I’m on a flight right now as I write and the steward has enormously animated facial expressions so I match them and we’re getting on fine.
I think though we’re reluctant to look at the face as much as we ought to. With the advent of video technology allowing us to commonly communicate to each other with video screens, the emphasis on the face is only going to increase.
By reading the expressions, the movements, the micro expressions we can learn more about what the customer is really thinking than traditional body language which focuses on gestures and voice.
The problem is that we’re brought up not to look at the face too much, it’s a sign of rudeness, so we need to get over this.
My message today is to learn to focus more on people’s faces when we communicate and that way we can open the doors to a better understanding of facial expressions. Start the next time, you do a video conference.
Believe me; this will become a number one skill in the future for face to face salespeople.
Only when we become comfortable in looking at people’s faces in more detail can we master the art of interpreting micro-expressions, but that’s for another day.
