For years, consultants have tried to analyze how accent and speech rate impact sales in a telemarketing environment. While nothing is conclusive, there is a lot of evidence that speech rate and accent affect sales and the way people feel when talking to telemarketing agents.

Many companies do speech tests when hiring telemarketing agents. Some companies like to hire people with "theatrical" voices in the hope that voice quality will impact productivity. They feel it helps cut sales resistance.

Importance of Speech Rate

Let’s explore why speech rate is important. The telemarketing call is almost always an interruption. The prospect is not anticipating the agent’s call. While their brain can digest 600 words a minute when focused, for the first five to ten seconds of a telemarketing call the prospect tends to hear at a different speech rate than the agent speaks. It simply takes the brain a few seconds to put speech rate, accent, and message together so communication can occur.

A New Yorker, who speaks at 240 words per minute (WPM), will have problems communicating (at first) with a Midwesterner, who speaks at 170 WPM. Chances are the Midwesterner will not understand the conversation for at least five to ten seconds. That means they will miss or not understand the agent’s name, company, and possibly the primary calling purpose.

One of the reasons many big service bureaus go to Omaha Nebraska is because there is little if any accent in the middle part of America and their rate of speech is moderate when compared with Southerners and New Yorkers.

180 Word Test

The Pennsylvania Bell Company put out a 180 word test to measure speech rate. This test can help train your agents to speak at the best speech rate. Time your agents while they read this test. If they take longer than one minute, they are speaking too slow. If they take less than one minute, they are speaking too fast.

The 180 Word Statement by Pennsylvania Bell Company

Most experts agree that the ideal rate of speech is between one hundred and eighty to two hundred words per minute. At this rate, people who are listening to you will be able to hear and understand what you are saying. In the United States there are different patterns of speech that are the product of geographic areas. In the northeastern part of the country, people tend to speak faster than others while people from the southern states speak slower than the ideal rate. However, people in the mid-western states will tend to speak the one hundred and eighty word rate. To test yourself, note your start and finish time. Use the second hand of a clock to do this. If you read this statement in less than one minute you are speaking too fast and should make an effort to slow down. But if you read this statement in more than a minute, you are speaking too slowly and should try to speak faster when talking on the phone.

If you mark ten second intervals, it will help you identify speech patterns and habits, both good and bad, in your agents. Once identified, you can begin the process of correcting bad habits and emphasizing good ones. Another helpful suggestion is to perform this test over the phone or in front of other agents.

When you finish with the Bell test, take one of your scripts and do the same thing. Identify the first 180 words and have your agents try and read them within one minute.

This article was written by Judd Humpherys. © Copyright, 1996. Making copies without the written permission of the copyright owner is prohibited by law.