Art
Siegel

Harnessing The Power Of Body Language In Selling - Part 2

There are two components of using body language to enhance your sales success. One aspect involves accurately reading the customer's non-verbal cues. The second, described in Harnessing The Power Of Body Language In Selling, Part 2, calls for using body language to send your own powerful visual messages. 

Controlling Your Own Body Language

One person's body language unconsciously influences how the other person in a meeting feels. So you can influence the way customers feel subtly through body language:

Speak a familiar language
Try to use a non-verbal vocabulary that is generally understood to convey positive messages. If the customer is a good reader of body language, you are ahead. If the customer is not, you have not lost anything.

• Maintain good posture, sitting erect but not stiff. Hands should be visible and open.
  
  
• Avoid closed gestures, such as crossing your arms across your chest.
  
  
• Smile.
  
  
• Maintain eye contact, particularly while the customer is speaking. This says you care about what the customer is saying. To avoid staring, look away occasionally to take notes or to look at materials the customer has brought.
  
  
• Focus your attention on the customer. Avoid fidgeting or letting your eyes wander while the customer is speaking. These actions will draw the customer's attention away from the conversation and suggest you would rather be somewhere else.
  
  
• Nod agreement. This is positive if you do it convincingly and in appropriate places. If you do it automatically, it says you are not listening.
  
  
• Occasionally express agreement verbally to reinforce nods.

Reflect the customer's language
Make customers feel more comfortable at first by matching their body language. For example:

• If the customer's body language is very open, match it.
  
  
• If it is reserved or nervous, tone down your enthusiasm a bit to make the customer more comfortable.
  
  
• If the customer prefers to maintain some distance, avoid moving too closely.
  
  
• If the customer moves slowly and makes few gestures, avoid extensive gesturing and quick movements.

Using Body Language To Influence The Way The Customer Feels

We normally think of body language as a reflection of what the person is feeling; and that's true. But it is also true that if you change your body language, your feelings will begin to change as well. That's why, when you feel yourself dragging in the middle of the afternoon, a quick walk around the block can rejuvenate you. You also tend to feel better when you put on fresh clothes or if you just smile.

This principle has two practical applications:

1. You can make yourself look and feel better by using more positive body language
The famous football coach Vince Lombardi used to tell his players before an away game: "You've got to look good getting off the bus, and then play a heck of a game." In other words, if you look and act like a winner at the outset, you are more likely to become one.

2. Body language is contagious
If person X uses relatively neutral body language, and person Y uses positive or negative body language, person X will gradually begin to mirror that. Thus, if the customer starts out neutral or somewhat negative and you are increasingly positive, the customer's body language (and thus their mood) will become more positive as well.

To influence the way the customer feels:

1. Start with body language that is generally considered to be positive.
   
   
2. Carefully observe the customer's body language.
   
   
3. Alter your body language to more closely match the customer's.
   
   
4. During the meeting, if you think a more positive tone is desirable, gradually change your body language to be more positive in order to influence the way the customer feels.
   
   
5. Always make positive transitions in your body language while the customer is speaking. This says you support the customer's ideas and feelings. If you make changes when you begin to speak, it may say that you are trying to take control.

Additional Body Language Techniques

1. Match your words and body language
The customer will trust you less if you attempt to use body language that differs markedly from what you are saying. If you are honest in both, and use both to express your sincere interest in helping the customer, this will show.

2. Maintain the right distance
People have a comfort zone for how close they want other people to come; only people they feel very comfortable with are allowed to penetrate within a certain distance. Follow these guidelines to maintain a comfortable distance:

• Follow the customer's lead. From the moment you greet customers, watch where they stand. This will tell you how close to approach. If they back away a bit after the handshake, maintain a greater distance.
  
  
• Don't tower over the customer. If you are much taller than the customer, be especially careful to keep a comfortable distance. Once you are seated and the customer communicates more openness, you can begin to approach more closely.
  
  
• Be careful about touching. A firm, brief handshake is always acceptable for greeting someone you do not know well. Other touching is uncomfortable for many people.
  
  
• Move closer together at an appropriate time. This is valuable in strengthening the positive relationship. But when you move closer to the customer, do it for a reason:

1. You can move closer to the customer to look at a document together, like a brochure.
   
   
2. If the customer begins to lean closer, expressing positive energy towards you, it is OK for you to lean closer as well.

SeaBird Associates Inc
3011 NE 7th Drive
Boca Raton, FL 33431
Phone: 561-750-9233
E-mail: Art Siegel

About Art Siegel