AtlantaEvent.com NewsFlash Feb. 08

Actions Speak Louder Than Words - By John Boe

The 1960 Presidential Debates between Vice President Nixon and Senator Kennedy were the first nationally televised debates in presidential campaign history. With the advent of television the debates took on a visual dimension and for the first time, 70 million voters were given the opportunity to not only hear the candidates, but to visually compare them as well.

Surprisingly, opinion polls revealed a sharp contrast between the voters who had actually watched the debates on TV versus those who had merely listened to them on the radio. While radio listeners clearly thought that Nixon had won the first debate, television viewers were captivated by Kennedy's smile, charm and athletic appearance.

The majority of viewers interviewed reported that Nixon's five- o'clock shadow and darting eyes made him appear sinister and far less presidential than Senator Kennedy. The television cameras underscored the significance of nonverbal communication and forever changed the political landscape.

Are You Missing Your Prospect's "Buy Signals?"

Think about the tremendous advantage you would have as a baseball manager if you knew the opposing team's signals and were able to anticipate their game plan. For example, suppose you knew in advance that the other team was planning to steal second base. Obviously, your team would have a competitive edge because you would be able to adjust your strategy as necessary. Likewise, as a professional salesperson, you would be wise to monitor your prospect's body language and adjust your presentation accordingly. By reading your prospect's gestures you will minimize perceived sales pressure and know when it's appropriate to close the sale.

In 1872, Charles Darwin published the book "The Expressions in Man and Animals" and launched the modern study of nonverbal communication. Essentially, body language is a mixture of movement, posture and tone of voice. The good news about this subject is that your subconscious mind already understands the meaning of every gesture, posture and voice inflection. The bad news is, without the proper training you are unable to consciously apply this information during your client appointments.

Top salespeople and the most successful managers recognize the importance of nonverbal communication in the selling process and have learned to "listen with their eyes." They understand that one of the easiest and most effective ways to close sales is to be aware of their prospect's "buy signals." In addition to monitoring your prospect's body language, it's important to be mindful of your own gestures and keep them positive. Remember to unfold your arms, uncross your legs, nod your head in agreement and smile frequently.

The study of nonverbal communication is similar to learning a foreign language in that it requires time and effort to achieve fluency. Acquiring this important skill will allow you to communicate more effectively, read your prospect like a book and close more sales in less time.

Build Trust and Rapport

Matching and mirroring your prospect's body language gestures is unconscious mimicry. It is a way of subconsciously telling another that you like them and agree with them. The next time you are at a social event, notice how many people are subconsciously matching one another. Likewise, when people disagree they subconsciously mismatch their body language gestures. The psychological principle behind matching and mirroring is that people want to do business
with salespeople that they believe are similar to them.

You can build trust and rapport by deliberately, but subtly, matching your prospect's body language in the first fifteen minutes of the appointment. For example, if you notice that your prospect is crossing their arms, subtly cross your arms to match them. After you believe you have developed trust and rapport, verify it by seeing if your prospect will match you. Uncross your arms and see if your prospect will match and mirror you as you move into a more open posture.

If you notice your prospect subconsciously matching your body language gestures, congratulations, this indicates that you have developed trust and rapport. Conversely, if you notice your prospect mismatching your body language gestures, you know trust and rapport has not been established and you need to continue matching and mirroring them.

Body Language Quiz

If you're a manager, consider using this quiz at your next training meeting to assess your sales team's current level of expertise. When sitting in on a sales appointment with your sales rep, be sure to incorporate nonverbal communications feedback in your critique.

Do you have a working knowledge of body language? See how many of the eight questions you can answer.

1. What emotion is associated with the "palm to chest" gesture?

A. Superiority
B. Critical judgment
C. Sincerity
D. Confidence

2. What is the meaning of the "thumb under the chin" gesture?

A. Deceit
B. Boredom
C. Anxiety
D. Critical judgment

3. What nonverbal message is conveyed with the "chin rub" gesture?

A. Decision
B. Deceit
C. Control
D. None of the above

4. What does it mean when a person rubs his or her nose?

A. Superiority
B. Anticipation
C. Dislike
D. Anger

5. What message is conveyed when a person touches his or her eyeglasses to their lips?

A. Interest
B. Stalling
C. Disbelief
D. Impatience

6.When a person looks over the top of his or her eyeglasses, what message are they sending?

