This document discusses how the author was embarrassed by witnessing poor phone skills in a retail store, which motivated him to research telephone techniques. He realized most training focused on what to say rather than how to connect with customers. True effectiveness requires understanding how people process information and what motivates them. The author aims to teach phone skills that build rapport by mirroring the representational systems and language patterns of the caller.

1. Tele marketing….
How an Aussie Marketer Was Embarrassed Into Creating a System of Telephone Sales Skills
That Can Increase Your Effectiveness on the Telephone by Over 321% and Have Fun Doing
It
G’day,
Please allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Alan Stewart. As you can tell from my greeting, I’m an Australian and my work is
supposed to be about helping business people to communicate in ways that make them more
valuable, marketable and profitable.
I say “supposed to be” because recently I blew it!
If you have a moment then sit back and relax now and I’ll tell you the story.
Is this happening to you?
I was standing in a small queue of a local retail store waiting to be served. There were 2 Staff
Members behind the counter, cheerfully serving customers. The whole atmosphere of the place was
exceptionally friendly with no one showing the least bit of impatience for needing to wait.
Suddenly the phone began to ring and what I witnessed next was an almost Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Personality Change from one of the workers. He became extremely agitated and refused to pick up the
phone. I counted 13 rings before finally out of sheer frustration he answered it. He rudely and
reluctantly grunted out a short answer to the caller’s question before slamming down the phone. He
then did another personality change and went back to cheerfully serving us.
Please don’t get me wrong, this guy was not just some jerk who didn’t deserve his job. Indeed his
face-to-face rapport skills were brilliant. When it came to using the phone however he was dismal.
Do you think this staff member was helping himself or the business to be more valuable, marketable
and profitable?
Wait until you read the irony …
The store this man worked in, was part of a franchise chain. I had been contracted by the Master
Franchise Owners to develop a marketing campaign to help them make their phones ring.
Can you imagine how dumb I felt when I realized that the staff member was affecting my livelihood
and reputation as well?

2. The beginning of an obsession!
The incident in the store highlights the fact that you should learn everything possible about Telephone
Success Strategies and insist they are used by everyone in your organisation.
So off I went devouring everything I could about telephone techniques. Many of the courses and
seminars were excellent.
What was interesting was what they all had in common.
The presenters talked about “how too many small businesses see phone calls as interruptions rather
than opportunities”.
They dramatized how “business owners are literally squandering their hard earned marketing dollars
(and reputation) by underestimating the value of each phone call”.
They gave great examples like: “If you spend $100 on advertising and 10 people phone, then it is
costing you at the very least $10 per call.”
Their telephone training provided great tips such as answering the phone on the third ring with, “Good
Morning, XYZ Company, This is Joanne”. Or always saying “Mr Smith is with a client” (rather than in a
meeting) when not available.
Suddenly the light came on.
Whilst these may be great tips, you know there are countless businesses that answer the phone in this
manner yet still manage to drive their clients away. You could have knocked me down with a feather
when I finally realized where they were all missing the boat. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was
when the following distinction hit me.
There is more to being effective on the telephone than just ‘surface language’.
Their focus was on what you should say rather than how or why you should say it. In other words they
were all caught up in just their content instead of focussing on the way people process information
and what motivates them to do business with you in the first place.
As silly as it may sound it is better to say the wrong thing in the right way than it is to say the right
thing in the wrong way.
How many times have you been put off by a telemarketer who was blatantly reading you a script?
They may have been given the right words to say but they definitely had the wrong approach.
Ultimately when you can say the right thing in the right way you’ll …

