Your voice is the single most effective marketing tool you have. Many of us are comfortable using more traditional methods of marketing, which are generally impersonal and one-way. You mail sales letters or post cards. You have a web site. You run advertisements or articles prospects read. You have a newsletter or even a blog.

These are great marketing tools and I use them all, but they lack the intimacy you get when people hear your voice.

When I coach my clients I talk to them about contacting prospects in a variety of ways, and in particular touching as many of their prospects senses as they can. Most marketing - especially in the beginning stages of the sales process - involves sight and reading. Rarely smell, touch, taste, or hearing.

I have been very successful using the telephone to grow my business. I am not talking about cold-calling either. I'm talking about teaching people over the phone. Teleclasses or teleseminars.

While I love working from home and cozily working behind my computer, I learned early on that I closed more clients and had a more powerful impact on prospects when they heard me. I got out there and spoke in front of groups and traveled around a bit. But I found I could reach a broader audience in less time and spend less money by reaching out to groups of people over the phone.

Teleclasses allow for more interaction than a live class, and tend to be less formal. I find that some prospects are more relaxed and feel comfortable asking questions anonymously over the phone.

Let's take a look at some of the benefits to growing your business by holding seminars or classes over the phone...

1) Inexpensive. Most of the teleclasses I do don't cost me anything. There are several free conference companies that offer teleconference lines for up to 100 people at no charge. You can pay a little bit (maybe $15) to record the call or get your own recording software and record it yourself.

2) Easy to set up. You do need to have a way for prospects to register. I usually have a page put on my web site where folks can register and the call-in information is automatically sent to them. Again, you can get a free conference line.

3) People can interact. They can interact both with each other and with you. Participants learn from each others questions and by answering yours. I also find that some people are more likely to participate that may not in a live event. Probably because of the anonymity of not being seen.

4) Can charge for classes. I recommend starting out with a few free teleclasses. You can do these to drive people to your list and to also get experience and comfortable doing teleclasses. Many people do free teleclasses to promote a longer or more in-depth class or product they charge for, or simply to drive prospects to their ezine.

5) Wider range of audience than live workshops or seminars. It's very easy to attract participants from all over the world to teleclasses. If a world-wide audience is something you anticipate you should consider what time you offer the teleclass, and if you will make it available for them to download at a later date to save the international phone charges.

6) Participants can listen at their convenience. Because it is so easy and inexpensive to record calls, I always record my teleseminars and have them available to people that register ahead of time to download. That way I can do the class during the day - which is convenient for me, and registrants can listen after work or on their MP3 player at their convenience.

7) Can create a passive income, i.e. products. If you have a burning desire to create products to supplement your practice, or simply create DVD's to display in your office, the ease of recording makes teleclasses an easy supplementary income. You can also use the content for the class to write several articles or workbooks to accompany the audio portion of the class.

8) "Experts" teach classes. Teleclasses are a great way to grow/enhance your reputation.

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