On holiday this year I read the book “Fifty Shades of Grey” just to see what all the fuss was about and so I could keep up with conversations about the characters Christian and Anastasia.
Christian, the hero of the book, is particularly good at observing people especially facial expressions and signals. He notices early on that Anastasia bites her lower lip when she meets him. He finds this enticing.
Don’t worry this is not an X rated article. Read on and I’ll explain how this can help you in sales and coaching.
Not a lot of people know this but when someone gets interested, energized, an emotional state of excited motivation, blood rushes to the lower lip slightly engorging it. You can see this because the lines disappear as the lip fills.
Now if your customer did this, it’s a great buying signal. Christian read it as such too. I’d be wanting to close my customer and ask for the business at this point.
This is one example of calibrating your customer and observing those tiny changes in the face. The reddening of cheeks, the eyes, the lips, furrowed brow. Seasoned salespeople read these signs instinctively, others must learn to.
When you meet your customer, calibrate their face and then spot the subtle changes and act upon them. Reading body language is not so important as being able to read the face.
With the rise of Skype based video communications, Google Hangouts, we should become acutely aware of these facial signals.
It’s a good book by the way but make sure you read it on your Kindle – that way no one knows what you’re reading. After all a man shouldn’t be seen reading that!
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