The Forgotten Art of the Phone Conversation and How It's Bad For Business

   By SheSpeaksTeam  Sep 11, 2013
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For a generation that has become more accustomed to typing out an email or text than talking on the phone there may be some getting used to the working world where an actual conversation can be more effective than a back and forth email. The Wall Street Journal recently reported about how more bosses are urging their employees to do more talking than typing on the job.

One Halifax, Nova Scotia ad agency office manager, Patty Baxter, started seeing sales plummet after her under age 35 employees took to emailing clients with pitches rather than ringing them on the phone. A lot of managers, especially those involved in sales, are starting to realize that the millennial generation lacks mastery over the simple phone conversation that their profession relies on.

Baxter explains how her ad agency suffers when employees rely solely on email to communicate with potential clients. She says, “You're not selling if you're just asking a question and getting an answer back.”

The problem got so bad for Baxter that she hired phone-use consultant, Mary Jane Coops, to come in and train her staff to make pitches via telephone. Coops explains many people’s problem with phone conversations saying, “For many people, it's a lack of confidence that they'll be able to say the right words in the right order in the right amount of time.”

However used to emailing we get it seems telephones still have an important place in the business world. It’s reported that the number of desk top phones actually grew by nearly 5% between the years 2011 and 2012.

What do you think of the growing problem businesses have with employees relying too heavily on emailing?

Do you feel more comfortable conducting business over the telephone or email?

 

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