Name Tripping

I have an unusual name-most people who first meet me have a difficult time pronouncing my name. I feel bad as I listen to them struggle with it, avoid it, ask me how to say it or simply take the liberty of shortening it like calling me Josie.   I don’t meet Mike and decide to call him Mikey or meet Frances and call her Francy so why call me Josie?   It’s uncomfortable and tiresome correcting people when sometimes I just don’t feel like it. I was taking a class from an instructor who kept callng me Joella for a long time. When one of the students finally corrected her and said, “why do you keep calling her Joella, her name is Josiane” , she turned to me and asked me why I never corrected her. I said that I liked the sound of that name better than mine.  Don’t get me wrong, if someone calls me “Hozeannie” I definitely stand my guard.

When I was 17 years old and got my first telemarketing job, it was literally a boiler room phone jock with yellow pages dialing for dollars job. The sales manager told me I couldn’t use my name and had to come up with something else on my cold calls. So I used Diane. It definitely made a difference except for when people would call the front desk and ask for someone by the name of Diane and found there was nobody that worked there by that name.

In our phone introductions we only have a few seconds, word choice and tone make a huge impact. A difficult name can create noise in the channel. Although I usually recommend first and last names, it can get tough it they are hard to pronouce or remember. We want our introduction to arouse curiousity, deliver value and command attention. If we have a tough name, the listener may stop listening to our message and only focus on our name. On the other hand, my name gets attention and it’s not easily forgotten.  And when someone says my name right, it is such a great accomplishment for us both. They feel proud, I feel relieved and we quickly bond. 

Does your name bring you shame? Does it help or hurt your intro? I want to hear from reps with unusual names this week. Send me your comments.