How many times has your sales prospect invited you to sit when you entered his office and you wondered with a tinge of hesitancy which of several chairs to choose? The one directly opposite his desk? The chair beside it? Does it matter?

Or how about the vague uneasiness you’ve felt when, even though the prospect is smiling, there’s something tense in the air which suggests our pitch is running off track? It is just your imagination or is something going wrong?

If you chose the most advantageous chairt – the one beside the desk – you’d actually be in a much better position to know what’s concealed behind the prospect’s smile. But what’s more important, you would know whether your presentation really is on track and what you can do if it isn’t.

Unfortunately, most salespeople aren’t trained in nonverbal communication, so they miss precious opportunities to make a sale.

In fact, scientific research suggests that people communicate just 7 percent of their feelings and attitudes with words, 38 percent with their tone of voice, and a whopping 55 percent through nonverbal signals.

Salespeople who are sensitive to nonverbal cues can read those signals almost like a traffic light.

“Green signals” tell them that the prospect is open and to proceed with the peace and direction of the presentation.

“Yellow signals” indicate the seller is losing the prospect and that it’s time to re-engage him with questions about his interest and needs.

“Red signals” warn the seller to stop and redirect the approach because the buyer has just about been lost.

Those “traffic signals” also indicate how the salesperson must act to be sure he isn’t communicating negative nonverbal messages (“yellow” or “red”) to the buyer.

READ BEYOND THE SMILE

Although the face is the most obvious channel of nonverbal communication, research has found that many buyers can hide their true feelings behind a friendly face.

To identify the buyer’s true attitude, the seller must examine additional nonverbal channels such as hands, legs, arms, body angle and eye contact. For that reason, the chair beside the desk is the best choice, so the buyer cannot hide negative nonverbal cues and the seller can respond effectively to the buyer’s true feelings.

Only a few buyers can hide their feelings or attitudes in their hand gestures. Open and relaxed hands, for example, are a valuable green signal indicating that the sale is progressing well. Open and relaxed arms, uncrossed legs and a body angle directed toward the salesperson are also important green signals.

Green signals between seller and buyer tend to reinforce each other, putting both at ease, and move the discussion toward a successful close.

But what if the buyer’s hands, for example, don’t match the openness implied by a friendly facial expression and instead are clasped or closed?

That’s a common yellow signal, as is a closed posture or a body angle turned away from the salesperson. Inattentiveness to yellow signals puts obvious obstacles in the way of the sale. What’s worse, they can negatively influence the salesperson’s attitude, thus reinforcing the buyer’s negative feelings. Charging ahead, as if yellow signals were green, risks pushing the buyer to communicate red and may result in losing the sale. Indeed, yellow signals indicate the most critical part of a sales presentation. They appear, for example, when the buyer is wary, aggressive, frustrated, tense or doubtful. Those feelings can be communicated in many different ways and each prospect adds his individual character to them.

The causes and meanings behind those negative attitudes may in fact be quite different, depending on the situation and the customer’s personality. That is why there’s little value gained by attempting to psychoanalyze the meaning of what the buyer expresses behind thousands of individual gestures. (There are more than 5,000 hand gestures alone!) The salesperson need only know that the buyer has posted a warning and is signaling an obstacle preventing open communication.

If the warning is ignored, the buyer may soon express a red signal and it may be too late to recover.

RECOVERY TACTICS

Hence, the salesperson must respond to yellow signals early and turn them back to green. No matter what the specific reason behind the yellow signal, the seller’s best move is to relax and express green signals. Certainly, the salesperson must avoid giving out negative signals which imply “don’t buy from me.”

In addition, the salesperson must use “open questions” to draw out the buyer’s real feelings. Like the underwater part of an iceberg, they hide beneath nonverbal expressions. One might ask the buyer, for example, “I’d like to get your objective opinion on this; how do you think our product will help you with your production?”

Open questions give the buyer a chance to open up and express his concern. The salesperson’s open posture, a green signal, combined with the open question can bring the presentation quickly on track.

If, however, the buyer slips into red signals, the salesperson must stop and redirect the presentation. Salespeople can recognize red signals by observing the buyer’s increased aggressiveness or progressive withdrawal.

The first recovery step is to communicate understanding of the buyer’s negative attitude. The prospect must hear and see that the seller is fully aware of the red signal.

The second step is to redirect attention to the main advantages of the sales proposal. Again, green signals from the salesperson will positively influence the buyer.

Of course, the best way to handle red is prevention at the yellow stage. The seller’s strategy has to constantly monitor the buyer’s face, hands, arms, legs and overall body posture – all nonverbal communication channels – throughout the call.

GOING ON THE GREEN

The buyer must be influenced to express green signals, because only then can the actual product presentation meet a receptive mind. Indeed, the buyer may not start by showing green signals at the beginning of a call. That means the salesperson’s first tactic is to use open questions designed to elicit the buyer’s real feelings long before the actual product presentation begins.

During the early stage of the sales call, it is especially important to scan the buyer’s nonverbal expressions. Once the traffic light turns green, the product can be presented. As long as it stays green, the sale can move toward a successful close.

SPECIAL YELLOWS

Many salespeople seem to forget that their failure to maintain eye contact at strategic moments of the call can amount to self-defeating communication. For example, when describing the technical characteristics of the product, seller and buyer both naturally direct their eyes to the product itself, a brochure, specification sheet, etc.

But in stressing the benefit – what the product means to the customer – eye contact is essential. Without it, the negative message conveyed neutralizes the benefit and the prospect may conclude that the salesperson is not quite convinced of his own presentation.

Similarly averted eyes, distracted behavior or other yellow signals from the salesperson in response to the prospect’s verbal objections imply that the prospect has hit upon the seller’s weakness, catching him flatfooted. Sadly, the thousands of selling situations we’ve studied on videotape indicate that most salespeople reveal negative nonverbal reactions when prospects raise an objection. The yellow signals so produced outweigh even the most unperturbed verbal reply.

Some yellow signals on the part of the salesperson are simply the product of oversight. But others may be caused by fundamental differences between buyer and seller. Oversights such as poor appearance, poor call preparation or other negative nonverbal expressions, can be easily corrected. Interestingly, even the salesperson’s briefcase, if incorrectly handled, can arouse a buyer’s negative reaction. The best place for a salesperson to put it is on the floor. Holding it expresses insecurity and the need for protection. Placing it on the next chair could be interpreted by the buyer as invasion of his turf.

More fundamental differences between seller and buyer such as differences in age, sex, race or culture can create obstacles which are not overcome easily. Research indicates that age differences of more than 10 years can lead to strong nonverbal negatives such as tension signals on the part of the younger person anxious to prove competence and withdrawal on the part of the older person. The salesperson who fails to counteract these negative nonverbal signals propels the presentation quickly into the red zone.

The most difficult obstacles can occur when selling to the opposite sex. Salespeople are advised to avoid gestures which may be traditional in other settings, but which inhibit a professional selling job. A woman’s preening gestures, for example, or a man’s aggressive posture or expressions of seductiveness are strong negatives that can quickly lead to a stall. The key is in balancing friendliness with a firm but businesslike attitude.

Understanding the traffic signals of nonverbal expressions can facilitate the selling task tremendously. By paying close attention to the buyer’s nonverbal communication channels one can quickly sense a negative undercurrent and counteract with green signals and open questions – before the buyer’s attitude hardens and the sale is lost. Once salespeople become aware that it’s their own ability to communicate green signals to the buyer which will lead to the order, they’ll have a more positive attitude toward their jobs and themselves.