Thoughts on speaking softly….
by Shannon Underwood
I lost my voice today and found a new way to get what I want.
I inadvertently discovered that whispering can be used as an effective negotiating technique. This was only after I whispered my wild and crazy kids into bed, whispered my under-cooked steak back to the kitchen and whispered my way to a lower price through a business supplier.
Don’t mistake my advice to (occasionally) whisper to make your point as an excuse to use a baby voice for business. Squeaking your way through life is better suited for rubber duckies – not CEO’s.
When might whispering make sense?
* When you feel like a wedding couple is not listening. It can be used as a tactic to cause them to pay better attention and re-focus.
* Whispering works when you want it to appear to the bride that the information you are sharing is privileged or top secret.
* When asking for an over-the-top request, it will make you appear more unassuming rather than pushy.
* When someone in the wedding party is yelling at you, dropping your voice to a whisper is a great tool. It’s pretty hard to continue to shout at someone who is just whispering rather than engaging in a fight.