How to influence people more effectively over the phone

How to influence people

Have you ever wished you were better at negotiating or communicating over the phone? Influencing people on the phone can be difficult, between nervousness and periods of awkward silence, being an effective influencer can be difficult.

Luckily, The Gap Partnership, a media consulting firm, has created a long list of tips to maximize your effectiveness when communicating via phone.

Your first step to becoming a more effective influencer is to take steps to prepare yourself before you make a call. Begin by thinking about what you would like the end result of your conversation to be, and play out various scenarios in your mind, in order to gain better perspective and focus. It is also a good idea to know what questions you want to ask and be prepared with answers to probable questions from the other person.

Before placing your first call, you can also practice with a voice recorder so you can ensure your tone and enthusiasm is spot on. The rest of these tips will help you navigate your way through your call.

Patience, passion, and fine-tuning

One of the best things you can do to be a more effective influencer, is to fine-tune the traits you already possess. Work on being more enthusiastic about your product or service; your enthusiasm will come through to the listener, encouraging their interest in the product or service as well. Be passionate about what you are offering, as they will pick up on this as well. Also, be patient. You should be ready to listen attentively.

And finally, be confident and have a sense of humor; this will go a long way in getting your listener to be actively engaging with your dialogue. When you’re on the phone, using your voice is your most powerful tool, so make sure your pace, volume, tone, clarity and smile are shining through your call. They also suggest not “apologizing” for interrupting with your call. It will make you sound like you have done something wrong; instead try to act as if your call will be doing your listener a favor.

The top 3 qualities of an effective influencer

Lastly, they list they list they top three qualities of an effective influencer as being friendly, succinct, and accurate. Keep your tone friendly and your message short and to-the-point. If you’re forced to use a script, try to avoid the clichés of common sales phrases: edit your script so that it fits your natural vocabulary.

Also, do not read directly from your script, instead use it as a guidepost, otherwise it will sound disingenuous. No matter which points you take away from this study, remember to keep your strategy consistent and you will be a more effective influencer in no time.

Is the above TLDR? Don’t worry, the following graphic contains all of the tips: