Look for opportunities during your calls to turn possible negatives into positives that make your caller feel good. Here are two examples of the same caller comment being handled different ways. Which do you think is better?

Operator: So what do you do for work?

Caller: I own my own lawn care business...

Operator: (pauses) wow that's hard work - that's HOT work too! Wow you must be miserable in this hot weather! Aww i'm sorry honey!

Caller: that's ok... so what do you do?

In the above conversation, the operator has just taken a piece of information about her caller and turned it into something negative, and brought the entire tone of the call DOWN... the subject of his business is now over, and call has become about the operator...

MUCH BETTER:

Operator: So what do you do for work?

Caller: I own my own lawn care business...

Operator: Really? You sound really young to have your own business! Do you do any of the actual labor too, or do you tell the other guys where to go work?

Anything the caller replies to this can also be made into MORE positives... If he says he goes out and does the actual landscaping with his guys, he's lucky to work outside in the warm sun, probably has a nice tan, probably has nice muscle tone from the physical work... if he just supervises from an office, there are benefits to that as well! The point is, you're talking to him about HIM - a subject that he's definitely interested in!