Your presentation sets the tone

Work on your presentation, skills and "connectivity", so that each caller wants to stay on the phone with you for the maximum time permitted. This is where your intuition and "gift(s)" are most useful!

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Keep an Open Mind

Always keep in mind if a caller is willing to talk to you for 15 or 20 minutes, they are usually willing to talk to you for 30, 60 minutes or longer!

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Handling Hang-ups

Don't take hang up calls personally. It's only a phone call. Just take the next call and forget it. It really has nothing to do with you, it has to do with the caller. Be glad you weren't subjected to this type of negativity any further.

EVERYONE gets hang-up calls. However, if the majority of your calls are hang-ups, then you need to understand you may not transition to telephone work and must do readings in person or over the internet instead.

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Avoiding Call Length Average Stress

Don't obsess over it. It’s simply not worth the time spent thinking about it. Try to do the best job possible for the caller and don’t worry about anything else. However, if the majority of your calls are under 15 minutes, then you need to understand you may not transition to telephone work and you might consider doing readings in person or over the internet instead.


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Suggest Additional Tarot Card Spreads

Another great way to increase your call length average is to lay out other readings. During the conversation a caller may mention a spouse, significant other, relative, friend, co-worker or the like. Because you can “connect” with the caller’s feelings about these other individuals, you can do additional readings involving them as well. If you’re using Tarot, keep the caller’s reading laid out and then lay out another reading so you can correlate the two readings together to get a better feel for details.
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Timing of events. Again, if you’re using Tarot, a wonderful way to boost call length averages and to get a good handle on the timing of things and events is to lay out an additional spread for the same person. The 12 month Astrological spread (also known as a time line reading) is excellent for this. In addition to their original spread lay out 13 cards, 1 for each month and a summary card for the full 12 months. The first card laid out is the current month and it proceeds for the next 12 months. Very easy to do, and it will amaze you how much more information will show during the time of the event in addition to what is in the original spread. You can lay this out at the same time as your original spread by saying something like “ . . . and I’m going to lay out a time line reading for you too so we can get a better handle on the timing of things”, but it can also be laid out any time during the reading. The time line reading can also be used for the additional spreads of other persons while the caller’s spread is still laid out.

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Less Can Be More

Sometimes the difficulty getting to longer readings comes from giving too much information at the beginning of the call. I know when I first worked giving readings on the telephone I had a lot of 5 to 12 minute calls because I gave so much information, the callers thought they had all the information they needed and got off the phone. In time I learned to give deeper quality and fuller details by not rushing. I also learned how to ask more questions on a phone reading, and suggest different forms of information for the same question (let's take a look at how your boyfriend / husband / fiance / employer / relative / whatever comes into this picture - followed afterwards by something like - if I do a timeline reading we can isolate when this event will have the major focus in your life, etc. et al.) During these conversations I'd go off into other areas about topics they might also be raising like: (and your sister was jealous of the fact that. . . .? Let me pull a card to see exactly how she fits into this particular situation.) You can't let the fact you are doing this over the phone instead of in-person influence you into short-changing people on the information you give. So start out with quality, but always remember that life's issues are not resolved with short answers for anyone, so make sure you give them the details they want and which will hopefully serve them well.

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Making it Personal

Usually, the difficulty in getting call length averages up comes from not having found your own “voice” or approach - the one which works best for you. I look at doing readings from a very simple perspective. The callers are paying to get off the phone feeling better than when they got on. This means I let go of "me" and try to see very quickly what it is which will accomplish this feeling for them.

This can be tricky. As I’ve said before, some callers just want someone to listen, some want to hear good news, some want to know that their lives will stay the same, and some truly want change and want to know how to get there. Notice which I put last, because I find most readers don't want truth, or if they do, it's truth about the other people in their lives, not truth about themselves and what they need to do about it.

