When you're showing prospective buyers around a property do you sound enthusiastic and excited?
Do you make the words work for you? Can you make a room sound larger than it is?

Your voice needs to convey excitement. No matter how fed up you feel, or how ill you feel or how many times you've looked around a property, you have to remember that for the client it is the first time they've seen the property.
They need to be excited and eager to buy and if you sound excited they're more likely to purchase the property - meaning more commission for you!

Word Pictures
When you describe a property or a room to a client, you want them to get a picture in their mind of their ideal room. A room they can live in, in fact a room they just have to live in.
If you say a room has a high ceiling, you want them to picture and even feel that high ceiling. You need to lift your voice and emphasise the 'i' sound (pronounced 'eye') in the word.

If you say 'high' in front of a mirror you'll probably find that you can put one finger in your mouth - if you make the word sound exciting and open your mouth fully you should be able to fit two or three fingers vertically in your mouth.
These word pictures need to work even if you're both already in the room. Imagine walking into a romm with a client, it's a fantastic room with high ceilings, a wonderful fireplace and fantastic views. Your client thinks 'wow', and you say, quite quietly, 'this is the lounge' and you leave it at that. Your client will fell deflated and confused - they'll wonder what you know about the room that they've missed.

Try try this exercise - imagine you've been fishing and you've caught a huge fish. Now explain to someone how big it was but sit on your hands.Explain again but this time use your hands to indicate the size of the fish. The second explanation, using your hands should have sounded more exciting and should have made the fish sound larger. It is this sound of excitement you need to keep in your voice when describing a room. You need to be able to pick out the important words and emphasize them.

Volume
Your prospective buyers must be able to hear you. It doesn't matter how knowledgeable you are about the property if your clients can't hear what you're saying.
Open your mouth so that the sound can get out. You need to practise speaking in front of a mirror and make sure that you open your mouth. When you say 'dining room' you should be able to put three fingers vertically into your mouth on the 'i' pronounced 'eye' part of the word!

Pace and Posture
In order to sound enthusiastic you need to speak fairly quickly, but you must give your clients time to take in each new piece of information. Estate agents shouldn't rush around a house.

Stand tall and be proud of what you're selling. By standing correctly you will help your breathing and therefore your speaking skills will improve.

Serena Greenslade has been showing people how to get the best out of their voice for over 10 years. More information about confident speaking can be found at http://afraid-of-speaking-a-speech.com.