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, whether it’s an in-person meeting or a video conference. Over the course of the next two days, we’ll do a high-level fly-over of what body language signals can mean to you and actions to take.
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, if the nose touching or scratching seems to start in reaction to what you’re saying, that’s generally a good indication that they're not really loving your message.
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.
Action: Look for additional signs of interest.
If your prospect wants to leave the conversation, they may:
Reposition their bodies so their shoulders are no longer 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…
