This is a Guest Post from Paul Archer, of Archer Training.

Christmas is almost here and I’m so excited. I love Christmas so here’s a smashing little tip which will be very useful if you ever ask questions when selling. And let’s face it, who doesn’t.

“It’s called early teenage talk, Paul”

That was the response from a teenage expert after I asked about the irritating habit I’ve noticed my teenage son using when talking to his friends. “It’s called teenage talk”.

So what is this annoying habit that causes this grumpy old man to moan?

It’s the constant rising tonality of every sentence that my son uses. His sentences start normal and then his voice rises at the end of the phrase or sentence. This continues for hours. Have you noticed it from others?

Now it’s not going to harm anyone and I should move on to worry about more important things but it actually is important in sales. More than people think.

We all know that communication is more than just the words chosen. Plenty of research carried out over the last 30 years shows that face to face communication consists of three parts – the words, the way you say them and the body language that’s used to launch the words. The tone of the voice has a remarkable influence on the meaning, more that we think.

Straight forward really. A flat tone tells you that the sentence is just a statement. A falling tone indicates a command and a rising sentence says there is a question here.

Try it now. Say something like. “It’s time to go to bed”. Say it with a flat, falling and then a rising tone and listen to the impact. It really works doesn’t it?

Now this little gem has a couple of practical sales uses. I like practical don’t you?

Firstly when asking question to find out your customer’s needs and pains, make the questioning more palatable for them, by raising your tone a little. This makes the question you ask much more pleasing to the ear and you’ll never be accused of interrogating your customer.

Secondly, when you want your customer to do something, drop your tone a little but only just a little. “So Bob, you’re happy to go ahead with the paperwork then?” It’s sounds like a question but the customer will accept it as a command. A little hypnotic maybe but your customer will do as you wish. And fill in the paperwork to seal the sale.

Now why do teenagers talk with rising tones on every sentence? I’ve no idea. It’s probably something to do with wanting a reaction to everything they say and so raising the tone in your sentence makes it sound like a question. Or just maybe it’s just one of those things my teenage son does to irritate a grumpy old man like me!

Paul Archer is an international sales speaker, sales trainer, author and coach based in the UK. He specializes in rapport selling and rapport coaching and can ignite his audiences large or small. For more information on Paul and his training courses, visit www.paularcher.com, where you’ll also find his own sales blog, too!