My second job ever after high school was working for the San Diego County edition of The Los Angeles Times. Now back in the early 80s, we had this thing you may not have heard of. They were called housewives. The husband would go to his job and the wife stayed home, cleaned, cooked, took care of the kids and waited for the hubby to come home. Something else you may not be aware of is that back then San Diego hated anything to do with Los Angeles. Los Angeles was the crowded smoggy city (look at films made in the late 70s – the reason you can’t see across the valley was the thick smog from cars back then) that the winds kept sending their smoke to us and we did not like it. Here I was selling the San Diego county edition of the L.A. Times. But I was tops in the division. Why? Because I was selling to housewives.
The way I figured it, those wives had screaming brats, cleaning appliances that weighed a ton, food burning, errands to run….and not one person saying, “thank you”. And certainly nobody saying, “You’re sexy”.
So, I got on the phone and using my DJ voice that some of you have already heard, I slowed my pace down, lowered my voice and smoothed it out just a bit. I wanted my voice to sound like I had planned a romantic dinner for 2 and I was bringing her a glass of brandy and a gentle kiss before I let her go soak in a long hot bubble bath before I served her a romantic meal for 2. “Hi, I’m calling for the San Diego County edition of the Los Angeles Times.” My coworkers sounded like they were selling a newspaper. I sounded like I was cooing sweet nothings in their ear. You see, I figured their husbands hadn’t said so much as a “You look nice” in months. My voice sounded like they were an enchanting temptress that I was going to woo and seduce.
Mind you, I never said anything inappropriate, I just made my tone of my voice highly seductive. That’s how I became their number one seller. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.
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