How to Be More Confident on the Phone

Confidence is crucial when it comes to phone conversations. It’s especially vital if you’re an over-the-phone salesperson, customer service representative, jobseeker, or business owner. A convincing telephone voice is even necessary for romantic relationships and friendships.

Your voice needs to be comforting but not dull. At times, you’ll need it to be informative but not robotic. What do you do if you don’t have a well-developed phone personality? What if your anxiety gets the best of you when you talk about important matters? How about if you don’t like your voice? These are some helpful tips for building confidence so that you can sound like a boss on the phone.

Talk more to get more confident

An old adage says that practice makes perfect. That rings true for building confidence on the phone. Psychologists sometimes use a method of treatment called exposure therapy to help people overcome anxiety about certain matters. You can use both of these concepts to improve your confidence on the phone.

The more you talk to people, the less anxious you’ll become when facing a vital phone conversation. Practice will make your diction, flow, and confidence more refined. Therefore, you should engage in conversations and have calls as much as possible so that you fine-tune your skills.

Imagine you’re speaking to a friend

Many people become nervous in a call when they have to partake in life-changing conversations. Speaking to a romantic interest, prospective employer, or business partner can seem terrifying because of judgment. The best way to overcome fear and build confidence in this area is to imagine that you’re speaking to a close friend or loved one.

Don’t think of the person on the other end as an authoritative figure or judge. Visualize that person as the friend you’ve known for ten years who you can talk to about anything. That doesn’t mean you should discuss everything with that person. However, your comfort level should increase if you use that tactic.

Take a course for confidence

You may want to consider taking an educational course to help with your confidence issues on the phone. You can go about this using several methods. You can search for a course that specifically teaches customer service or sales etiquette.

Alternatively, you could broaden your horizons by taking a course on confidence-building in general. Online courses will allow you to learn from the comfort of your home. Hiring a coach to help you with your phone confidence might be a worthwhile venture as well.

Use the record and playback method

You may need to hear yourself speak before you can boost your confidence effectively. In that case, you might want to use the record and playback method to hear your voice. Record yourself having a conversation with another person and play it back to yourself.

You can then analyze various parts of the conversation and decide where you need to improve your skills. You should do that repeatedly so that you get used to hearing your voice. It could be very therapeutic if disliking your voice is one of your problems.

Outline your conversation beforehand

Blueprinting or scripting your conversation beforehand could help you feel more confident when you get on the phone. You don’t have to write an entire screenplay if you’re talking to a love interest.

However, it might be wise for you to plan your conversation points if you’re talking to a prospective business partner or employer. The individual will want to know your strengths and weaknesses and why he or she should choose you to deal with them. You need to have a well-formed answer ready to deliver to that person.

Take at least an hour to scribble some ideas and then go over your answers in your head before the call. You can even get a family member or friends involved in the prep and practice.

Be true to yourself on the phone call

All people value honesty when answering phone calls. It doesn’t matter whether you’re describing yourself to a possible boss or spilling your guts to someone you like. That person will want you to be yourself and be completely honest about what you have to offer. Most confidence issues come from the desire to impress another person. You might feel like your real life or past work experience isn’t exciting enough. The truth is that your skill and experience might be exactly what the other person seeks.

Do research for employment calls

You need to engage in job-related calls with a high level of confidence. You can feel more confident if you increase your knowledge of the company thinking about hiring you.

You can start by visiting the prospective employer’s website to gather as much information as possible about the products and services they offer.

You can also stop by some financial pages and read the news about current mergers, financial statements, and company happenings. That way, you’ll have a solid answer if the prospective employer asks you what you know about the company.

Speak from your heart

You should never keep your feelings private or stifle your beliefs and desires when making phone calls. Instead, you should have the courage to be yourself at all times. That means answering all the questions honestly, stating what you truly want, and keeping your vibe and attitude genuine.

The people you talk to will respect you for it, even if they choose not to deal with you professionally. You’ll feel much more at ease communicating with such individuals.

Your confidence level will rise because you’ll know that you’re not trying to be anyone other than yourself, and you dare to use a “take it or leave it” approach to living your life.

Rephrase any questions you don’t understand

It’s easy to get frazzled during an interview if the other person asks a long-winded question with many parts to it. Your moment of non-clarity may cause you to lose confidence. There’s an easy strategy for that. Simply rephrase the question and repeat it in a clear voice to the other person to ensure that you have it correct.

Once you gain clarity, you’ll come up with the appropriate answer to the question naturally. You must understand what the other person is asking before you can answer a question. Use this practice any time you feel nervous or overwhelmed, and it will become second nature to you.

Meditate or pray to overcome phone anxiety

Your goal should be to set your mind, body, and spirit at peace before you engage in a phone call. Thus, you may want to spend some time meditating or praying. Meditation can put you in the right mind frame to own a phone conversation. Meditation is easy, and it has no rules.

You can meditate for five minutes in your home or 30 minutes on your lawn. The goal is to visualize yourself being successful in whatever you’re doing. See if you can envision yourself as a calm, cool, and collected individual with phone prowess and confidence.

Consult with experts and pros

You may want to take a third-party approach to build your confidence. There’s nothing wrong with that approach. Many people choose methods outside of the self-help realm. You may want to consider hiring a coach who deals explicitly with issues like confidence and self-esteem problems.

Alternatively, you could consult with a public speaking professional. This type of professional can help you get the skills you need for public and private conversations. You’ll develop a level of versatility that not everyone has. This type of specialist can also help you expand your skills outside of phone conversations to communicate with people on multiple levels. It’s worth a try if you’ve never done it before.

Ask for feedback after a call

Asking for feedback after you have a conversation might be a good idea. You can start by asking people you know how they felt about the discussion they had with you. You could ask them if you seemed confident and knowledgeable. You can also ask them if you gave good answers to their questions and such.

The feedback will help you shape future phone conversations because you’ll be able to rectify any problems. Try doing this with as many people as possible.

Do self-affirmations before the phone call

You can also try the “fake it until you make it approach.” Look in the mirror before you have that conversation and tell yourself you have confidence.

Tell yourself that you have the gift of gab, and your voice is soothing. Tell yourself you’re intelligent, beautiful, talented, and worthy of all the good things that can come to you in this life.

You will believe it if you hear it enough. Eventually, you’ll have the confidence level you need to master any phone conversation. Other people will feel at ease because of the vibe you put out when you get on the phone.

Feel more confident on the phone

Now you know how to be more confident on the phone and even thrive when having a call.

The previously mentioned tips can help you if you’re having anxiety when communicating on the phone. You can try one of them or a combination to gain more faith in your conversational abilities.

Just remember: It takes practice to feel more confident on the phone.