We do most of our communication with our voice. To convey thoughts, ideas and needs we use our facility of speech. Does your voice work for or against you? Persuasive speakers know that vocal quality ranks just as importantly as the speech content. Tempo, speed, timbre, resonance, inflection... all these factors influence how well your message is received. It is important to put your best voice forward. A weak voice undermines your assertion and dulls your persuasive edge.
Whether you are persuading, wooing or ordering, learn to speak with confidence. You can radiate charm with your voice! This chapter teaches essential voice enhancing techniques that can make your pitch irresistible. Most of the advice draw from common sense – we consistently need to be reminded of what we already know.
Your Voice on Steroids - Pump Up the Charm!
Speak from the stomach. Untrained speakers normally breathe from the upper part of their chest when articulating, thereby robbing power from their full vocal potential. By exhaling from the stomach as you speak, you can add luster and gusto to your vocal quality. You voice instantly lowers and acquires a fuller and richer tone.
To harness this method of speaking, practice talking while pressing your hand against your stomach. Feel yourself exhaling from your abdomen as you breathe out your words. Experience the rumbling of your stomach as you enunciate. When you get the hang of it, listen to yourself in a voice recorder. You'll be pleasantly surprised by the change. Whiny, high pitched speakers can dramatically improve their vocal tone through this simple exercise.
Charge your words emotionally. A flat voice bores and annoys. Vary your vocal quality by making emotionally charged words sound emotional. When you say, "enticing", do make it sound enticing. Curl
your tongue and breathe out the word "enticing" enticingly.
When you utter "excited," do sound excited. Ring out with eagerness. Squeal a bit. When you say "confidence," brace yourself and thunder the word confidence in a firm tone. Speakers who employ this technique easily gain followers. Their enthusiasm resounds clearly, shrouding them in a mantle of charisma.
Use proper inflection. Learn to end statements, orders and declaratives with a downward inflection. This entails ending your statements with a period. Queries can also be ended with a downward inflection. Upward inflections weaken a statement. Questions normally end in upward inflections. Notice how weak questions sound.
Match your prospect's tone and tempo. A great way to build rapport is to match the rate at which your prospect speaks and to mimic his inflections. By approximating his manner of speech, you subconsciously gain his trust and approval. Persuasion becomes a lot easier.
Stand properly. Air cannot travel well if you slouch. Clear your throat, stand tall and proud. Pretend that a cord attached to the ceiling and directly connected to your head pulls your spine taut.
Notice a great improvement! Show, Don't Tell. Charge your speech with color and "visuals." Visual snapshots enervate and persuade more effectively than a thousand words. Instead of labeling a person, situation or object, describe it objectively to drive home your message. This is the art of word painting.
Compare the drab version and the colorful, restated version: (labeling) "The day was so beautiful. I enjoyed it!" versus--> (describing) "I saw fleecy clouds sailing across a sea-blue sky. The birds kept knocking at my window. Later, the afternoon brought gentle rains that watered the carpet of flowers outside.
Rather than labeling, report what you see, hear or feel! When praising someone's handiwork, don't say ,"That is quality work.". Instead, say, "Your craftsmanship shows meticulous attention to design as well as smooth plaster finishing." It is up to the other person to interpret your objective reports.
The Show Don't Tell technique also works great when correcting others. Report the facts as you see them. Don't color it with judgments. When you receive an unsatisfactory repair job, don't say, "My mechanic is lousy; he does a terrible job." Instead, say, "My mechanic forgot to replace the oil hose,
which led to the breakdown of the internal combustion engine.
Now I have a useless vehicle." Those whom you complain to will appreciate your objectivity and respond receptively.
In Summary:
What you say is important. How you say it is all the more crucial. Harness the power of your voice!
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