Team Alpha 375

The Value of Understanding
Your Customers' Body Language

by Lynda Goldman

Excerpted from Watch and Win More Sales

As a sales professional, you are constantly trying to understand your customers' motives and intentions. Fortunately, your customers are continuously sending you non-verbal signals through their postures, gestures and expressions.

Common body language signals are relatively easy to spot. As you learn to "listen with your eyes" you'll develop a finely tuned ability to interpret your customers' more subtle nonverbal signals and decipher your buyer's hidden thoughts and intentions.

Head & Facial Expressions

The ability to read faces is instinctive. To survive as a species, human beings developed skills to communicate intricate information—everything from transmitting warnings about impending dangers to forming bonds.

We instinctively look for signs, such as a smile or nod, to see if customers are interested in what we are saying. We look into customers' eyes to gauge their level of involvement in the discussion.

The face has an intricate web of muscles that communicate an exquisite range of emotions. Because facial expressions are so important to human interaction, we learn early in life to control what we show on our faces. Customers may put on happy faces or try to keep neutral expressions to mask what they really feel.

Facial expressions are varied and subtle, so it's important to pay particular attention to micro-expressions. Watch for brief flashes of disdain, disgust, or disappointment, or a mismatch with other body signals, such as the prospect smiling, but leaning back and breaking eye contact. These signals override the emotion the prospect wants to portray.

The Neck

The neck is the most vulnerable part of the body, because it is the passageway for food, blood and oxygen and all the nerves concentrated there.

Prospects who tilt their necks are exposing the most vulnerable part of the body. If you see this signal, it means you are being warmly received.

Prospects who touch or cover their necks are signaling that they feel disturbed, confused or threatened. If they tuck in their chins, they're attempting to minimize their exposure, which can indicate a lack of confidence in what they are hearing.

Eye Signals

Have you ever manned a booth at a trade show? You probably made every attempt to catch the eyes of customers who are trolling the aisles. You most likely noticed some customers who marched forward with their eyes straight ahead, studiously avoiding your eye contact. They know that once they meet your gaze, it's almost impossible not to be pulled into the booth and start a conversation.

Eye contact is a fundamental part of connecting with customers and gaining their trust. Without it, communication is almost impossible.

The eyes may be referred to as the "mirrors to the soul," but they also reflect what's happening in the mind. Your ability to persuade and sell depends on your ability to read eye signals accurately.

Prospects who gaze at you directly with wide open eyes are indicating interest and a desire to know more.

Prospects who squint slightly are issuing a warning sign that they have questions or doubts. When their gaze shifts rapidly from one person to another, or they blink, flutter their eyelids or avoid eye contact, they're indicating stress or anxiety.

Eye Accessing Cues

"Eye accessing cues" are one of the most studied forms of nonverbal communication because they are informative, yet largely unconscious.

Eye movement is linked to specific cognitive processes, according to author Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder, who co-founded Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

When people recall information, they look up. Most people look up and to their left to visually recall information, and up and to their right to visually construct information. This relates to sides of the brain, where, broadly stated, the right side handles creativity and feelings, and the left side handles facts and memory.

Observing this behavior will help you decipher if a customer is remembering something that happened, or constructing a story.