Apologies for the wanton sexism, but I couldn’t resist the title!
On the occasions I have been into sales-focused Contact Centres, it has often crossed my mind to ask why everyone is sitting down all the time.
I’m not implying that the people are lazy, don’t get me wrong. I just think it’s odd.
Personally, I don’t like to sit down. It might be something to do with the fact that I’m short, but unless my feet are really killing me, or I feel faint, I like to stand up and my reasons are these:
1) Think Eminem – the Rapper, not the chocolate. He’d look really weird if he sat down and never moved while he was performing, wouldn’t he? Standing increases your ability to move freely and gesticulate just like in a normal conversation – your speech patterns with be more natural and the conversation will flow better, allowing you to create better rapport with your customers. And we all know that better rapport leads to more sales!
2) Sitting down scrunches you, and who wants to have a conversation with someone that sounds scrunched? Take that pressure off your diaphragm by standing up and you automatically sound clearer and more confident!
3) You will be healthier! We want everyone to stay FIT and when we say fit, we mean in the physical sense too. Did you know that there is compelling medical research, recently conducted by the NHS that tells us we should aim to stand for at least two hours a day?
4) Some time ago I was lucky enough to attend the Unlocking the Will to Act workshop (run by the inimitable Terry Gormley www.terrygormley.com) where he uses a simple model demonstrating that;
Your Breathing
…impacts
Your Physiology
…influencing
Your State
…increasing
Your Performance.
Try it out – stand up first, fix your eyes on a point ahead of you, breathe deeply (inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth), lift your head, eyes and mouth and you’ll find that this immediately lifts your spirit! This does wonders for your voice too.
Some of the best sales people I have ever met are the ones who are not shy about having a proper conversation with the person on the end of the phone and understand that standing up, although it may draw attention to them, gives them the best advantage when making those sales calls.
So my advice: If you want to sell well get up, stand up and stand out from the crowd!