3. Telemarketing Woes
Picture this scene:
You’re finally home from a long, hard day at work. You’re about to sit down to have your favourite
meal. Feeling totally famished, it’s great to sit and finally relax, but then you hear the phone ring.
You resist the urge to salivate like Pavlov’s dogs and think to yourself, “Who would be ringing now!”
As you pick up
the phone your psychic ability is confirmed – it’s a Telemarketer.
As a Business Owner you realize how challenging selling on the phone can be, so your sense of fair
play kicks in. Much to the disgust of your growling stomach, you decide to courteously listen to their
spiel.
Of course, what happens next requires the patience of Job as you listen to someone blatantly reading
a script with a tonality and language patterns that sound more like an android than a human being.
The punishment continues until
your stomach determines that you’ve had enough. You assertively tell them you’re not interested
whilst reminding them that it is dinner hour and that your meal is going cold.
Unfortunately, most of us can relate to the above scenario. It is clearly an example of somebody on
the phone doing more to infuriate you, than to influence you into buying their product or service.
At the other end of the spectrum is the Telemarketer who sounds like an old familiar friend, a real
person that you have an instant connection with, a confidant who gives you wise advice on how to
invest your time and money.
Obviously in any business interaction on the phone you want to model this type of Teleprofessional – a
person who is able to communicate in a way that others will find compelling and understandable.
Why are these Teleprofessionals so few and far between, and the dinner spoilers the norm? Well apart
from the obvious poor timing, there is often an over emphasis placed on the content of the script with
very little focus on how clients
process the information. You can plan on using all the fancy selling phrases but none of them will work
if your client never picks up the phone.
You’ll be equally ineffective if there is no connection with the receivers of your clients mind.
The purpose of the Phone Skill Secrets site is to take you beyond what to say (content) to how to say
it (process). For brevity’s sake, I am keeping the explanation on why you say it (motivation) to a

4. minimum. Experience has taught me that in today’s demanding business world of information overload
one must abide by the rule of “less means more”. People appreciate being able to access the
information they need quickly.
How to get the most out of this site:
1. Read it. It has been kept short so that you’ll have no excuse not to!
2. Reflect on it. How does the information apply to you and can it be used in other contexts other than
telephone skills. Perhaps you could consider applying some of the information to copy writing.
3. Apply it. The power of the concepts comes from applying them. Anything less would be like
swimming on dry land.
Applying this information will change your whole way of thinking about how you communicate with
others in both your personal and professional lives. Who knows, with a little bit of luck you may even
get to understand your spouse!
4. Clarify it. Remember, you’re welcome to leave comments and questions on the Blog.
5. Teach it. Teaching this information to others is ultimately the best way to ensure that you
thoroughly understand it.
Check out the next post where you’ll learn about what goes on inside your client’s head.
Inside the Client’s Head
(Representational Systems)
There are 6 ways that people represent things in their minds.
1. Visual (pictures)
2. Auditory (sounds)
3. Kinesthetic (feelings)
4. Olfactory (smells)
5. Gustatory (tastes)
6. Auditory Digital (self talk or internal dialogue).
There is a tendency for people to process information with a bias towards one or two of these
modalities.
A witness of a car accident who has a visual bias will describe what the accident looked like. “You
should have seen the crumbled mess it made of the cars.”

5. An auditory person would be inclined to tell you about the sound of the screeching brakes and huge
bang of the impact.
A person who processes kinesthetically will often relate how bad they felt for the occupants of the
cars.
Whilst the person who has an auditory digital (self talk/internal dialogue) bias may want to understand
and think about how the whole thing happened.
Can you guess someone’s bias if they said, “The whole thing stinks!” or “It left a bad taste in my
mouth”?
Have you ever had something you’ve said taken out of context? The American Psychiatrist, William
James, wrote, “The greatest lie is the truth misunderstood”.
Having things ‘taken out of process’ can equally create misunderstandings.
If you are visually inclined and ask someone to ‘show’ you directions, and they ‘tell’ you (rather than
‘show’ you) how to get there… you’ll probably get lost!
Exceptional Teleprofessionals stay ‘in process’ with their client. After years of trial (and a whole lot of
error!), they have developed unconscious competence at doing this. The trick is to model their
excellence.
You’ll find out how over the next few posts.
Enhance your Telephone Sales Skills with Rapport
Rapport is a process of responsiveness. It is literally the magical ingredient of persuasion. It is best
understood through the simple presupposition or convenient belief:
“when people are like each other they tend to like each other.”
Witness two people who are in rapport, who are responding well to each other and you’ll notice they
become more and more alike. As they share commonalities they unconsciously start to imitate each
other’s physiology, tonality, and language patterns. Hypnotherapists refer to this as mirroring and
matching each other.
In some cases the rapport is so strong, when recalling the conversation, an individual may believe
that the other person’s dialogue was their own. They will often argue to the contrary even if you were
to produce a taped version of the discussion. Imagine your delight if a client started telling you why
they should buy your product or service.

