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Many businesses with salespeople struggle to work out who is the best person to hire for the role. Do they take the raging extrovert (who couldn’t complete paperwork to save their lives), or the diligent paper completer who struggles with getting out of the office and talking with people?

A hidden dimension to look for in sales success is empathy – the ability to understand what people are feeling. By being able to “get” people’s feelings, they are better able to help the person find the solutions they need and therefore make better sales. However, measuring empathy has been tricky to accurately assess.

The Neuromarketing blog reports on a study that looks at the correlation between empathy and the melodic voices (yes, whether or not the person speaks in a monotone or has variable tones). The study shows that people whose voices are more melodic, are more empathetic. The suggested reason for this is the person whose voice shows light and shade, are more likely to be able to identify emotion in other people.

Having a strange mind I had visions of the application – candidates voices being run through voice analyzers as part of the selection process. However, the more practical application is through just listening to the voice of your candidate and then following it up with standardised questions and reference checks to verify your assessment. You still have to resolve the paper warfare dilemma – but at least you would have an idea of how well they can identify and work with customers once they get in front of them.

Ingrid Cliff

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Heart Harmony – Freelance Copywriter