A. Contempt
B. Distrust
C. Scrutiny
D. Suspicion

7. What is the impact of nonverbal communication in a face-to-face conversation?

A. 20%
B. 40%
C. 70%
D. 85%

8. Which of the following gestures is/are associated with lying?

A. Talking through fingers
B. Eye rub
C. Ear rub
D. Lack of direct eye contact
E. All of the above

Quiz Answer Key

1. (C) The palm to chest gesture indicates sincerity.

2. (D) The thumb under the chin gesture indicates critical judgment and a negative attitude. A good way to get your
prospect to drop this gesture is to hand them something.

3. (A) The chin rub gesture indicates decision. When you see this gesture, avoid the temptation to interrupt. If the gestures that follow chin stoking are positive, ask for the order.

4. (C) When someone rubs his or her nose it's an indication that they don't like the subject. When you see this gesture you would be wise to probe with open-ended questions to draw out your customer's concern.

5. (B) When someone touches his or her eyeglasses to their lips it signals that they're stalling or delaying a decision. If they put their glasses back on, it's a buy signal. If they put them away, you have more work to do.

6. (C) When a person looks over his or her eyeglasses it indicates judgment and scrutiny.

7. (C) Research indicates over 70 percent of our communication is achieved nonverbally. In addition, studies show that nonverbal communication has a much greater reliability than the spoken word. Therefore, you would be wise to rely on body language as a more accurate reflection of a person's true feelings.

8. (E) All of the above. The statue of the Three Wise Monkeys accurately depicts the three primary hand-to-face gestures
associated with deceit. See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.

While you may not be called upon to participate in a presidential debate or manage a baseball team, you need to be able to recognize your prospect's "buy signals." By gaining a working understanding of nonverbal communication, you will be able to reduce sales pressure, build rapport quickly and dramatically increase your sales effectiveness!

© Copyright 2008 - John Boe International - John Boe presents a wide variety of motivational and sales-oriented keynotes and seminar programs for sales meetings and conventions. John is a nationally recognized sales trainer and business motivational speaker with an impeccable track record in the meeting industry. To have John speak at your next event, visit www.johnboe.com or call 877 725-3750. Free Newsletter available on website.

Have you ever found yourself knowing exactly what you need to do about marketing your business... and then not doing it? You are not alone. Many self-employed professionals find that the hardest part of marketing isn't figuring out what to do. What's hard is actually doing it.

Marketing yourself can be a confronting process. Making phone calls to strangers, writing marketing letters, and talking about yourself and your accomplishments can bring up fear of rejection, harsh commentary from your inner critic, feelings of incompetence, and the discomfort of performing unfamiliar activities. If you let them, these inner saboteurs can stop you dead in your tracks.

The good news is that you don't have to completely eliminate these internal roadblocks in order to move forward in marketing. It is possible to feel afraid or uncomfortable and still take useful action despite the presence of these feelings. Here are ten ways to quickly break through internal barriers and get your marketing unstuck.

1. Recreate your vision. When you're feeling blocked from moving forward, remember why you wanted to go there in the first place. What was your original vision of the business you are trying to build? Who will your work benefit? What fulfillment or satisfaction will it provide you? Write down your vision of a successful business, or if you've written it down before, pull it out and re-read it. Allow your own words to re-inspire you to do the necessary hard work.

2. Design a reward. Sometimes your vision may seem a bit too far off, and you need some more immediate gratification. Choosing to reward yourself for a job well done can provide you with a positive near-term benefit for effort that might not pay off for a while. Promise yourself simple rewards for completing difficult marketing chores like making follow-up calls or writing web site copy.

