Sales coach Ryan Dohrn recommends upgrading your microphone for video calls, suggesting an Audio-Technica USB mic around $175 or a Blue Snowball at $49-$79. Skip cheap mics, earbuds, and Bluetooth options. For headsets, he favors the Jabra Evolve 75 for its durability and comfort on sales calls.
Hey friends, Ryan Dohrn, your Global Sales Coach. Thanks so much for stopping by. We've got another great listener question that we featured on our podcast this month, uh, the Ryan Dohrn Podcast on iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify, you name it. So check it out, D-O-H-R-N, just search for it. All right, great question here from Fred from Spokane. Fred asks, hey Ryan, I want to sound as good as I look on my virtual meetings What do you recommend? Now, first and foremost, Fred, first, A+ for looking great on your meetings. Okay, get rid of all the clutter in the background. Go over to YouTube, look up the video I did called How Not to Be a Webcam Zombie to set up your background and things like that. Now, in that little video over on YouTube, I give some recommendations about microphones. Now, you don't have to have a big microphone setup like this. I'm doing 8, some 9, 10 hours a day of calls. And video. And so I have a microphone here. This is an Audio-Technica microphone, and it's going to run you about $175. With a little cool arm, it's another $60 or whatever. You don't have to have that, but you definitely could do something like that. Now, a microphone that's widely available on Amazon, $49 to $79, are microphones made by a company called Blue— B-L-U-E, like the color blue. You can buy a Snowball microphone. Now, I will share this with you, friends. Typically, the cheaper the microphone, the worse it's going to sound. Now, I will tell you this, using your little earbuds that you put in your ears, that just doesn't sound good. And if you ask a customer, how do I sound? They're going to say, oh, you sound fine. But you want to find a nice microphone. And what I notice is that most good microphones are going to start around $50. Okay, now what I try to avoid is microphones with an on and an off switch because that makes it a little bit wonky. It might be on, it might be off. I also don't typically use microphones that connect to Bluetooth because there tends to be a little trouble. It'll disconnect and, and things like that. I like the ones that are hardwired in through a USB right into my computer. So kudos on that. Now, when I'm on phone calls in some of my meetings, my favorite go-to headset, which I would encourage all of you to consider, this is called a Jabra Evolve, and it's got 2 earpieces on it, but they sit on your ears. It doesn't go over top of your ears. That's a little bit too hot. Now this is going to connect to my cell phone with Bluetooth. It's going to connect to my computer through a little USB dongle that you plug in. Now the reason I don't do these type of calls or my calls in wearing this is I just feel it makes me look a little bit too much like Jane the Time Life operator, those of you remember that if you're a child of the '80s. But I think this is one of the best headsets on there on the market. It's a Jabra What's it called? It's called an Evolve, Evoke, Jabra. I looked it up for you, a Jabra Evolve 75. Now you can find them on Amazon a little bit cheaper. You can find them refurbished. It is going to cost you a couple hundred bucks, but when you think about that investment, I have had that headset for 3 years. How much money have I made using that headset? Now it depends on what you want to do and how you want to present yourself. I love that headset because I can go on the road with it. There's companies like Bose, Plantronics, etc. They make great ones. Some of you use the ones that are wired, that plugged in, totally fine. What I try to avoid is those big ones that are like earmuffs that go over your ears, gaming headsets. It's just a little distracting. But anyway, you know, I really feel like, Fred, when you're thinking about this, set yourself up for success. Get yourself a good microphone because in my opinion, the way you sound is almost as important as the way that you look. So Fred, thanks for your listener question. All right, folks, I'd love to train you. train your sales teams, coach you, reach out to me over at ryandohrn.com. D-O-H-R-N. And just don't forget, friends, if sales was easy, everybody would be doing it. It's not easy. It's hard. It's hard out there. So we're either crazy friends or we found careers that'll feed our families for a lifetime. All right, guys, we'll see you next week. Take care.
