Clues we lose when we’re on the phone

Field sales people have it easy because they get to see their prospects and customers. Recently I met with someone I’ve been chasing for several years and the need finally arrived where he wanted to check into sales training for his growing organization. This guy is a pretty high-level director from a very prestigious company. In the past, he never responded to my emails and his secretary always screened his calls. All I ever could go by was his outgoing voice mail greeting saying he was out of the office and to leave a message. I almost felt initimidated with this level of unapproachability as he was powerful and heavily guarded.  I finally landed a phone appointment with him. During that call, he spoke to me from his speaker phone and confirmed that he was this powerful demi-god decision maker. At the end of the call, he took me off the speaker phone and requested that I come in to meet his managers and continue our discussion.  Sounds great- yippee! My appointment day finally arrived; I checked email anxiously waiting for him to cancel but he didn’t. I got there, registered at the lobby, waited for the receptionist to call his secretary, who came and escorted me into the conference room where he and his managers were waiting. Within seconds and in one quick glance, I knew it was going to be a great sales call and threw out any fears I had in the past of this high-powered individual.

When we meet someone face-to-face, it takes up to 3 minutes to form a first impression because we are sizing up so many visual cues. For example, you can size up how they look, what they’re wearing, their accessories, their body type,  their eye contact, their handshake, their smile, their teeth, their shoulders, the way they hold their pen, how they listen and focus, how fast they read and nod their head with understanding, their hair style, or any hair at all for that matter, etc. etc. etc.

Now imagine you arrived blind-folded on a face-to-face call and missed all these great clues. That’s what it’s like on the phone- that non-visual medium we communicate in. There are so many clues we miss when we are on the phone, such as someone nodding, shaking their head, rolling their eyes, looking up at the clock, drumming their fingers, and more.

You’ve probably heard of the Mehrabian study which reveals that 55% of communication is focused on the visuals, 38% on the vocals and 7% on the verbals. When we are on the phone and the visuals don’t exist, we can only rely on the vocal and verbal cues. How long does it take to form a first impression over the phone? 15 seconds. That’s based on the vocal tone, which is 86%, and word choice, which is 14%- so it’s not what you say but how you say it when you are on the phone.