As a salesperson you have to look at yourself as a high-performance athlete like a boxer or a runner. When you see things from this perspective, you see the relentless daily need to improve your skillset, as obviously mediore people don’t  practice and any high-performing athlete does.

Part of my routine when I wake up is to work on my diction and voice deepness.

Since I am a practical guy and I like practical things, here’s my practical daily routine so you can implement it as well.

Neck stretches

When you wake up, the first thing I do is neck stretches.

1. Rotate your head around a couple of times.

2. side-to-side stretches

You don’t need to go Mike Tyson on this, just a couple of reps until you feel your neck muscles.

Chest stretches

You can do this sitting: open your harms, Christ like, and stretch them so you start feeling tension on your back shoulders and on your chest. While you are doing this, breathe in and breathe out a couple of times. This will open your chest cavity, so you become more relaxed.

Yawning

Yawning is a great exercise to help you streatch your mouth and neck. It helps you open up your vocals.

Clear your throat

We wake up more relaxed in the morning, but I notice I need to clear my throat. Intentional caughing and the “ahhhhr” sound help you get your throat clearer. If you don’t do this, you will notice that your sentences break-up as you have stuff in your throat keep you from Talking properly.

Humming

Humming is the first actual tonality exercise I do. Try to do the lowest you can with open and closed mouth.

While you do this, place your palm on your chest and feel the vibrations. This gets you, more aligned with your real voice, your real tone.

While you are doing this, try to lower your tone even more. You will feel it when it starts feeling natural. This is your natural tone.

Q E Q R

Now that you got your low bass natural tone, instead of humming with your mouth open and closed, change this to saying the letters Q E Q R a couple of times.

While you do this, exagerate opening and closing your face muscles. Remember that this is an exercise to help you activate your facial muscles.

Q – mouth Kiss like

E – mouth Joker like

Lip Trill

This exercise helpes ativate your lips so they are not num while you are talking.

It is lip-trills.You let air come out your mouth and let your lips vibrate.

In the beginning only a gasp of air came out for me. If this is you right now, you will get better, like I did. You need the vibrating sound from your lips by reacting to the gasp of air.

This exercise is critical to improve your speech and tonality.

Thoughts to keep in the back of your mind when talking to someone

When you are tense, when you are sad, when you are stressed this directly influences your face muscles and the way you say things. If you sell using the phone people will feel this.

As soon as you start becoming aware of this and paying more attention to how you are saying things, you will notice reactions from your listeners accordingly. If you feel more confident, they will fold more to what you are saying because you sound more confident. If you feel happier and talk in a happier more joyous state, people will relax more, as they will feel this too.

What as worked out best for me is the following frame of mind while talking:

1. Talk in a way you always feel your chest and diafragm vibrating

2. Slow down your speech to a speed you can listen to every word you are saying to the syllabe.

3. When you say a sentence, split it in two:

Up intonation and down intonation. This will give you room to listen to what you are saying and lead people to what you want to conclude.

Example: “Hi! Is this John?”(say it with an up intonation so people in the back of their minds think like: “yeaaah aaand?”

“My name is Diogo. I’m calling you regarding the mortgage protection quote you asked us”.(say it with a lower intonation, going down tonality). This is a commanding tonality. People will get into this yes/no answer mode. Since you already opened up the conversation, they will answer yes/no. (If they say no or get into this rude way you deal with them accordingly as they asked you for a quote). If they say yes, you keep talking.

4. Remove the begger inflection.

When you  are talking, pay attention of intonation oscilations. Saying: “open the door now” as a completely different perpection than saying things to people in a way that sounds like you are trying to please them to open the door. You either put yourself in a position of authority or you don’t. What doesn’t work is presenting yourself as a figure of authority and then breaking off character and being this “i am here to please you…please”

If you sound like this, you will lose the sale.

5. Keep your smiley commercial model presentation face

Ever seen those great salespeople that have those wide open smiles? This is very effective, especially in the tonality arena. When your mouth and mouth are like this, your speech is much more convincing. You are removing anxiety in your tonality.

To keep this, you need to keep two thoughts in the back of your mind. It’s what I do:

“I have been waiting for you. How have you been my longtime friend?”

“I own you”

You approach the person you are talking with these two thoughts in the back of your mind.

It’s a subsconscious thing, but people will relax and let you lead.

 If you find yourself breaking out of character, get a small table mirror. That way while you are calling someone, you can seel  your facial expressions.

In time, like everything one puts is mind and practice to, you will get better.

Tongue Twisters

Say these slowly so you can control each sentence. Don’t believe the talking these super fast. Think about great speakers like Morgan Freeman, do you have seem him talking like a crazy chicken? Right. He talks slowly, but is diction is flawless.

I wish to wash my Irish wristwatch

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
If a woodchuch could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would,as much as he could,
and chuck as much wood as a woodchuch would if a woodchuck could chuck wood

She sells seashells by the seashore

I scream, you scream, we all scream for icecream

Near an ear, a nearer ear, a nearly eerie ear

Nice night nurses nursing nicely

Thin sticks, thick bricks

Lesser leather, never weathered, wetter weather better

I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, and on the slitted sheet I sit

Red lorry, yellow lorry

If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?

to sit in solemn silence in a dull dark dock.
In a pestilential prison with a life long lock.
Awaiting the sensation of a short sharp shock
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block.

In Tooting two tutors astute tried to tute a duke on a flute.
But duets so gruelling end only in duelling when tutors astute tute the flute

She stood on the balcony inexplicably mimicking him hiccuping and amicably welcoming him home

Five flippant freshman fly from france for fashions

Vincent vowed vengeance very vehemently

This thin that thatch these themes those thorns that the thug they thank

Do drop in at the Dewdrop inn

Kiss her quickly Kiss her quicker kiss her quickest

Jean just josted James gently

I scream you scream we all scream for ice-cream

Quickly, quickly,Quickly, quickly,Quickly, quickly.

Reading plus writing are richly rewarding

The pirates of penzeance
I am the very pattern of a modern major general.
I’ve information vegetable, animal and mineral.
I’m very good at integral and differential calculous
I know the kings of england and I quote the fights historical.
I understand equations, both simple and quadratical.
I’m very good at integral calculous.
I know the scientific names of being animalous.
In short, in matters vegetable, animal and mineral
I am the very model of a modern major general.

After you end the above you are ready to read a real poem.

Hear Morgan Freeman sey this poem and compare with youre recording.

Notice how you are saying things and how he is, so you can keep improving.

Here’s the poem:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

…

After you read the poem, practice your telephone script. Record it and improve the inflection points you need.

Doing this will help you tremendously. This is exactly what I do every day.