Get Rid of your Salesman Voice and Sell!

bNet The CBS Interactive New Network
By Geoffrey James | April 27, 2011

If you want to be effective at selling, you must get rid of any and all traces of “salesman voice.” You know what I’m talking about… that breezy, TV-pitchman voice that’s filled with false excitement.

Many real-life sales pros unconsciously talk in “salesman voice” because they’ve been subliminally cued by listening to other sales pros who have it. The problem with “salesman voice” is that it raises the hackles of your prospects, and makes them think of you as a salesman first and a person second.

Every time you sound “like a salesman,” you’re communicating that you’re only there to sell and your credibility flies out the window. But not to worry. It’s pretty easy to get rid of salesman voice. It takes about an hour. Here’s how.
Set up a device that can record your voice. You’re going to make three recordings and you want them to be as similar as possible in terms of content, so this works best you’ve got a script that you use for cold-calling, a standard elevator pitch, or something like that.

• Your Recording #1: Imagine yourself talking to a customer. Go through the script as if you were participating in a normal communication. Don’t focus on the sound of your voice but rather the message you’re trying to communicate. This is your baseline.

• Your Recording #2: Imagine yourself talking to your best friend. Go through the script as if you were relaxing with a coffee, across the table from somebody who really know you and likes you. Focus on your desire to help your friend understand your message.

• Your Recording #3: Imagine that you’re on a TV show, playing a loud, obnoxious cartoon sales guy. Go through your script, and don’t be afraid to ham it up a little. However, don’t lose focus on the message, and stick to the script.
Listen to the three recordings in this order: #2, #3, then #1. If you’re like most sales professionals, recording #1 will have some elements of tonality, cadence and rhythm that appear in recording #3, but NOT in recording #2. That’s your “salesman voice” and it’s what’s turning off your customers.

Now listen to #2 again. That’s closer to the voice that you’ll need in order to be really successful at selling. If you can incorporate that relaxed tonality into your day-to-day work, you’ll find that prospects will warm to you more quickly and tend to give you more of chance to prove that you can be of value to them and not “just another salesman.”

Sure, it’s ridiculously exaggerated, but that’s the point. If you want to sell more, you need to sound more like Will Smith and less like Philby Sellmore.

In short, it’s all about the tonality in your voice. Sound like a salesman and you’re probably going to lose the sale! It’s really that simple.