Scientists and engineers always think that it is their technical skills that open doors for them at a company. While it is certainly true that the job-related skills you bring to an employer will be their prime consideration in making you an offer, there is something else that you’ll need first, even before you have a chance to show them your stuff. That is, you need to get a listen. Today, you can have all the technical savvy in the world but still be “outside looking in” if you can’t get them interested on the phone.

In the recessionary world we live in, the telephone is the go-to tool for budget-cutting managers doing the first pass on that huge list of resumes they receive whenever they run a job ad.

Sadly, the telephone is my constant companion. It almost never leaves my ear. While that can be tedious, it also has an advantage. Anyone who is on the telephone a lot learns to listen very well. I didn’t realize until recently, however, that I am often influenced subconsciously by the sound of others’ voices, and that some people know how to use this to their advantage. The best job seekers know that how they sound has as much to do with their success as the words they choose to speak.

The Power of Your Voice

A few weeks ago I was in my office on a Friday afternoon talking to an important client. My colleagues had all taken off right at the stroke of 5 p.m., so I was acting like a receptionist and swapping phone lines every couple of minutes. I hate to ask a client to hold while I grab another line, but because of circumstances I had to do just that when this call came in. The caller was a gentleman with a distinctly Asian accent and a very polite and professional demeanor. Sounding rushed, I explained that I was on the other line and asked him if I could have someone in my office call him back on Monday.

And yet, I found myself returning his call myself just 10 minutes later.

What was there about this moment or two with the caller that made me pick up the phone and call him as soon as I completed my client conversation? It wasn’t entirely in the words that he used, although it sure helped that he had obviously thought about what he would say when he reached me.

Instead, my response had something to do with the sound of his voice. Trying to describe this is difficult. My notes from the conversation say that he was “very professional sounding” and that he “seemed to be the sort of person who deserved a polite response.” I almost scrapped my plans to write this article because I began to think my response was simply a fluke.

Within a week, however, I had no fewer than six other situations come up where I was influenced either very positively or very negatively simply by the sound of the caller’s voice – and by their first comment or two. I knew that there was something here that was a lot harder to pin down than other job-seeking skills. How is it that I could develop an instant respect for someone that I had spoken with for only a few moments?

Key Elements for Commanding Respect Via the Telephone

In each situation I have analyzed since I started taking notice of these subconscious decisions, I have found that the caller either generated my interest or turned me off within the first two minutes. I would never have admitted that before I did some research and found that I am not alone. Renee Grant-Williams, author of the excellent Voice Power (Amacom, 2002), refers to this subconscious decision as the “gap between people simply hearing your thoughts and actually remembering and acting upon them later.”

Here are the two elements that are going to determine your credibility and respect on the phone – the Message, and the Package in which it is delivered.

Element #1: The Message

If the telephone activity that you’d like to improve is the difficult networking call, you already know how important the right message is. You can’t call a hiring manager, for example, and ask for a job. Try that, and you’ll get what I call the “HR shuffle.” (That’s where you ask, “Are there any openings?” and the person on the other end of the line passes you a Human Resources contact name). Your message has to be developed carefully in combination with a specific goal for each call.

Seriously, if you want to make an impression, have your message written down and study it in advance. Even the most experienced headhunter has a script at hand for each and every “exciting job opportunity” that he or she is calling about. If you have a question to ask a person about their job responsibilities or their networking recommendations, have that question in front of you. Never “wing it.”

Also, it’s important to have a clear goal before you pick up the phone. People appreciate when callers know what it is that they want to accomplish because it helps move the conversation along. A person with an agenda is a person who commands respect.

Make it a five-minute call. Don’t plan on reaching a busy person and taking 15 or 20 minutes out of their morning. Whatever it is that you want to accomplish in the call needs to happen in five minutes or less. Don’t be offended if you get only 60 seconds, and count your blessings if you get anything more than the usual four or five minutes.

Element #2: The Package

This is the piece that hits hard on a subconscious level. It is, quite simply, the sound of your voice and the few things that you might say to establish your professionalism. It is what separates a winning phone call from one that is considered an “annoyance call.” Here are a few tips:

• Start your phone calls with a courteous opening query. “Do you have a moment for a brief question, or am I catching you at a bad time?” works very well. This sets the stage for immediate attention to your message by showing that there is a respect for the called party’s time.
• Speak up and express your confidence. Many scientists are quiet, reserved people and making a phone call to a stranger is discomforting. The pitch, volume, and tempo of your voice tells the person on the other line, at a subconscious level, how comfortable you are and how much credence they should put into your requests. Push your fear away by concentrating on how you sound. This is important!
• Use frequent pauses to invite a response. Don’t get caught reading off a prepared script that doesn’t have a natural break to get the other party talking. The purpose of having the script is to be confident that you get all of your points in; it’s not something to read verbatim. Rather, use it to ensure you get all of your points across.
• Pace yourself according to the conversational style of the other person. If you have contact with a person who is a slow-paced, thoughtful type, don’t try to jam your message down the phone in 20 seconds. Adjust your pace accordingly.

A Tool We Use When We Can’t Have Real Communication

Remember that the phone is only a crutch – something that business requires in situations where real communication on a face-to-face level isn’t possible. Unfortunately for the job seeker, more and more often we don’t get to prime face-to-face communication until we pass the gauntlet of a successful telephone conversation. And because budget cutting is a fact of life now at employers, I don’t see this changing any time soon.

Whether you are making a networking call or involved in the even more stressful telephone interview, the sound of your voice coming over the phone is much more important than you may have thought. Regardless of your scenario, if you concentrate on delivering a clear, consistent message wrapped in a professional sounding package, you’ll make the headway you need to get to the next step.

David G. Jensen is the founder and chief executive officer of CTI Executive Search, a unit of CareerTrax Inc. (Sedona, AZ). CTI is a leading recruiting firm in the biosciences. You can reach Dave at (928) 282-5366.