Selling Energy Blog

Body Language Tips, Part 1

Written by Mark Jewell | January 17, 2018

True sales professionals pay close attention to body language. Why is it valuable to understand body language? First, you get a relatively accurate gauge of your prospect’s thoughts and feelings based on these visual clues. This can help you decide what to talk about (and what to avoid talking about). Second, you become cognizant of what messages you’re sending with your own body language. You can use this knowledge to help build rapport with your prospect.

Over the course of the next two days, we’ll do a high-level fly-over of what body language can mean to you.

If your prospect has a positive reaction to what you’re saying, they may:
-Rub their eyebrows.
-Scratch their eyebrows.
-Scratch part of the forehead above their eyebrows.
-Push their eyeglasses back in place.
Action: Keep doing what you’re doing!

If your prospect has a negative reaction to what you’re saying, they may:
-Touch their nose.
-Scratch their nose.
-Note: They may have a cold or allergies. If so, don't read too much into it; however, touching or scratching the nose is generally a good indication that they're not really loving what you're saying.
Action: Shift to another talking point to move away from the negative evaluation.

If your prospect is interested in what you’re saying, they may:
-Tilt their head.
-Speak with greater vocal modulation (singsongy speech patterns).
Action: Look for additional signs of interest.

If your prospect wants to leave the conversation, they may:
-Stand with their shoulders not parallel to yours.
-Look at down at their watch.
Action: Redirect the conversation by changing the subject or asking a question.

Stay tuned for more on this topic tomorrow…

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