bonus bringer? Or does he hear real interest in his person and his needs? Only when the so-called "natural tone" of the voice becomes audible can relaxed, well-founded conversations with lasting results arise.
Speaking from one's own tone creates a special quality of what is being said. Because the natural tone is the sound that is produced with the least possible energy expenditure of the body. It is not for nothing that the proper tone is also referred to as the "feel-good position" of the voice. This creates trust and listeners find it particularly melodious.
By the way, you already use this inherent tone of the voice several times a day. Just imagine how you signal to your conversation partner on the phone that you are still on the line. Most of the time you won't even be aware of it, but again and again you give a seemingly insignificant "mmhhh" as a matter of course. This "mmhhh" usually sounds from the Eigenton.
How do you make the Eigenton available to you when it matters?
- In the first step, make yourself aware of the "feel-good situation" of your voice as often as possible; create a reference for your ear. Hum a pleasant, short "mmhhh" at every conceivable opportunity! Whether you're eating, talking on the phone or in conversation – consciously listen to the sound of your voice.
- Also, notice how the pitch changes as you start speaking from there. You can also try this out very specifically by first saying "mmhhh, mmhhh" and then starting a sentence. Can you build on the pleasant feel-good location?
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