We hear much about "Body Language" and much of it I fail to understand. There are some people who would tell you that if a person pulls on her ear, it means one thing and if she then wipes her brow with her left hand it means something different than if she wiped with her right hand.
I am no expert in the field but I have a feeling that if I spent all of my time trying to remember what each movement meant I would be hard pressed to recall at all what had been said. I believe that I need a much simpler version of "Body Language."
For instance, if I see a sales person who walks in like his Popsicle just melted in my lobby, I know all is not well back at his farm. My first reaction is that I haven't time to listen. He has been shut out before he opened his mouth.
On the other hand, if I am approached by a bright and enthusiastic personality, I would be open to listen. If the bright and enthusiastic behavior turns into "bubbly and cute", I assume I should be spending my time with more important issues.
THE EYES HAVE IT
Eye contact has long been touted as the most telling of all Body Language feedback systems.
I believe it is quite important and very basic. Those people who find it difficult to make and hold eye contact with their prospects are at a serious disadvantage but most of the time problems with eye contact are much more basic.
The salesman, whose eyes become distracted by a cute waitress at a business lunch, seldom goes home with more than salad dressing stains on his tie and a receipt for expenses. This by the way goes double for the salesman who has taken a female executive to lunch.
Imagine the client trying to believe everything you say, while your eyes keep flashing away to the well-turned leg of a lady across the restaurant. The message the prospect gets is that the sales person is more interested in some futile fantasies than in business.
Making effective eye contact with the prospect is little more than "focusing" on the prospect. We can insure this is being communicated to the prospect by practicing looking at an object for five seconds.
Pick a spot on the wall and focus on it for five seconds... count one thousand-one... one thousand- two... and so forth. If you practice this for a short time, you will develop a good sense for how long most people are comfortable with direct eye-ball-to-eye-ball contact. Eye contact held much longer than five seconds sets up a staring contest that is unnatural. Further, Ron Willingham, author of THE BEST SELLER, advises that we should look into one eye. The reason he makes this very good advice is that it is impossible to look into two eyes at a time and we make more impact by concentrating on one eye. I think it makes sense and is good advice.
YOUR CONFIDENCE SHOWS
Body Language naturally includes many other aspects than just good eye contact. A smile can tell us many different things, an arched eyebrow can raise a question and a turned hand can answer one. Suffice it to say many of these things we learn from experience.
How many of us have been approached by a car salesman who looks to have just been punched in the chest by a milk truck. Shoulders stooped, chest caved in and a halting step would, I think, speak more loudly than any eye contact.
Our very unscientific surveys indicate that most sales professional feel that they are exuding positive Body Language.... while equally unscientific surveys of the customers indicate that they are seeing very mundane sales presentations. What is certain is that when we get sales people in our video training sessions most find that they are not presenting the confident and enthusiastic image they want to present. I would suggest, then, at least once a quarter the serious sales professional spends, a couple of hours with a sales partner and do role-plays with a video camera.
Does all of this mean that we should practice cheerleading down at the local bowling alley to develop enthusiasm, or take a Dale Carnegie course to come out of our shell? Definitely not, but perhaps what it does mean is that most of us are not animated enough to "show" confidence.
We must recognize that some of our customers want an enthusiastic, firm handshake while others would find that same approach overbearing. It is up to the professional to adjust his or her personality to meet the needs of many types of prospective customers. People view us through their own perspectives and we must be open enough to intuitively give each prospect what they require to see us as competent professionals.
Opening up a prospect to believe us, have faith in our recommendations and respect us as professional business consultants is not to be performed by someone who needs directions to open a beer can. Simply put, we need to be certain we are showing the most positive communications possible before the prospect has the time to make a negative assessment.
We have long heard much about the value of First Impressions and those comments are well founded. The first impression will outlast any later actions, all out of proportion to relative value. Knowing now how critical the visual impression is, we have the opportunity we have the opportunity to make our favorable approach with confidence and power.
SEEING IS BUYING
Years ago I asked the late Nick Carter, V.P. of Marketing for Nightingale Conant Co. what he thought was the greatest secret of salesmanship. Nick said that he felt "It is the ability of a sales person to build word pictures for the customer. To make the customer see himself using and enjoying the benefits of the product."
What Nick was talking about takes us back to visual communications and he was right.
Weeks after we had our talk, I was helping my wife look for a new family station wagon. A salesman was, very clumsily, demonstrating the space in the cargo area. The salesman finally gave up trying to fold the third seat down and began explaining about all of the square footage available in the back compartment.
I had to bite my tongue. I wanted to interrupt. We had told him we were looking for a car for the school car pool, the Cub Scout den, the groceries and our upcoming trip with the kids to Disney World.
He kept talking about cubic feet and I kept waiting for him to say something like, "Lady there is so much room in the back, when those kids get car sick, chances are they won't get none on you."
Building word pictures simply puts your prospect in the mental driver’s seat.
Here what we are proposing is that the salesperson should understand the needs of the prospect and as a professional, be able to communicate a picture of the end result. We can accomplish this by simply explaining the desired outcome of the benefit of using his product. I believe that it is possible to help the prospect do it for herself.
This is going a step farther than features, benefits discussion. Now we are asking the prospect to tell us why the benefit is important, how they would use the feature and what would happen if they didn't have it.
