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Your recorder should be getting a good workout in your calling to help you develop an optimum volume level. Then you can work on varying it for emphasis.

Use the Right Pitch

Do your statements sound like questions with a rising inflection at the end? Do you sing rather than say? Does your voice sound like you’re puppylicking the Cool Whip container while talking? Your basic walking kazoo?

Since most jobseekers have a range of only one octave, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to change the pitch. But reducing the volume will help you lower it.

Improve Your Pronunciation

The last thing that affects your phone voice is how you pronounce words. If you play back a familiar voice saying, “Du ya wanna,” “gonna,” or “interdukshun,” it’s time to correct the “prolem.”

In surveying voices for Instant Interviews, I discovered that candidates over 40 tend to lose enthusiasm and dynamism in their speech. The result was a constant pitch with little difference in speed or intensity.

This boring pattern is just a symptom of the rejection shock that unstant interviewers encounter. They might as well call up the offeror and say, “You wouldn’t want to interview me anyway.”

Your voice conveys more about your feelings toward the offeror in the first moments than all of your words that follow.

Only four steps.

Call and enthrall!

Do 41: Reading the Offeror Like a Book

. . . Within a few seconds!

With remarkable precision. That way, you know exactly how to play the game.

Nobody knows how to do this but I.I.’s. That’s you, and it’s now.

You’re appearing during your workday when the offeror could be expected to be frantic, overworked, and involved with things other than you.

So she’s bound by an unwritten standard operating procedure.

Talk to someone who’s like you.

In those first few seconds, she’ll instinctively look for similarities between you and her. If she sees them, her brain flashes go. If not, it flashes stop. If it’s go, the psychological alignment locks in as the instant interview locks in.

You should recognize by now that all interviews are instant interviews. We know it. The rest of the natives don’t.

This was graphically taught to me in my first HR job. The company had outgrown its headquarters and acquired homes nearby to use as offices. Our HR department occupied one of the three-bedroom converted homes. It was in an L shape. As you went up the walkway toward the front door, there was a window on the wall to the right. That was my boss’s office—formerly the master bedroom. His desk faced the same way as the front door. There was a window in front of the desk on the left side.

He had a convex mirror installed on the right upper corner of his office so he could look up and see who was approaching when the blinds were open.

I’d be sitting in my office (an inside bedroom) writing up some fantasy display ad. Suddenly, a loud voice would bellow out on the speakerphone, “Hire that one!”

It’s all about that flash. It’s all so sci-en-tif-ic.

You can instantly make the light flash green if you instantly know the three offeror types.

Here we go.

Outgoing: Type One

These offerors are sometimes called socializers. They’re energetic, friendly, and self-assured. They wear flamboyant clothes or accessories.

Their offices have family photos, kids’ artwork, and mementos. Their desks are disorganized and cluttered.

Don’t be surprised if some of the books on the shelf are upside down.

You won’t often see these offerors right away, since their schedules look like their desks.

But if you meet one, align by being upbeat and very friendly. Always follow the genie format (Do 1). They talk a lot, so be a good listener.

If you do it right, it’s a “Hire that one!” situation. Probably not on your first follow-up phone call. (He won’t call you although he wants to. He’s just over his head. Good for us.)

Generally, great other-oriented people.

You can be funny