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Like many advisors, you take your voice for granted.
Our sense of hearing allows us to gather and interpret sounds continuously and without conscious effort.
But did you know that you can become more persuasive by learning how to modulate the tone of your voice?
Are you making common mistakes with phone calls, Zoom meetings, and virtual presentations that turn off your best prospects?
Many advisors miss a simple trick to turn ordinary conversations into effective marketing content.
Here are… five ways to sell more with the power of your voice alone.
- Get their attention in the first seven seconds
One study showed that people’s attention spans are shorter than that of a goldfish.
In the first few seconds, your client or prospect makes the first critical decision: keep listening, enter into a conversation with you, or end it now.
For communicators, seven seconds is the first moment of truth.
To hook appointments quickly, tell people “what’s in it for them” in seven seconds or less.
Let’s say you want to make a great first impression on an inbound phone call.
As you pick up the phone, smile (yes, you can “hear” a smile in a voice over the phone), and say something like “Hello, ____ (name of firm), this is ____ (your first name).”
- Everybody has their own unique voice, leverage yours
Avoid being the person that says, “I can’t stand listening to the sound of my voice.”
Just like a fingerprint, everyone has a unique voice.
As speakers, we naturally have strengths and weaknesses and will resonate with a certain crowd.
As one master marketer told me early in my career, “You talk technical,” implying I had no future in public speaking.
Initially, I was put off, thinking my natural way of speaking would stop me from resonating with my target audiences: financial advisors and business owners.
But I learned to embrace it, even build a personality around it as the marketing geek/nerd who has put in the extra work, done the research, and is sharing myths from marketing gold.
Hey, it has worked for Bill Gates, whose presentation style is information-based.
Part of embracing your voice is listening to your sales and marketing presentations to identify easy fixes in your presentations and where your natural voice comes from.
Record and get your presentations transcribed to identify ways to improve the power of your verbal communications and use them as marketing content like articles, blog entries, and white papers.
This content could be marketing gold!
- Make your point in virtual events and meetings
You want front lighting, eye level webcam, and a neutral or virtual background for optimal virtual meetings. Many know these basics.
But did you know Zoom began by solving the problem of unreliable audio in online meetings? They found people would be turned off not by patchy video but by delay in hearing a speaker.
Studies have also shown that webinar attendees will put up with jumps in the video or static slides, but they will leave if they can’t hear the speaker’s voice or if audio is interrupted.
You want a quiet room with minimal background noise, fast internet service with reliable WIFI, and a high-quality headset or USB mic such as a Blue Yeti.
For example, I was prepping a speaker in a webinar rehearsal, and she was on a $15 crackly headset. I thought the event was going to be a disaster.
This same speaker switched to a $100 USB mic and wowed the virtual crowd with rich tones projected through the virtual meeting, and she established herself as the expert in her target market.
- The tone and inflection of your voice can make all the difference
“Here’s the next step in the planning process on your way to retiring in the lifestyle you outlined” can have different emphases depending on the tone of your voice.
It is not just what you say but how you say it that impacts your words.
Most know that ending a sentence with an inflection that goes down gives it weight while ending by going up connotes a question.
One of my advisors ensures she’s ready for a long day of speaking with clients by getting her voice ready and talking with a junior partner before the meetings.
This preps for the meetings informationally, but also warms up her voice much the way a singer would before going on stage.
- Getting caught listening advances your career
Be aware of the words prospects, clients, and team members use.
For example, some people are more visual, auditory, or kinesthetic:
Let me paint a picture of my finances.
I hear what you are saying about saving for retirement.
This budget does not feel right to me.
These are all phrases using three of the key senses.
If a prospect or client consistently uses one sense in their speaking, be sure to match their modality.
Let’s look at a chart that depicts our planning process.
Let me tell you the key steps in the planning process so you can hear how it might resonate with your goals.
Let me give you a feel for how our planning process works.
Recognize that your prospects, clients, and influencers also like to hear the sounds of their voices.
And one of the key differentiators of a skilled advisor is someone who will listen.
Make sure you get “caught listening” and reflect back to the prospect or client what they are saying to you.
How can you create your sonic boom for a more profitable and enjoyable practice?
It starts by actively listening to the voice of the client and your own voice. Then, act on what you hear.
Bob Hanson is a fractional marketer and author of Marketing Power for Financial Advisors. Get his checklist, Nine Questions Advisors Must Ask Before They Hire a Marketing Agency, Fractional or Full-Time Marketer, click here.
Read more articles by Bob Hanson
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
