There have been countless articles written on how to make a good impression at interviews or even meeting a business client for the first time. However, there has generally been neglect on how to make a good impression before the meeting itself. It seems to me that few articles actually touch on how to make a good impression through the telephone; when we're arranging for the meeting or the interview itself.
Since people cannot see you in person during a telephone conversation, they could get an entirely wrong impression of you through what they hear on the phone and this could ruin your chances of even having the chance to meet the target or person in the first place.
Good eye contact, positive body language and smart dressing are all fine attributes to have at first meetings. However these fine attributes are rendered useless during a phone conversation since the target cannot see you.
To leave a good impression during phone conversations, you would need to get your personality over the phone. Meaning, you would need to speak in a way such that the other person can feel the very emotions that you are feeling right now during the conversation. You would then be able to engage the person more, thus keeping them interested in you and what you have to say.
Use words like "Uh huh", "Right", "Exactly", "Interesting" (the list goes on) to show your affirmation with what the speaker is saying on the other side of the phone. This sends a signal to the speaker that you're paying attention to every detail that he is saying and gives the speaker more confidence to continue. In turn, the speaker will have a good impression of you since you were so interested in them and agreed with them.
You could also use words like "How Surprising!" to indicate your astonishment or words like "Wow that's amazing!" to indicate your admiration for what they've just said.
To further engage the other person on the phone, you could vary the tone of your voice. No one likes to listen to a monotonous speaker going on and on. For example, to indicate your surprise, you could raise the tone of your voice a little or you could also lower the tone of your voice when you are talking about something sad or unfortunate.
Ask questions too! Questions are important tools that allow you to find out more about the other person and also to keep the conversation flowing and eliminating awkward silences. Asking questions at the right time (do not overdo it) makes the other person feel important and they are more likely to have a favourable impression of you!
The key is to let the other party on the phone hear your emotions. Do choose words and phrases that match your personality and emotions. You do not want to sound like one person on the phone and a completely different person in face to face conversations.
Have fun making up your own words, phrases or even tones! Here's hoping that you'll have more exciting and enthralling phone conversations.
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