ROSHINI'S BLOG

For most business people, your voice mail greets more people in a day than you do personally.  On the flip side, you leave several messages a day for people you hope to do business with.  Am I right?  The big question:  Is your voice mail behavior gaining business for you or losing it?

This topic is such an important one that some of my clients are thrilled to have me include it in vocal behavior trainings I do for their teams.  One detrimental habit I’ve noticed often is people speeding through their phone numbers.  If you want me to call you back and I can’t even understand your number, chances are you won’t hear from me.  My state still allows us to be on the phone when we drive, so I must admit I sometimes check voice mail while driving.  I try not to, but it happens sometimes.  You can’t count on the fact that your listener will have pencil and paper in hand to jot down your number.  And even if they are all ears and pencil, speeding through your information forces us to listen to your message two or three times.  Some may not bother, so you’re also talking your listener out of doing business with you.

A couple suggestions.  If you’re leaving a message for someone, state your name and number clearly and slowly.  Repeat the phone number for good measure.  If you’re recording your own message for others to hear when they call you, think about the kind of business persona you want to portray.  Make it confident and easy to understand.  Try not to sound like a 900-number and do not end any sentence on an up note as if it’s a question.  Clearly make a statement by visualizing the period at the end of your sentence.  These guidelines should help you get your calls returned and the kinds of repeat customers you want.

Now that I’ve had a day to ruminate on Barack Obama’s Presidential Press Conference, I want to share some presentation highlights and lowlights…feel free to learn from them.

The upside:  Pres. Obama was authentically himself.  Good performances, and all good things in life really, are always connected to authenticity.  Once you veer from your true self, you start sliding downhill.  Obama had sobering topics to cover, and he didn’t try to put a sugar coating on any of them.  That’s true to what we saw during the campaign and how we’ve come to expect Barack Obama’s character.  So he gets high points for authenticity.

Improvement needed:  From a performance standpoint, this was not a 10 for the president.  He is a talented speaker.  But in front of the cameras and an overeager White House Press Corps. this time around, the prez was not his usual “cool” as a cucumber.  Some things he could have done to dissipate the discomfort:  reduce head movement, keep one-armed hand gestures to a minimum, and try to sound a little more conversational on the topics that were not his favorite.

Overall Performance Score:  7.75

Your words are heard…even when you don’t want them to be and don’t think anyone’s listening.  At a recent coffee shop adventure while waiting on a meeting to begin, I couldn’t help but overhear one pair of business people at a nearby table.  I really wasn’t trying to listen.  But I couldn’t avoid hearing them.  Normally that wouldn’t be the end of the world. 

But then it came, these words from one of them:  “This is confidential information but…”  Much to my horror, this particular pair chatted as though no one could hear them.  Come on, it’s a crowded coffee shop.  And what I personally lack in good eyesight, I make up for in supersonic hearing.  Though you didn’t need special hearing powers to hear these two. 

Lucky for them, I have no bad intent concerning what I overheard.  But what if I happened to be a competitor?  I had already learned where each of them worked and what was in the future for one of their companies.  What if I were someone who knew their bosses and was ready to report the indiscretion?

There is a time and place for everything.  There’s also a volume of voice to use in public places.  But I would always advise you remain conservative when it comes to sharing sensitive topics in public spaces.  Or at least go somewhere that’s less busy.  I can only imagine who else overheard this particular “confidential” information and what debauchery might be planned.  I just hope you don’t let yourself be overheard.