The prospect of a special dinner, a movie with your significant other, or a new gadget for your favorite hobby can help you to push past the blocks and get things done. Rewards don't even have to cost money. Sometimes the promise of a bubble bath, walk in the park, or an hour reading a good book is all the incentive you need to take on a tough marketing challenge.

3. Tame the inner critic. Often when you're feeling stuck, what's going on in your head is a conversation with your inner critic, who seems to have a lot to say about sales and marketing. It's difficult to work on promoting yourself when you are hearing a constant stream of comments like: "You're not good enough," "They won't like you," or "Who do you think you are?"

It can help to remember that the inner critic often says things that simply aren't true. One way to counter this negative dialogue is to respond with the objective truth. For example: "Clients tell me I'm good at what I do," "Many people say they like me quite a bit," or "I'm a competent professional, thank you very much." When you answer confidently with statements of fact, messages from the inner critic often begin to lose their power.

4. Face your fear. One of the most common obstacles to being successful at marketing is fear. Marketing activities may evoke fears of rejection, disapproval, embarrassment, and a host of other catastrophes. Instead of pretending the fear isn't there, or attempting to ignore it, you may find it more effective to confront the fear directly.

Try to identify exactly what you are afraid of. What do you fear will happen if you make that call or go to that meeting? If you can identify the specific fear that is blocking you, it may be possible to soothe it by providing reassuring information or positive experience. For example, fear of rejection can often be lessened by setting up practice selling sessions where a role-playing partner responds with "yes" to every suggestion you make.

5. Get a pep talk. When you become discouraged, don't be afraid to ask for outside help to cheer up and start feeling positive again. Ask a friend, colleague, networking group member, or your coach to give you some words of encouragement. Sometimes all you need to hear is: "It was tough for me in the beginning too... Eventually my efforts paid off... You're doing all the right things... I know you can do it!"

6. Complain and clear. Feeling frustrated and negative can sometimes immobilize you. One method of clearing negative thoughts is to voice what you are experiencing to a caring person. Spend a full five minutes complaining about everything that's going wrong with your marketing, making sure to say exactly how it makes you feel. Then ask your listener to reflect your feelings back to you. Knowing that someone else hears and understands you may be all you need to let go of a negative attitude and get back to work.

7. Read your fan mail. In the regular course of serving your clients, you've probably received thank-you notes, grateful voice mail messages, and other evidence that you're doing a good job. Make a habit of saving these in a "fan mail" folder, and when you are feeling low, revisit all the nice things people have said about you. Remembering what a good job you do when you are working can encourage you to do the necessary marketing to get more work.

8. Quit; then start fresh. There may be days when you feel discouraged enough to just throw in the towel. Maybe you should do it. The act of quitting can be very cathartic. Proclaim: "I quit!" Perhaps even write yourself a resignation letter. Then take off the rest of the day, and don't even think about work. It's a good bet that after you have a chance to blow off some steam, you'll be ready to come back the following day re-energized.

9. Change the scene. Marketing can feel difficult and lonely when you're always slaving away by yourself in your home office. Try carrying out some of your challenging marketing tasks from a different location or with some company. Make cold calls from the patio, write a marketing letter in a busy coffee shop, or take turns with a colleague helping each other set up a good contact management system. Seeing a different view or enjoying companionship while you work may help you to complete tasks you have been avoiding.

10. Act as if. Whenever you feel incompetent about some area of marketing, you may be able to tackle those activities anyway if you simply try to act as if you were competent. Try playing the role of someone you admire. For example, what if you were Lauren Bacall? How would she make a follow-up call? Or how about if you were Martin Luther King? How would he introduce himself in front of a group? A short time pretending to be someone you think of as confident and capable can make those qualities rub off on you.

The next time your marketing feels stuck, try one of these methods to help you get back into action quickly. Marketing tasks are really only as hard as you think they are, so if you can find an easy way out, why not take it?

Copyright C 2008, C.J. Hayden

=====

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients Now! Thousands of business owners and salespeople have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of "Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You'll Ever Need" at http://www.getclientsnow.com