“What is the most important quality as a salesperson, as a voice coach? I’d say it is the trustworthiness. ” – Cynthia Zhai in today’s Tip 175
How do you use your breath while speaking?
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes to us from Cynthia Zhai. Cynthia is a voice coach, speaker, and author. She has helped business professionals and professional’s speakers from 46 countries across 5 continents with their voice to speak with impact and conviction that engages and inspires people to embrace change and take action. Here she is with today’s tip:
Cynthia Zhai: What is the most important quality as a salesperson, as a voice coach, I’d say it is the trustworthiness. The moment your prospects meet you for the first time, they sense that you are trustworthy, that you are someone who has their best interest in mind. Instead of closing the sale as your focus. Can you project trustworthiness to someone you just met? Yes, you can. A large percentage of that impression comes from the way you sound. Sadly, most salespeople have overlooked the power of their voices in building trust with their prospects. The voice problems that I’ve seen are in the way of your trustworthiness are: One, you’ll speak fast. If you speak fast, you can come across as nervous, not patient, not stable, focusing on rushing the sale. In one word, you don’t sound trustworthy. The second problem, your voice trembles. When that happens, you’ll sound nervous. You’ll come across as someone who’s not able to stay collected, easily loses control and not able to handle stress well. Also in one word, not able to be trusted with responsibility. The third, voice problem. Your voice is monotonous. You’ll appear lacking passion with your product or service. Uninterested with the prospect with his or her knees and interests. All the three biggest voice problems can be overcome with one powerful technique because one of the biggest causes for the three problems is holding your breath while speaking. Eight out of 10 of my clients have noticed that they held their breath while speaking, very often. This is very unconscious and to you is brought to your awareness. To sound trustworthy. The first step is to start observing when you’ll hold your breath while speaking. For example, some of my clients noticed when they were thinking they held their breath or when they faced someone who looked aggressive, they held their rest. So start to observe you hold your breath. Secondly, start to use your breath while speaking. Voice is supported by your breath. When you speak, you are supposed to use your breath. If you don’t use your breath while speaking, this is how you sound like. Came here and a difference in my demonstration. How did I come across to you now? Well, that probably comes across as someone who is not confident, who is not trustworthy or maybe even someone who is holding something back. How do you use your breath while speaking? You can start by using more breath on your keywords. While here, keywords refer to the words that convey the message. If we use this as an example, “this product will help you save time and cut cost”. This is the sentence. So now I am going to say it was more air on the keywords. At more breath, more air. “This product will help you save time and cut cost”. Now, can you hear the difference? Not only I slowed down, but also my voice was more stable and no longer monotonous. This is a very simple yet powerful technique to help you project as someone who is trustworthy, who is calm and collected, and who has the prospect’s best interest.
Scott Ingram: If you’d like to learn more from Cynthia, click over to DailySales.Tips/175 where you’ll find links to her free 3-part video lessons, her very popular YouTube Channel and her website and if you’d like a copy of her book: Influence Through Voice Book, just email me: [email protected]. The first 5 who do will get the eBook from Cynthia.
Thanks for listening and come back tomorrow for another great sales tip!