6. If you truly believe that what you are selling or recommending is of genuine value for your client, then
why not utilize the power of unconscious communication? Be like them intentionally to increase their
responsiveness and give them the opportunity to truly evaluate what you have to offer.
THIS IS THE SECRET OF STAYING ‘IN PROCESS’.
To do this you’ll need an understanding of…
The Components of Communication
Research shows that only:
7% of communication is words,
38% is tonality, and
55% of communication is physiology or what one does with their body.
When speaking on the phone we are primarily concerned with words and tonality. At first glance,
unless you’re video conferencing, there is very little use of physiology to convey your message. But in
the future I will share with you a little known technique using your physiology to enhance your ability
on the phone.
How to recognize what modality your client favours:
The Components of Communication gives you certain clues or cues on how to recognize people’s
preferred representation systems (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Auditory Digital).
There are certain word cues, tonality cues and physiological cues.
Word Cues
The word cues are made up of predicates.
If I were to say, “Do you see what I mean?” The word ‘see’ is a predicate for a Visual Representation.
If I said, “That doesn’t sound right to me.” The word ‘sound’ is an Auditory Representation.
If someone stated “I don’t feel good about this.” They would be representing things Kine sthetically.
When something “doesn’t make sense” the word ‘sense’ is an Auditory Digital Predicate indicating that
the person is processing information through self-talk or internal dialogue.
When communicating, people may inadvertently mismatch each other’s predicates and ‘take things
out of process’. My favourite example of this is how my wife, Deborah, and I used to relate to each

7. other before we were aware of our
preferred modalities.
In many contexts, Deborah is visually inclined, whilst I am more auditory. Now sometimes Deborah
and I would have our…discussions…or debates (read: arguments) to which Deborah would say, “Look!
You’re just not willing to see my
point of view. I can’t make things clear to you. You’re not willing to look at what I’m trying to show
you.” To which I would respond with, “Now, listen. That doesn’t sound right to me. I’m not hearing it.
It just doesn’t ring a bell at all!”
At this stage, were we like each other? Were we in rapport? No, we were talking two entirely different
languages, and becoming frustrated by our lack of effective communication.
Download a list of some common Predicates and Predicate Phrases to improve your telephone sales
skills. Please take the time to add your own to the list. I cannot encourage you enough to build your
awareness of the word cues. You’ll start to see things completely differently as you hear things in new
ways. The words will seem to jump out at you as you enhance your ability to understand others.
Okay, so you’ve discovered how to polish your telephone selling skills with word cues and predicates,
now consider the other part of the equation:
Tonality Cues
Tonality is made up of:
Tempo (speed and rhythm)
Some people talk naturally very quickly, whilst others talk slowly with long slow pauses in between
words. As with the other 3 elements of Tonality, it should be ‘voluntarily mandatory’ that all
Teleprofessionals practice their scripts with varied degrees of speed and rhythm. Doing so will allow
one to have the flexibility to automatically adapt to the many variations and shifts they may come
across. Thus enhancing their ability to mirror any client’s tonality and therefore build rapport.
Timbre (quality of the sound)
People’s voices can vary from being very crisp and clear to dry and raspy.
Volume (loudness)
We’ve all heard voices that are boisterous and loud and others that are so soft they barely meet a
whisper.

8. Pitch (degree of acuteness)
Pitch can range from deep monotone to ‘dentist drill’ high.
Hints on practising:
Practice all four elements of tonality exaggerated at first. Then bring them back to your natural voice
range. When mirroring and matching you should create shifts in the tonality within the realms of your
own voice so you still sound natural and not forced.
The specific Tonality Cues for each modality:
Visual: Faster, higher pitched
Auditory: Melodic, Rhythmic
Kinesthetic: Lower and softer
6 Physiological Cues for effective sales
Physiological Cues
Posture:
Visual – Erect
Auditory – Often Swaying
Kinesthetic – Rounded
Head:
Visual – Up
Auditory – Tilted
Kinesthetic – Down
Breathing:
Visual – High in chest
Auditory – Mid Range
Kinethetic – Low in abdomen
The attributes of tonality and physiology for each of the modalities become easy to remember once
you see that there is a simple connection.
If you look closely at the Visual attributes for physiology and tonality, you’ll see that everything is up.
The voice speed is up, the pitch is up, the body is erect, the head is up, and the breathing is high in
the chest… it is all up.

