Travel agents should emulate the likes of Apple’s Steve Jobs or US president Barack Obama when trying to sell cruise to customers.
Body language expert Richard Newman of UK Body Talk advised the 400 delegates at this week’s UK Cruise Convention to use pitch, pace and pause to get the message across.
“Communication skills is an area where you can really stand out. People buy people,” he said.
Agents were told to lower their pitch and pace and to pause just before delivering some very important information and to increase pitch and pace to try to excite and inspire customers.
Newman held up late Apple boss Jobs as the archetypal salesman who excelled when at product launches, where he explained why the firm’s new devices were must-haves.
And he said Obama communicated his authority as he neared winning the race to the White House by slowing down his speech from 190 words per minute to just 100.
Newman said legendary actor John Wayne was a master of pause, often waiting two seconds to deliver his lines making what he said feel more important.
The human voice covers three octaves, said Newman who suggested the audience watch how BBC newsreaders use pitch when delivering stories.
“You have to decide how you want people to feel. They go high pitch to say this is an exciting and inspiring message, whereas a low pitch means that the message has gravitas.”