Your Personal Brand and Phone Communication

Defining your Personal Brand online is, in a sense, relatively easy. You have time to consider the content of your message and how you chose to present it before anyone actually sees it. You have time to refine how and what to communicate. 

The reason we develop a Personal Brand is to connect with those people with whom we can have mutually beneficial relationships which help both parties achieve their goals, whatever they may be. For most of us, the very best of these relationships involve meeting in person or, at the very least, speaking on the phone. Let’s save in person conversations for another time. That involves a whole discussion on body language and is really an extension of phone communication. 

What percentage of your phone communication is non-verbal? There are lots of different numbers that I found in response to this question. I don’t know what criteria you could use to measure this or how accurate it would be or if an exact number even matters. What is apparent, and what I believe, is that non-verbal communication is at least as material to the message received as what is actually said. This applies to voicemails as well as conversations. 

Consider the following: 

1. Before you even make a call, be very clear in your mind about what you are trying to convey to the other person and how you are going to generally word it. Conversations are a dialogue so know all of the details that you have pertaining to the subject. The great thing about a phone call is you can have information in front of you to refer to. If the conversation is with your boss or someone similarly important, having an answer for every possible question that may come up is a good idea.
2. Ummm, Uhhh, Like, You know, etc. drives the listener batty. We have all been on the receiving end of that, so you know what I mean. Replace these with silence. No one wants to hear you thinking. Clarifying your message beforehand will eliminate a lot of this.
3. Make sure your tone says you are awake and attentive. Speak professionally and with authority. Anything less conveys a lack of caring for the subject and the listener.
4. Sit up straight and speak into the phone. If the other person can’t hear you then it really doesn’t matter what you’re saying. It’s also difficult to sound alert if you’re slouched over.
5. Don’t make important calls in a public place. I use a cell phone almost exclusively for my business. Which I think is fine. But if you’re making a call with traffic or people talking in the background, you’re telling the listener how much value you place on the subject and possibly on them. Of course, these kinds of calls can be appropriate in many situations, just make sure it’s the right context.
6. Speak deliberately. I have a natural tendency to speak very quickly. To someone on the other line it can sound like mumbling or rudeness. Also, they can’t understand what you’re saying. If you share my tendency, just tell yourself to speak slowly before you make the call. It’s a simple fix. This is especially important on voicemails. Ever gotten a voicemail where the person says their phone number so fast you have to replay the message three times? Me too.

  Good phone communication skills are essential to developing good relationships. It makes people feel that you are a competent and professional person. It makes them comfortable that you are someone worth having a relationship with and they will more readily help you out and come to your for help. This is the goal of Personal Branding.