Just how important is nonverbal communication? Psychologist Dr. Albert Mehrabian of UCLA, who has studied this science for more than 10 years, reports that people express 55 percent of their feelings and attitudes through nonverbal signals. A total of 38 percent are expressed through tone of voice. Words are used to convey only 7 percent of our meaning.

The conclusion is evident: Salespeople do not merely present a message – they are the message. To assure success in selling, we must enhance our verbal sales presentation with positive nonverbal signals. Even more important, we must be able to read and react to the prospect’s unspoken messages.

Obviously, it would be impossible to observe and interpret all of the prospect’s nonverbal signals; therefore, we will focus our attention on the five major nonverbal communications channels:

1. The face:

Most salespeople attempt to read the buyer’s emotions by observing the face only. This common practice may cost you dearly. Studies have shown that facial muscles respond well to voluntary control; therefore, the face is not always a reliable indicator for reading the buyer’s true emotions. Many times the buyer can mislead you by hiding his feelings behind a friendly mask. Fortunately, there are additional nonverbal communication channels that do not respond as well to the buyer’s will. These are the ones that will reveal his true attitude.

2. The arms:

While the face can communicate many subtleties, arms indicate to you whether the buyer’s general attitude is open or closed. Crossed arms signal caution; you may have to take steps to give the buyer an opportunity to "open up." Remember not to judge your buyer’s attitude by limiting your observations to one nonverbal communication channel. Review all five nonverbal channels prior to developing an appropriate (verbal or nonverbal) response.

3. The hands:

The above hand gesture, steepling, reveals feelings of superiority. Hands may express tension (self-touching), aggression (fists), guardedness (clasped hands), etc. Researchers have catalogued over 5,000 hand gestures alone. It would not be practical to learn all these to enhance your chances for success in selling, but you’ll gain a slight edge on the buyer by knowing that:

a) open and relaxed hands are a positive selling signal.

b) involuntary hand gestures and movements will give you a more accurate reading of the buyer’s true emotions than his face. (Example: a friendly face and tightly clasped hands indicate that the buyer is concealing his guardedness by his friendly facial expression, but is revealing himself to you with his hand gestures.

c) self-touching gestures (examples: hands on chin, ear, nose, arm, etc.) communicate tension. You need to create an opportunity for the buyer to air his feelings. (Use of open questions is a good counter-measure.)

4. The legs:

In this situation, buyer and seller crossed their legs towards each other. Remember, if the buyer’s legs are uncrossed or crossed towards you, they are communicating an open attitude toward you and your sales presentation. Should you see your buyer’s legs crossed away from you (and should you notice negative signals communicated in another channel), you must take steps to regain the buyer’s positive attitude. Remember that your own nonverbal expressions must be positive in order to obtain a favorable response from your buyer.

5. Body angle:

Our bodies reveal our inclinations toward or against others. In the above situation, the buyer (right) is leaning away from the seller (left). The buyer’s facial expression and his crossed arms and legs communicate negative feelings about the seller (or the selling proposal). The seller’s words and gestures may well have contributed to the buyer’s defensive attitude.

Psychologically, the prospect has, at this point, mastered the sales rep who probably is not aware of his self-defeating nonverbal messages.

How can you help your salespeople to read their prospect’s nonverbal messages more accurately?

In training over 6,000 salespeople in many different industries, we found that the key to understanding the buyer lies in understanding one’s own nonverbal expressions.

Salespeople who do a poor job in reading their buyers are usually unaware how their own body messages contradict their spoken words. Since the awareness of one’s body language depends on objective feedback through others, the poor sales rep cannot improve his performance without professional sales training methods.

Tests have proved that the traditional show-and-tell approach often fails and sometimes even increases the sales rep’s difficulties.

Now there is "The Languages of Selling," a complete audio-visual sales training course, containing effective role-play exercises to help sales reps gradually become aware of their strengths and of the areas that need change. The ego investment in these exercises and the objective appraisal provided by his peers, often contribute to a fundamental change leading to higher sales and greater professional satisfaction.