9. At the other end is Kinesthetic, where the attributes can be grouped as down. The voice is lower and
softer, the body is rounded, the head is down, and the breathing is low in the abdomen… it is all
down.
From here, it doesn’t take much to realize that the attributes for the Auditory Modality are mid-way
between the Visual and Kinesthetic Representational Systems. In short, we would say Auditory is in
the middle.
You’ll remember that on an earlier another post, people who use an Auditory Digital Modality (selftalk)
may have attributes similar to any of the above three. When it comes to Tonality and Physiology, they
are most likely to have similar qualities to the Kinesthetic Representational System.
I would hate for you not to appreciate how powerful this concept is because I have simplified the
technology. Time and time again I have seen Sales People improve their selling ability, teachers
enhance their teaching skills, and couples overcome misunderstandings because they finally
understood and applied this information.
Conversely I have seen others lose sales, install learning disabilities, and create major arguments
because they had no idea on how to ‘stay in process’.
For example, imagine this dialogue between a visually inclined teacher and a kinesthetic student:
“Sir, I can’t quite grasp what you’re saying.”
The teacher replies “Let me show you once more.” After attempting to show the student again the
teacher then asks, “Do you see what I mean now?”
“No, I still feel like I can’t do it.”
The teacher replies with slight frustration, “Look, you just need to watch more closely when I’m
showing you.”
The next time you’re in a selling situation, determine what modality your client or customer favours
and then sell accordingly.
For example, let’s say you sell cars and a potential buyer walks into the car yard. Everything about the
buyer, in terms of tonality and physiology, is up. You also notice they use visual predicates when they
speak with you. You therefore determine they are visually inclined and use a visual slant in your sales
presentation. Show them the interior and exterior of different cars, do comparisons on looks and
colours, let them see the glossy coloured brochures, etc.
Write down all the ways you would sell to an Auditory and then a Kinesthetic Customer.

10. Scripts don’t work – people do.
I personally believe in scripts. And I’ve come to the conclusion that they should be parameters not
perimeters. A parameter is a guideline and a perimeter is a boundary. When a Telemarketer reads a
script in a robotic-like fashion with no thought of context, process or structure, they create a huge
boundary between themselves and their client that diminishes any chance of building rapport.
A good script should be rehearsed to the point that it is almost autonomous. In that way the majority
of one’s focus can be placed on the client and how he or she is processing, rather than just the
content of the script.
If you’re responsible for writing a script you may consider having separate ones for each of the
modalities. At the very least you should mix the predicates to make the content more charismatic.
For an excellent example of a script please consider investing in “How to make Appointments by
Telephone” by Body Language Guru and Master Presenter, Mr Allan Pease. Use Allan’s script with a
knowledge of ‘how to stay in process’ and you will never have a challenge with making an
appointment with a prospect again.
8 How NOT to improve your Telephone Sales
Technique
Not answering the phone
 Telephone is constantly engaged
 Answering the phone on the first ring
 Answering a business call with just “Hello”
 Answering with just a surname: “Smith”
 Answering with just the company’s name: “ABC Company”
 Answering with just the department’s name: “Accounts”
 Answering with: “ABC Company, please hold the line”
 Putting people on hold without asking for their permission
 Forcing your caller to listen to “Greensleaves” whilst ‘on hold’
 Having the radio playing for people ‘on hold’. (You don’t need them to hear a song that reminds
them of an ex-lover who jilted them, your oppositions commercial, or the news telling them that
America has just bombed Iraq

