Brian Sullivan
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Projecting Positive
How your body language can affect your customers.
Many sales books talk about the importance of being able to read body language during a sales call, and this is no doubt an important part of selling. However, you as a salesperson have some control over what body language your customer is speaking.
Several years ago I was sightseeing in Barcelona, Spain, and my friend and I decided to go to the zoo. Naturally, I wandered to my favorite section, the primates. Monkeys and apes just crack me up, and this day was no exception. While my friend was off at the restroom, I casually strolled over to the area where the monkeys were. Even a novice can see that monkeys are a lot like salespeople and sales managers. You have your lazy mopes that just lay around picking bugs out of their hair. You have others that run from tree to tree indiscriminately with no real focus (time management problems). You have ones that erratically scream and yell at the smaller monkeys around them (the micro-managers). And then you have the ones that are just plain hilarious.
This day was no different. As I pressed my face up against the glass to get a better look, one "funny" monkey approached the glass from his side and looked right into my eyes. I looked over my shoulder to see if anybody was watching. The coast was clear, so I then turned back around and gave the monkey a comical face. (The kind of face you sometimes make in the hotel mirror for no apparent reason.) After I curled my lips up and stuck my tongue out, I watched as the monkey not only did what I did, he topped me. Let me tell you, Jim Carrey had nothing on that monkey. He could do things with his face that I had never seen.
I then completely lost it. I curled my arms into a HULK-like pose and continued to scratch my armpits while blurting out the traditional monkey call .... EEE, EEE, EEE. Now, I had never actually seen a monkey do this, but I know as a kid I did it all the time, so I had to have picked it up from some credible source. Well, this monkey followed my lead and began scratching under his armpits. He then repeated everything I did. There was a definite game of "Monkey See, Monkey Do" going on here.
He mimicked me for about two minutes until it became apparent that he wanted to lead the exercise. However, I grew uncomfortable with where my new monkey friend began scratching himself. Had I followed his lead, I no doubt would have been spending my evening trying to explain to the Barcelona police that I was not a predator. Just as I turned around, there was an elderly woman that had obviously been watching us, and what a moment that was. I not only felt embarrassed about what I was doing, I felt like my grandmother just caught me playing with the neighborhood problem child.
Projecting onto customers
We project our body language and facial expressions onto our customer. While I do not feel comfortable comparing your customers to monkeys, I will. If you find yourself eye to eye with the monkey, be aware that the language your body and mouth are speaking will have an affect on how that monkey reacts. If you show little excitement about your product or service, then your customer will show little excitement. If your lip curls up and your eyebrows drop down because you are confused about your product, your customer will appear confused. If you shrug your shoulders because you cannot answer your customer’s question, your customer will shrug his shoulders when you ask for the order.
Project positive body and facial language and your customer will follow. The fuel to projecting positive body language is confidence. Confidence comes from knowing what the heck you’re doing. By this I mean, knowing your product, industry and competition better than anybody. By this I also mean knowing exactly what you are going to do when you walk into that office. I call this being PRECISE! So this month, do something to increase your knowledge, and as your confidence levels soar, so too will your body language.
Oh, and don’t ever egg on a monkey, you just might end up in jail! [FI]
Excerpts taken from Brian Sullivan’s book, "20 Days to the Top - How the PRECISE Selling Formula Will Make You Your Company’s Top Sales Performer in 20 Days or Less."
Brian Sullivan is a member of the National Speakers Association and an internationally known expert on sales and leadership. He delivers high-energy, no-nonsense, interactive seminars on his PRECISE Selling Formula to companies looking to become famous in their industry. He is the author of the book "20 Days to the Top- How the PRECISE Selling Formula Will Make You Your Company’s Top Sales Performer in 20 Days or Less."
To learn more, go to www.preciseselling.com.
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