Realtor Prospecting Experiment: What does a successful home office SOUND like?

Thriving Office — Can a sound effects CD help boost your confidence on cold calls?

Gotta love America — where else would a guy with a tape recorder and a silly idea become a cult recording star to home-based business people?

Until the picture phone catches on in the mainstream — and I don’t think it will to the extent of “The Jetsons” — the sales call can be a deceptive exercise. You can be sitting at home in your underwear or sitting in your car surrounded by fast-food wrappers and the prospect on the other end pictures you in a bustling room of activity.

That is until they hear the muffled loudspeaker from the drive-thru window or your next-door neighbor’s obnoxious lawnmower.

San Francisco marketing executive Bill Freund introduced the “Thriving Office” CD soundtrack a few years ago to help home-based phone sales reps create the illusion that they are in the midst of busy cubicles with no dirty laundry strewn across the floor.

The sound effects album contains two 39-minute tracks — “Busy” and “Very Busy” — which include soft co-worker background chatter, feverish computer typing, walking down the hall, ringing phones, shuffling paper, and the rhythmic jazz of file cabinets being opened and shut.

Freund, who came up with the idea while he was a student at Harvard Business School, told Businessweek that he edited the office sounds together “like a symphony.” He describes the end result of background noise as “controlled chaos.”

Although the original intent was to boost the impression of credibility to the person on the other end of the phone, Freund says many of his customers report an increase in work productivity once they get in the mood of a typical office setting.

“Thriving Office” got a thumbs up from Realtor Magazine, which wrote, “When customers call, have your home office project the image of an established, successful company.” And the CD claims users who work for major insurance companies like Prudential and New York Life and real estate powerhouses like Cushman & Wakefield, Re/Max, Century 21, Coldwell Banker, and Keller Williams.

What do you think?  Can your call reluctance be conquered with a little help from some ghost co-workers in the background?  What about white noise in general — are you more prone to get things done with the harmonious sounds of waterfalls or thunderstorms streaming out your computer?

The San Francisco Chronicle jokingly suggests creating a Dysfunctional Office CD, in which a hyperactive boss screams at you to stop reading blogs like this one and start making some more sales!

Luckily, you’re your own boss and there’s no one to yell at you but yourself. But as far as work productivity goes, Mojo’s Triple Line Power Dialer has you covered.  Three times as many prospecting calls than traditional autodialers.

And if you happen to be playing your office soundtrack on your car stereo, Mobile Mojo’s got you covered, too.  The client will have no idea you are waiting for another appointment to show up or drop your kids off at school. Mojo’s always with you!

(Got a great working-at-home productivity tip?  Share it with us at tips@mojosells.com)

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Bob Montgomery