Have you ever had to make a call to ask a favor? Perhaps the call was to a friend, a family member or even a stranger. How often do you usually spend time on the phone? Do you often spend more than you would like?
If you’re not sure, I would recommend logging the minutes to see just how time you spend per call and what you get as a result of the call.
E-mails are usually the contact of preference because they have a high ROTI or return on time invested. You can spend ten minutes writing an e-mail request for something that might take twenty or thirty minutes over the phone.
Why is that?
E-mails are more efficient because they eliminate the need for chit chat or fillers. Written communication tends to be more succinct than verbal communication because people don’t like to waste their time reading junk.
But speaking, which is naturally more impromptu, often involves a great deal of fillers and words that serve no purpose. If you don’t believe me record a conversation with a friend over the phone and replay it. Count how many times you say the words, “you know,” “um,” “like,” “uh.” I bet you’ll be surprised.
What is Effective Phone Calling?
Most people are never taught how to ask good questions and how to give crisp, clear responses, hence the inefficiency of the average person’s verbal communication skills. You get used to hearing fillers in everyday speech and learn to cope by picking up only on relevant tidbits of information. Verbal communication is generally less efficient because people don’t prepare before they speak.
Preparation is the key to effective communication be it written or verbal; it is even more important when making a cold call. The reason is when you’re speaking to someone you don’t know over the phone, you have a very small window of opportunity to convince them not to hang up on you. While it’s fine to speak off the top of your head when you’re just catching up with a friend, if you want to make an effective phone call to someone you don’t know, it’s best to succinct; state your purpose and deadline as soon as possible. (And even if your call doesn’t have a specific deadline, in the interest of efficiency and respecting the other party’s time, it makes sense to prepare before you call.)
As a reporter I have to make numerous phone calls every day. Most of the time I’m calling simply to get some information; occasionally I have to interview someone over the phone for an article that I am writing.
But either way my end goal is the same: to get answers to my questions. Effective phone calling is the art of getting what you want from people who may not be, at first, willing to comply with your request.
In my opinion, the biggest challenge with phone calling is the timing of the call. When you dial someone’s number, it’s hard to predict whether or not they will have the time to speak to you. Time wasted over the phone means less productivity. Less productivity equals less money. Less money means… you get the picture.
In the interest of saving your time and the time of others, here are some tips that have helped me to make more efficient and effective phone calls.
1. Craft your pitch
Often times I’ll be asked to call a corporation to get some report or piece of information. A senior reporter will send me a piece of paper with the contact information of the person they want me to call. I pick it up and begin dialing only to realize that I haven’t really figured out what I’m looking for before I make the call.
This is ineffective — don’t do it.
Though I can usually ask the question on the fly by referring to the notes given to me, it’s much easier if I write a script out before I start speaking.
Successful salesmen usually have successful pitches. A pitch is simply your bargaining proposition. For example, if I am trying to get information from company X I have to first convince them to give me their information. That’s what the pitch does: it convinces.
2. Practice your pitch
This is pretty straightforward. Once you’ve written a short pitch, it’s time to practice it.
The more you practice, the greater your confidence and the stronger the impact of your request. The window of opportunity is only a few seconds when you are on the phone so if it lacks power and confidence, you may not get what you are looking for.
3. Set a time limit
When you’re speaking on the phone it’s easy to get caught up in the back and forth dialog between you and the other person. Efficient phone calling means you need to set time limits on your conversation.
Parkinson’s law states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Basically this means that if you give yourself an hour to complete a task it will take you an hour, but if you give yourself ten minutes to complete a task, you will get it done in ten minutes.
When setting a time limit be realistic. Allot enough time for your questions and the other person’s response.
4. Pace your questions
If you have a chain of questions that you are looking to get answered, make sure that you pace each of them.
For example, let’s say that I am looking to get an expert’s opinion on the future of oil prices. I have three questions to ask:
1. How long do you think the price of oil will continue to rise?
2. What’s your reasoning behind this outlook?
3. How accurate do you believe your projection is?
Of the three questions, I would say #1 and #3 are the most straightforward. The expert should be able to respond within ten seconds or less. Question #2, however, would require more time for the analyst to think about his reasons and explain them in depth.
Pacing your questions means giving the other person sufficient time to respond.
5. Control the conversation
If you are calling someone for something, it is your responsibility to take control of the conversation. Whether you are trying to sell something or to ask for information, it is important to control the flow of the conversation.
If you ask about oranges and the other person starts to talk about oranges, kindly bring them back on track with your question by restating your initial request.
But be careful to be tactful in the process, otherwise you may risk cutting off the other party and leaving them feeling uncomfortable.
6. Paraphrase their comments
Knowledgeable people tend to over speak. Actually, in my own experience, most people tend to over speak when given the opportunity to. In order to keep control of the information flow, it helps to interrupt the other party and paraphrase what they are saying in order to make sure that you’re both on the same page.
For example inserting a, “So basically what you are saying is,” or “Let me recap…” in the middle of a long explanation helps to steer the other person back on track and it also helps you to process what they are saying.
7. Exit gracefully
When you’ve gotten everything that you needed from the conversation it helps to close with a sentence that sounds something like, “Well I think that’s about it.” Or “That about does it.” These types of phrases are effective closers because they inform the other party that the conversation is coming to the end and allows them to bow out gracefully.
Make sure to thank the other party for their time and bid them a good day. You want to leave them with a positive impression in case you have to call again. Plus, if they went out of their way to help you, it’s only fair to show your appreciation with a simple thanks.
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