How to Sound Professional Over the Phone

Throughout my employment and self-employment career, I've noticed many people are never really taught how to sound professional over the phone. This is an important skill and long-term it often can either make or lose you or your company money.

1) First, take some time to prepare what you're going to say if you're initiating the phone call.

This can range from just general points on a post-it note to a full script. This is mainly to keep you on track if you go blank on what you want to say due to either distraction (conversation gets off track) or nervousness.

2) Consider the tone of your voice.

If you sound like you're bored or tired, it's going to show through. On the positive side, your tone can work to your advantage if you sound upbeat or excited. A trick that I've heard many times is to physically smile while you're in the conversation. Even if the person on the other side can't see you, they'll pick up on it in your voice.

3) Try to be as careful as possible with pronouncing words, especially names, addresses, and other unique words that you don't use in daily life.

With phone and street numbers, watch for things that can cause people to make a mistake in writing them down. An example of this is saying "seventeen" for 17 and the person on the other line starts out writing a 7 and then has to mark it out. In that case, you'd want to say "one" and "seven" separately.

4) Don't overdo it.

People have gotten to the point that they tend to ignore the telemarketing style of professional speech. You mainly want to make sure you're communicating clearly, not that you're following a strict robot pattern of conversation. It's definitely all right to still sound like a human being, and that warmth will help you stand out.

More Tips:

• If you have to make a lot of phone calls on a daily basis, try to have a friend listen to you. Sometimes we sound different to ourselves than we do to other people, and it helps to have another point-of-view.
• Practice will help you in this process more than anything. If you slip up, don't let it bother you to the point you don't want to move forward. Learn from it.
• Ask yourself before the phone call whether it would be to your best advantage to sound professional or more casual. I've found in local business-to-business situations that I've had better success sounding a touch unprofessional. That's going to vary, and definitely check with someone first if you're working for someone else.