Speak Easy

Improving your speaking voice could make your profits sing

By Gwen Moran

Hate your voice? Making it better could be good for business.

Cosmetic voice training is catching on, says Diane Paul, a director at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. According to Paul, "More professionals are seeking accent modification or help with public speaking."

Language experts have long known that voice quality can be more important than words. A landmark study by UCLA professor Dr. Albert Mehrabian in the 1960s found that people receive 55 percent of a message through body language, 38 percent through voice and a mere 7 percent through words.

"Take away the face-to-face component, such as in a telephone conversation, and you’re left with a vast majority of the message being communicated through the quality of the voice," says Susan Berkley, author of Speak to Influence: How to Unlock the Hidden Power of Your Voice and founder of The Great Voice Company ( http://www.greatvoice.com ), an Englewood Cliffs, N.J.-based voice-over and training company. Berkley is part of a growing service sector that teaches professionals to project clearly and shed unpleasant voice qualities, such as a nasal tone or heavy regional accent, that take away from the message.

Dan Seidman found that a better voice can boost the bottom line. A professional speaker and founder of Salesautopsy.com, a sales coaching company, Seidman’s enunciation was poor, and he didn’t project the image of an authority - both big problems for a professional speaker. After participating in Berkley’s coaching program, Seidman says his increased confidence and speaking ability enabled him to double his fees from $5,000 to $10,000 per engagement.

"I’m also getting more consulting work after my speeches," he says. "I’m making more money because I’m coming across stronger than I ever have in the past."

Greater Gab
New York City-based speech pathologist Ita Olsen (www.olsenspeech.com) says that better voice quality makes people more attentive to your message. "It’s becoming popular to take a voice that’s normal and make it outstanding," says Olsen. Some of her techniques include:

1. Relax. Tense vocal cords make a voice tight. To relax them, take a deep breath, tense small groups of muscles (like your face or mouth) and then let the tensions go as you exhale.
   
   
2. Speak as you exhale. It may sound breathy at first, but after a while it will feel natural and richen your tone.
   
   
3. Tone it up. Vary the length of your syllables as well as the volume to avoid a monotonous sounding voice.
   
   
4. Keep the warmth. If appropriate, smile, even on the phone. In more serious situations, focusing on the other person builds empathy and creates more effective interaction.