Your appearance doesn’t matter when selling over the phone. The only important factors are your voice and how you talk. For all your prospects know, you could be wearing running shorts instead of business attire, so physical appearance in this case takes a backseat to the delivery of your sales pitch. But when speaking to a prospect over the phone, there are some important things to watch out for.

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“One of the biggest mistakes that salespeople make when speaking to clients is talking too fast,” says Julian Blee, owner of Fat Cat Ideas, a company specializing in telesales training. Though this is understandable given the pressure of a sales call, clients will have a difficult time processing your message if you speak too quickly. Given that the average sales pitch is delivered at approximately 230 words per minute (WPM), significantly more than the optimal 180 WPM, Blee recommends these two steps to slow your rate of speech during sales calls:

1. Determine your normal WPM rate. Time yourself when reading something aloud. A book or newspaper will suffice, but the optimal solution would be to read your telephone sales pitch. Ensure that this is delivered in the same speed and style that you would use when speaking to a client over the phone. After 60 seconds, stop and count the number of words read to determine your WPM.
2. Optimize your WPM rate. To reach the optimum WPM of 180 words, find or write a paragraph of 180 words and practice reading it in 60 seconds. Once you’ve reliably achieved this WPM in practice, start attempting it during your sales calls while under pressure.

“This is not an easy thing to do,” Blee warns. “Our natural default setting is to speed up when stressed.” Speaking at a rate of 180 WPM is a skill that must be practiced and monitored before it becomes second nature. Once mastered, Blee says, this skill will prove invaluable in making you a better salesperson and conversationalist, both over the phone and in person.

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