Phone Skills

[bmete]

Hi Elser,A great thread indeed...I enjoy jumping back and forth between being a professional marketing/ sales/ management type and professional musician. A lot of great info so far, I'd like to add a tip that might help your phone personna...You phone mannerisms are no different than swinging your ax on the stage or in the studio. Before you get on stage you practice and practice. Good phone skills are no different. Before you make a call, write down the main objective of your call, and any secondary items. have the piece of paper in front of you for notes. And I know it sounds honky but, write yourself a script and practice it, practice so it sounds like your talking and not reading. A big mistake most people make either on the phone or in front of a group is, they know what they want to say, it sounds great in their heads, but it is usually nothing like what comes out of their mouths. Practice on your family, in front of a mirror. with the goal of sounding fluid, and confident. Just like music it just keeps sounding better the more it is practiced. Good Luck!Bobps. one more item, when you're ready to make that call if you feel uptight, or nervous then make a friendly or safe call to a friend or family member first, just to get your mouth working. Believe it or not it works!!

[jchitty]

Apr 20, 2009, 2:53pm, squids wrote:I do what Andy does except I write down everything, the day/date they called, their names, what was discussed (I have a lousy memory for names if I can't put them to a face and say them three times in a row ). I tend not to use slang and I try to put a tight rein on the accent as well, since there seems to be some perception that folks with a southern strain of speech are stupid. Which is, well, stupid. But I do it anyway when I'm tense or anxious....... I'll automatically speed up my speech which helps cut back on s'uth'n chat anyway. Their loss, not mine. I don't hafta talk ta sign a contract. Yep, it's true that if you let a Southern accent run wild, it can get you in trouble on the phone. I always joke that my IQ drops 40 points when I talk to someone outside the South. Of course, if it's a Nashville publisher, then it's a BIG plus. I'd lay it on thick in that case.Common sense works with phone skills...just be polite and treat people professionally....those are basic ways of communicating. As an aside, I ordered a product from a company based in California today...the lady loved my accent so much, she didn't want me to get off the phone. I've also had the opposite effect on people.....they can't understand a word I say, and they can be a little rude to ya. It just depends on the person.We Southerners can actually soothe the savage beast in certain cases too...people think we're polite and quaint, so they're nice to us because they think we're sweet and endearing. Some of them also think they can take advantage of us, but they don't realize that just because we talk this way, we can be slicker than owl shit in our business dealings.

[elser]

Wow, so much great advice. I particularly like Mazz's idea for playing Charlie Parker solo's on kazoo. But seriously, I'm impressed by all my Taxi cohorts business sense. I gotta get me sum a dat. Er....no, let me start now...I must procure some of this aforesaid business acumen.

[chriscarter]

Good stuff in these replies.I'll only add.... I rehearse all of my important calls. I go through what I'm going to say, I cover all the possible things they might say, and I cover how I will respond to whatever they say. I do it out loud so I can hear my voice.The only other tip - I do the rehearsal thing well before I need to make the call. Like the day before. It's often the case that suddenly I will think of something important - maybe a problem area the other party might bring up - between the rehearsal time and when I make the call just from letting it stew in my brain for a day. This way I have time to make adjustments before the actual call.Someone mentioned making a bullet list of things on a piece of paper, that's a really important one.Regarding how casual to be - I start out very professional when I say 'hello'. Then I just roll with however they handle the conversation. If they stay very business-like, I'll stay very business-like. If they start joking around, I'll joke around (my fav's). Etc. Being flexible is important.

[t4mh]

I just once again become the corporate professional...busted...bummer...I think I like 'Yo tsup' much better! Jeez... But sure you have to be professional. Biggest thing on the phone is to shut up and listen, come off as helpful and understanding. Most professional or business people have hard goals and metrics that are in front of them everyday. This is their reality whether they agree with the goals or not. If you come off as someone who can help out, you should sail right through. If you are a problem that has to be fixed, it might not go so well for you. I don't think you need to try to dazzle with wordy speech on the phone as this could put someone off. Honest, plain speaking, to the point should get you further. Build a relationship of mutual respect and understanding.You can tell when someone is pullin'your leg and get real, they can tell it about you. I think a person has to actually care some about what another person goes through on a day to day basis to pull this off and be effective. This may well be un-doable for a bunch of ego-maniacs that call themselves musicians! tsup dude?Keith

[mojobone]

Wow, Bob, great tips!. We could probably go one better and record audio and/or video, maybe critique and improve our delivery, since any/every presentation is a performance. But Mazz is more than correct, it's tough for performers who need to take charge onstage to learn to put on the listener hat when talking biz. Myself, I prefer a more conversational style on the phone, because I find I glean more useful information when I'm not (at least not constantly) pitching. For me, the main thing I try to keep in my head is to stay focused, brief and polite, without being Johnny One-Note, cuz nobody likes to talk to that guy. Heh, cross-posting! Keith jes' brought up the single biggest factor; you have to genuinely care about other people and their needs and goals. The rest all follows from that.

[elser]

It's interesting to me how many people have brought up the rehearse your spiel idea. That really goes against my nature, even when I taught in a class room, I would just show up knowing the topic but not spending much time thinking before hand what I was going to say.But, I can see how that could create a certain sense of professionalism, having carefully chosen words which had been considered and even 're-written' ahead of time. Rehearsing always makes me nervous, but perhaps it's time to work on that aspect of my personality.I think I'll start calling Taxi 3 or 4 times a day and practicing on them, they're really nice people.