This past week, I started the research for a book I’ll be writing throughout 2013. I’ve decided to collect stories about small businesses and write a book about the difference they make in their communities. I decided the best way to do this was to first reach out to small business people themselves. After compiling a list of cities in the US and small business professions, I went to Google and began calling the first businesses listed under each search. As I attempted to schedule interviews, I noticed how the subtlest changes in my script altered the responses I was getting…
First My Greeting…
When I first started calling, my greeting was as follows, “Hi, may I speak to the owner or manager?” The person on the other end of the line would say say, “May I ask who’s calling?” I would then say, “My name is Douglas E Rice and I’m a writer…” Then, with edgy voice, the person would say, “she’s not available right now” or “he’s with a client,” followed by “I can take a message for you.” I would then give my name and number and the person would dismissively take it down. (Though I’m not sure they actually did).
Later, I changed the greeting to the following: “Hi, I’m not exactly sure who I need to speak to, but name is Douglas E Rice and I’m a writer…” This time, the person on the other end of the line would ask me questions about what I was doing. We would talk a little bit about our passion for small business and the importance small businesses have played in our lives. Then, the receptionists would tell me a little bit about the owners. Finally, they would then take a message and tell me when I could receive a call back. This time, I’m pretty sure my name and number was actually taken.
What made the latter greeting better? It’s pretty obvious to me now. Not only did the first greeting make me sound like a salesperson that was trying to bully his way past the gatekeeper, but it made the person answering the call feel as if he or she was unimportant. I was sending the signal that the human being on the other end of the line didn’t matter and couldn’t help. The second greeting was a complete turnaround. With this greeting, I put myself at the mercy of the receptionists. I needed them to help me get to the right place. And this small change made a HUGE difference.
Then the Purpose of My Call…
When I made my first calls, not only did I botch the greeting, but I inadvertently sent the wrong signal when I stated the purpose of my call. When the receptionist asked, “May I ask who’s calling, here’s what I would say:
My name is Douglas E Rice and I’m a writer. I’m working on a book about small businesses and the impact they have on their communities. I was wondering if I could set up a 15 minute phone interview.
The responses I got to this baffled me at first. Suspiciously, people began to ask who I writing for and why I was writing. A few ladies even told me flat out that they weren’t interested. At the end of one call, the mistake I was making suddenly dawned on me. Here’s how I changed my approach. In later calls, when asked who was calling, I would say:
My name is Douglas E Rice and I’m a writer. I’m working on a book about the difference small businesses make in their communities. I was wondering if I could set up a 15 minute phone interview.
Again, the change in the receptionists voices when I began using this script was quite dramatic. The only change I made was substituting the phrase “making a difference” for the phrase “having an impact.” You see, I think that the receptionists were getting the impression that I was a journalist trying to dig up dirt on their businesses in order to write some sort of exposé. It hadn’t occurred to me that “impact” could signal something negative. Using a more positive phrase, “making a difference,” signaled to the receptionist that I was intending to write about small business success stories.
Watch Your Mouth
Why am I telling you this? Because the average person speaks 16,000 words each day. Most of them are spoken without being given any thought. We just open our mouths and stuff comes out. But, as demonstrated in my phone conversations, the slightest changes in your words and phrases can mean the difference between successful communication and wasting your breath.
- How are you speaking to your employees?
- How are you speaking to your customers?
- How are you speaking to your suppliers?
- How are you speaking to your competitors?
- How are you speaking to your colleagues?
Your word choices are among the most important choices you will ever make (TWEET THIS). When you open your mouth to speak, don’t think about how the words sound to you. Think about how they will sound to the person to whom you are speaking. Monitor the responses you get when you speak to people and tweak your word choices as you go. There’s always a better way to say it. Keep searching and keep improving. Make your 16,000 words count.
