Have you ever had an argument and afterwards wished you could repeat it as you’ve thought of lots of great things to say? If you could record all your arguments, replay them and critique yourself, how quickly would you become a great debater?
As a sales trainer and coach call recording is an invaluable tool. Sales professionals who have access to listen back to their own calls develop at an incredible rate. As a coach I know that telling people what to do has little effect on their rate of change. When someone hears and decides for themselves what to do their development is immediate.
When listening to your own calls you get a first-hand experience of what the customer or prospect is hearing – you put yourself in their shoes. For the first time you become truly aware of how you sound, your pace, your voice tone and all your verbal ticks you would otherwise be unaware of. You hear things that in the heat of the moment during calls you may have missed. Having this out of body experience on your own communication skills allows you to be your own coach, share with others what you do well and ultimately strips you bear of the tales you may tell yourself; The customer was rude. I did everything I could. It’s not my fault that call ended without a sale.
At first, hearing your own voice is painful and many people object to doing so. This is purely because you’re hearing it for the first time and you’re not used to it. After just a few minutes of hearing themselves sales and service professionals find the exercise invaluable and actively seek to listen back to and critique how they could improve.
Professional golfers record their swing and play it back frame by frame until they can reach their optimum level. Actors watch videos of their performances with their coach and discuss what was great and what they can work on. Singers repeatedly play back their songs in the studio and adapt and change until it’s just right. If the tool of your trade is your voice and you’re not listening to how it sounds and what it’s saying – why not? If you have teams talking to your customers on an hourly basis and not recording them to see what image they are portraying of your brand – why not? If you want to be successful on the phone weather in sales or service but aren’t analysing yourself, playing your calls and striving to make every moment the best it could be you’re missing out on the most powerful development tool there is.