So I don't have specific questions I use for drawing people out. Sometimes I use their sun sign information or numerology destiny information. This gives me a quick fix on their basic character and life-direction. Then I can draw my initial questions from that data. I personalize the questions as much as possible. Then I take the information they provide in answer to those questions to ask more questions. My way of questioning is always based on the information a caller gives me, so it's very hard to duplicate it here, but I can give you some sort of a base example and maybe this will give you some idea of how I do it. So a female with a date of birth of 8/15/1966 I might start off saying:

"Well, for starters I see that you are quite strong-willed and are the kind of person who demands center-stage most of the time. You like beautiful things and your home environment is most important to you. It was difficult for you to handle this high-powered status when you were a child, no?" [Pause for their answer, listen to their response - if it takes the call in a different direction, follow their lead, if they're fairly quiet]: "So you grew up trying to figure out how to get control of this energy, but on the bonus side you had general financial security and were well protected. [If they are not responding I will ask something like: am I getting the correct picture of you? I need to know if I have "connected" properly" - forcing them to provide me with some information as to where we are in terms of their "happiness quotient" with the reading. Then I acknowledge what they've told me and might continue with]: "As you grow older you should be focusing more on expanding your consciousness. Universal appeal" [I might ask here if they understand what I mean by Universal appeal and see if a discussion ensues with them on that topic or continue with]: "has always been within your reach and you must work to keep your horizons as broad and limitless as possible." [At a point like this they will generally interrupt on their own and take the conversation in the direction they want, but if they don't I still continue, now getting more specific] "You are in a situation now where you need to free yourself from personal restrictions. Yours is a powerful destiny and to fulfill it you must not hold onto people after your immediate responsibility is met" [If they're not taking the conversation from me by now I start asking more questions - taking clues from them as to which direction to go]

I am drawing 90% of the information I use as a base from numerology (date of birth info) and can go on like this for a full hour or more if needed. However, I never actually had to do that, as always within the first 5 minutes or so - usually less - I had hit an area of great import to them and we were off and running. People just love to talk about themselves given the right conditions and opportunity so I try to find what hits that comfort spot as quickly as I can. I am not so focused on telling them what I know or see as I am on getting them to "feel" better and involved in the process all at the same time.

When they trust me - because I have almost instantly demonstrated my credibility as someone with psychic ability, they cross a psychological border and now will allow me to lead the conversation. Most callers want to be led. If they wanted to be more independent in their thought they wouldn't be calling a psychic line for "answers". I balance control of the conversation with a very concerted effort to avoid appearing superior, or talking down to them. I want them to feel they are equal, but that it's OK to relax and let me lead. So once in control of the conversation I can then say why don't I do a tarot spread for . . . and take something they've expressed deep interest in and try to get to still more specific information through the cards. Now I am going on my gut, feel, and experience alone, because I personally find it is too distracting to do in-depth numerology stuff while in the middle of a phone reading. In addition to the tarot I still work off of the same general sun-sign type info and date of birth numerology info in the background, but for the balance of the call my main focus is on what the caller is saying to me and how I can respond in a way which keeps their interest and always leads to the ultimate goal of their getting off the phone feeling better/happier than when they got on. The hardest calls for me are the ones where people want to have their negative thoughts, anger, frustration and/or sense of futility validated - but if I can determine they are not ready at this point in their lives to let go and are fiercely determined to hold on to this stuff, then I actually validate it for them as I know it provides the relief they seek. This is really letting go of me and is terribly tough for me to do, but it works for them.

It also helps to find the right physical "voice" to use for your readings as just the sound of your voice can make a big difference too.

I hope some of this helps and gives you ideas. Try practicing with friends, relatives or by yourself to see if you can't get a better idea of what style and technique will be most comfortable for you. When you are not trying to be someone else is when your readings will work better for you. What will surprise you most of all is that the voice and method you’ve gotten so used to working for you in person, almost always doesn’t work as well on the phones. It is a big adjustment. You must trust that you found the right “voice” for in-person readings, and you will find the right “voice” for phone readings too. It just takes some flexibility in your approach.