2 Responses

1. Voice tone – fun exercise
   This is a fun and interactive exercise that takes about 10 minutes:

   in an envelope put 6 small pieces of paper, folded up. On each piece is a ‘mood’, as follows: bored, tired, nervous, over-excited, confident, aggressive. Then write 2/3 short sentences on the flipchart (e.g. something about the impact of voice tone on the customer)and ask 6 members of the group in turn to come up to the front and turn their back on the rest of the group. This is so that people cannot read their body langauge and facial expressions.

   They take a ‘mood’ from the envelope at random and read the short passage in that mood. E.g. the person sounding bored will say it in a monotone voice with no energy.

   The rest of the group have to guess what mood they are trying to express through their tone of voice.

   A discussion can then take place around the key elements of voice usage, i.e. pitch, energy, clarity, volume, pace, and how they work to project a particular mood or tone.

   The main message is that everyone said the same thing but the message was different each time.

2. Mary Had A Little Lamb
   Hi Neil

   Not sure if you are still looking for suggestions on tone when on the phone. This excercise is more to do with word emphasis.

   Write the the phrase ‘Mary had a little lamb’ on a flipchart and then ask the team to speak the phrase but by putting emphasis on a certain word, like this. (brackets show the meaning that is normally understood from this)

   MARY had a little lamb. (Mary not Tom or Bill had the lamb)

   Mary HAD a little lamb. (Mary used to have a lamb but not anymore)

   Mary had A little lamb. (Not two or three but a lamb)

   Mary had a LITTLE lamb. (not a big lamb a little lamb)

   Mary had a little LAMB. (not a pig or a dog, a lamb)

   Hope this helps

   Damian Burcher
   Vision Sales Services
   http://www.visionsales.co.uk