Get prospects to the call and run it 11 of 25 in this group
SOP 237
Mark a script for tonality
What this page is for. Use it when you write a sales script, or coach the people who will say it, and the question of "tone" comes up. It sets out what tone in selling comes down to, in the view here: three things your voice always has to do, knowing the script so well that it stops sounding read, the two voice moves said to earn the money, where to use them at the ask, and the marks that put them on the page. What the script itself says, stretch by stretch, starts at SOP 238 — Open every call the same way and keep the script short.
SOP-237-Mark-a-script-for-tonality.md
1. Much of tone coaching, in this view, is myth
This view comes from a long time spent studying how people speak, looking for what persuades best. The conclusion: tonality, in selling, is wrapped in a lot of mythology. The aim here is to put it to rest so that you spend no more time trying to coach tone, or not nearly as much as that study took.
2. Three constants: loud, clear, slow
There are three sales constants, and taken together they are called sales tone. Sales tone is not the same as sounding salesy. It means a tone that persuades, and sounding salesy is likely not to persuade.
The three, called very obvious:
- Loud. Enough volume that the other person can hear you.
- Clear. Enunciate each word so they can understand it.
- Slow. A pace slow enough that they can take in what you mean.
Speak that way and the listener understands you, which gives them the best chance of taking the next step when you ask for it. This part never changes. It matters for a plain reason: a person who cannot understand you cannot buy what you are saying.
3. Know the script so well you stop thinking about the words
When you sell, have the script memorized so thoroughly that you no longer think about which words come next. Words you know that well come out naturally. Most people who sound as though they are reading a script sound that way because the words are not yet familiar enough to them. Know them and you sound like someone simply talking, because those lines have come out of your mouth a hundred times before. That is the difference.
Learn it to that depth and your delivery picks up natural shifts of cadence and rhythm. Provided you are also loud enough, clear enough and slow enough, listeners hear it as natural, though what makes it sound that way is the practice.
That is the script. How to learn the closes is a separate question, answered two ways: SOP 100, section 5, and SOP 249, section 3.
4. The two that make the money: a rising voice, and a pause
Past the three constants, your voice can do two more things. One is tone, which you can also call inflection. The other is the pause.
These two come close to being the only things that matter much, with one correction: the three constants matter as well, since someone who cannot understand you cannot buy. But these two are what make the money.
A rising voice asks for an answer. It is what happens on a question, or when you call someone by name with a lift at the end, as though asking. In human speech, a voice that goes up means the person talking wants a response, and that is all it signals.
A pause puts the spotlight on a word. Say a word, then pause, and the silence pulls the listener's attention onto that word.
5. At the ask: raise your voice, then stop talking
At what point in a sale do you most want both a lot of attention and a response? At the ask. So the voice goes up on it, in the examples a short question asking whether they are ready to do this, and then you stop talking.
The figure offered: salespeople who stayed silent for eight seconds once they had asked for the sale closed 32% more sales. Where the number comes from: Not established on this page. In practice, the eight seconds means you let them talk.
If the answer is slow in coming, stay quiet anyway. Anyone with sales experience knows that sometimes a silence stretches to 60 seconds, and you simply wait and let them think. They have not answered yet. More selling at that point can lose you the sale, and doing it is called an amateur's mistake.
Keeping quiet once they have said yes, so that you do not undo it, is SOP 96 — Answer a discount request and capture payment, section 5.
6. Stress a point with a command
When you are working through the script and want to stress a point, one example is the line "Give me another example." It is phrased as a command, not as a question, and followed with "another specific".
7. Mark the script: question marks and dots
The hope is that once you understand these five things (the three constants, the rising voice and the pause) you can leave the mythology about selling behind. When you build a script, then, all that tone asks of you is this:
- Make sure the people who will say it memorize it, so that all of the above happens naturally.
- Show in the script where their voice goes up and where they pause.
That makes it wildly simple. The marks:
- Where the voice goes up: a question mark, since people normally use one for that. You might put one after a word to show the voice climbing there.
- Where they pause: dots. One way to do it: one dot is a short pause and several dots a long one. You might use a single dot or a run of them, the way you would pause in ordinary speech.
Write your scripts out like that and your life gets much easier.
8. What this page does not decide for you
- The 32% figure. Offered without its origin. Whether it holds for your calls: Not established on this page.
- How long a long pause is. This page gives no figure for how long a long pause lasts, or for how many dots mark one.
- How the voice sounds on a command. The example is said as a command, not a question. How the voice should move on it: Not established on this page.
9. The checklist
| Step | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Check that each person saying the script can be heard, can be understood word by word, and speaks at a pace the listener can follow |
| 2 | Have them memorize the script until they no longer think about the words |
| 3 | Mark with a question mark each place the voice should rise |
| 4 | Mark each pause with dots, as in one practice: one for short, several for long |
| 5 | At the ask, let the voice rise, then stop talking; eight seconds of silence is the figure offered |
| 6 | If the silence runs long, sometimes as long as 60 seconds, keep quiet and let them think |
| 7 | To stress a point, you can say it as a command rather than a question, as in the example |
10. What this page does not cover
The content of the script is not covered on this page; SOP 238 is where the call's steps begin. Drilling a script until the team knows it is SOP 250 — Memorize the script, then drill it in role play. Objection handling is not covered on this page. Sorting the objections that come after the ask is SOP 99 — Classify an objection.
Terms defined on this page
- Inflection (rising voice)
- A voice that rises at the end, as with a question or a name. All it signals is that the person talking wants a reply.
- Pause (tonality)
- A silence after a word, which draws attention to that word. With inflection, one of the two voice moves that make the money.
- Sales tone
- Three constants the voice always keeps: loud enough to hear, clear enough to catch each word, slow enough to follow. A persuasive tone, which isn't the same as sounding salesy.
- Script marks
- How to show delivery in a script: a question mark where the voice should rise, dots for a pause (one way: one for short, several for long), and styles such as italics, bold or capitals where the rep slows, speeds up or changes pitch.
- Silence after the ask
- After asking for the sale with a rising voice, stop talking and let them talk. One figure has reps who stayed silent for eight seconds closing 32% more; the silence can sometimes run to 60 seconds.