11.  A recorded message that constantly repeats, “Please continue to hold. Your call is important to
us.”
 Talking over the STD or ISD pips
 Giving the caller too much information
 Not giving them enough information
 Saying: “We’re not allowed to give out our prices on the phone”
 Sounding like a Police Interrogation when asking questions
 Telling the Receptionist that the subject is personal
 Saying to someone you’ve never spoken to before: “How are you today?”
 Repeating the callers name over and over throughout the conversation
9 How to Improve your Telephone Sales Technique
Alan Stewart on Aug 05 2007
Here’s a list of ways to please your customers on the phone:
 Answer the phone on the third ring
 Smile before you pick up the phone
 Welcome every call with a positive attitude
 Use the first 2 rings as a chance to get into a positive frame of mind
 Answer the telephone professionally with: Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening, Company or
Department Name, this is, your name. eg. “Good Morning, The Marketer’s Podcast, this is Alan
Stewart.”Notice that I didn’t conclude the greeting with “Alan Stewart speaking”. By ending the
greeting with your name, rather than “speaking” it increases the likelihood that the caller will tell
you their name – which in turn increases the possibility of a sale.
 Listen attentively with your whole mind on the caller
 Have some paper handy to write down notes about what the caller is telling you
 Thank the customer for calling
 Ask for permission to ask (questions)
 Use P.M.T.: Probe, Make them do the talking, and Tell them what they want to see, hear, feel
and understand
 Give out small pieces of information at a time

12.  Confirm the details of any meeting or order with the client
 Always hang up last
 Write a quick note about what you want from the call
 Put a slight pause between your first and second names. You are used to saying your name but
the client isn’t used to hearing it
 When speaking with someone for the first time say: “We haven’t met yet.” as opposed to “You
don’t know me.”
 Instead of asking, “Are you in the middle of something?” or “Are you busy?” (Everybody’s going
to be busy) ask instead “Are you in the middle of something urgent?”
 Use words like: “With your permission”, “I appreciate your time” and “Follow-up”
 Use a postcard to confirm the appointment – avoid ringing, people often opt out
 Record your phone calls so that you can later work out what you would like to change.
10 How to have top Telephone Sales Skills
Alan Stewart on Aug 05 2007
Here’s the Step-by-Step process on improving your Telephone Selling Skills:
1. Print the page of predicates (don’t be too concerned with Predicate Phrases at this stage).
2. Draw a coloured line down the centre of the page so Visual and Auditory are to the left of the
centre line, and Kinesthetic and Unspecified (Auditory Digital) are to the right.
3. Stick this Predicate Table where visible near your phone.
4. Call a friend. When they answer listen to the tempo of their voice. If it seems to be up, look to
the left of the page, if they’re talking fairly slowly then focus on the predicates on the
right.Remember, in the words of Neil Diamond, “Some days are diamonds, some days are
stones…” Your friend may not be using the modality you predicted before calling them. People
may switch from their preferred Representational System because of a change in context or
circumstances.
5. Once you’ve ascertained which modality they prefer at the moment, start to use some of the
predicates of that modality, in addition to the appropriate tonality (Visual – up, Auditory –
middle, Kinesthetic – down).For example, let’s say your friend talks quickly with a higher pitched
voice and several times you’ve heard them say, “Do you see what I mean?” From this interaction

13. you could safely predict that at the moment they are visually inclined. So you would increase the
tempo and pitch while saying to them something like (depending upon the context) “I can only
begin to imagine what that looks like! Are they starting to see your point of view?”
6. Now you would use that little known technique I promised on an earlier post. In addition to
mirroring and matching your friends’ predicates and tonalities you should also adopt the
appropriate physiology. For your Visual friend you would sit erect, have your head up, and breath
high in your chest.This may seem pointless when your friend can’t see you when talking on the
telephone, but doing so will put you in a Visual State, making your communication more
congruent. You’ll more than likely suddenly discover a deep connection with friend. Quite
possibly a connection that is stronger than you’ve ever had before. This should take away any
concerns you may have had about thinking you are being manipulative.
7. To enhance your confidence try deliberately slowing the tempo down and making the pitch more
melodic. If you have a strong connection, your friend will more than likely come with you. They
will start to slow down and reduce their pitch. This could be very useful if you w ant them to truly
hear what you are saying.This is referred to as pacing and leading which occurs naturally when
people are in rapport. Watch what happens when a group of friends are sitting in a room
together and one starts to yawn. Next thing everyone else in the room starts complaining, “Stop
yawning! You’re making me yawn!”
8. Once you’ve had some experience at using the technology with friends start doing the same with
some of your clients. Remember, there is no such thing as failure – there is only feedback. And
above all, be sure to…
Have fun!
The beauty of this system is that suddenly your focus moves away from things like ‘call reluctance’
and an obsession with the right content, to a fascination about how people process information. You’ll
really start to see their point of view, hear what they’ve got to say, get in touch with their feelings,
and understanding the difference between infuriating and influencing!