From the author: All articles in this series are chapters of my book “Public Speaking. Workshop”. If you are interested in this topic, then you can find all the previous chapters on this site, and subsequent ones will be published here a little later ABILITY TO CONDUCT TELEPHONE CONVERSATIONS Do you think a telephone conversation can be classified as public speaking? Of course you can! It happens that one phone call radically changes your life, and therefore you need to be prepared for your “Most Important Phone Conversation”. And for this you need to know that telephone conversations are based on the same principles and rules as public speaking. So, I am giving rules that apply not to any call to a friend or mother, when you can relax, but to the rules of etiquette for a business telephone call. 1. CALL ONLY DURING THE ALLOWED TIME. It would seem that this is an elementary rule, but, unfortunately, not everyone remembers it. A phone call at the wrong time can cause a person to feel irritated and feel that their right to personal time and space has been violated. In this case, you can greatly spoil the impression of yourself. If your call is on business, then you can call only during working hours, that is, from approximately nine (or better yet, from ten) in the morning to six in the evening during the work week; on weekends it is better not to call on business matters. 2. CALL ONLY THOSE PHONE PHONES THAT THE PERSON HIMSELF GAVE TO YOU OR ALLOWED TO GIVE TO A THIRD PARTY. Limit yourself to the accessibility zone determined by your potential interlocutor. If he only gave you a work phone number, you shouldn’t get a mobile or home phone number by hook or by crook. You will get nothing but irritation, bewilderment and even, perhaps, indignation. 3. DON'T BE AFRAID. In order not to be afraid, you can use the same methods that are described in the chapter dedicated to combating the fear of public speaking: PIR, the method of bursting bubbles, a familiar dog, and others. 4. PREPARE FOR THE CONVERSATION IN ADVANCE. Mentally think about how you will introduce yourself, how you will present the essence of the issue. You can even write your speech on a piece of paper, but after reading it, you should put it aside and speak “live.” It is absolutely forbidden to sight-read during a telephone conversation; it will be noticeable and create the impression of artificiality. 5. DRESS APPROPRIATELY. Many people think that they can afford to talk on the phone in any form, even in their pajamas, because the opponent does not see you, but only hears you. This is not true. Your clothes greatly influence the flow of the conversation, how collected, focused and smart you are. You cannot have a business conversation, even a telephone conversation, in a robe and slippers! Dress as if you were dressing for a face-to-face meeting with this person. You will be surprised, but this will make the telephone conversation much more constructive. 6. SPEAK STANDING. I already wrote in previous chapters that when you stand, your voice sounds much better than when you sit. A telephone conversation is no exception. 7. DO NOT CALL FROM UNSUITABLE LOCATIONS. I think you yourself understand that the roar of music, the clinking of glasses, or even the noise of the street is not the best background for a conversation. Moreover, such things signal to the person that you are not taking either him or the topic of conversation too seriously. In the next article, I will talk about charting a telephone conversation. It's very simple and very effective at the same time. Dear readers, if you are interested in the topic of public speaking, subscribe to the newsletter (to the author), and you will receive notifications about the release!