The Phone Dance

                Sales calls remind me of a dance. There’s a rhythm to every exchange that varies from call to call. Sometimes we waltz, sometimes we salsa, sometimes we foxtrot. Sometimes I end up dancing the arms-crossed, legs-flailing Russian jig all by myself (see Figure 1) (I can also whip up a solid Electric Slide when I need to.) Whichever dance it becomes, my goal is always to get the disembodied voice on the other end whirling around the dance floor (but not grinding.) I need to have every conceivable dance move available in my arsenal, ready to be busted out when the situation calls.

Figure 1

               
                Here’s how a typical phone call at the National Sales Center starts:

               

                Brenda: “Hello?”

                Me: (sweetly) “Hi, is this Brenda?”

                Brenda: (suspiciously) “Yes.”

                Me: (oozing with enthusiasm) “Hi Brenda, my name’s Dan, I’m calling from *Team*! How are ya today!?”

                Brenda: (somewhat disappointedly) “Oh. Good.”

                Me: (reassuringly) “That’s great Brenda! The reason for my call today is…”

The above exchange is trivial, but enthusiasm expressed early in any call is truly important. They say people decide whether to buy or not in the first 30 seconds. I don’t know who “they” are or whether “they” are right, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. This is the part of the dance process in which I gently escort my partner out to the middle of the floor and gracefully lead them in the dance of their choice. Unfortunately, right now, I’m dragging them out to the dance floor by their feet and flailing my arms and legs around wildly. I’ll get there.

Once we have established that we’d like to dance, the tension leaves, and we settle into a basic two-step. Our voices rise and fall to match each other’s intonations and speeds. Questions fly around like swarms of gnats, while answers eliminate them like hungry bats. As we pick up speed, the conversation starts to crescendo. The barriers to human emotional connection are breaking. The speed and daring of the dance continues to pick up until you hit the turn.

The turn occurs right when someone breaks the basic question and answer chain. Here’s when the conversation “turns” to the business at hand. It is usually initiated with a somewhat hesitant “let me tell you about…” from myself, but on occasion my dance partner takes the lead. We both know that the song we are dancing to is nearing completion, and we have to figure out how it to end it. 

                Sometimes we finish the dance with gusto, and the voice buys. Sometimes we get tangled up clumsily, and the voice doesn’t buy. Either way, we thank each other for the entire opportunity and part ways. We stay on each other’s minds for only a few moments more before we start looking for other opportunities to feel the rhythm in our feet. May I have this dance?

Some Major League Soccer teams have eliminated their nicknames and switched over to a more European style club name. For instance, the Dallas Burn switched their club name to FC Dallas in 2005. The 5 teams without nicknames in Major League Soccer are FC Dallas, Toronto FC, Chivas USA, Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake.