The Ultimate Body Language Book

Chapter 14 - Office Body Language
Reading Buy Signals
No matter what your occupation, we are all in the business of selling. If we aren’t selling a particular
product, we’re selling ourselves! Most good salesmen agree that almost every form of sales includes
the selling of oneself and when people buy, they usually buy us and not the merchandise. This is why
it’s important to know when we are on the right track during a sales call. Buying signals include
indicators that tell us that someone is not only ready to buy an item, but can also mean that they are
ready to sign a deal, offer us a job, create a partnership or forge practically any other agreement. Let’s
look at some of the ways we know when someone is about to commit to buying so we can tone down
or stop our pitch altogether in favour of closing out. Pitching passed the point where a decision is made
is always unnecessary, but sometimes even disastrous because we may end up saying something extra
to take them out of the buying mood. So here are the various signals we should watch for during a sales
pitch.
Eye contact: During the pitch process a buyer will sometimes try to feign disinterest (or might actually
be disinterested) but as someone readies to buy, they increase eye contact.
Moving in: Buyers will shrink the distance between them and the seller usually by leaning inward, or if
standing, by moving in closer. Translation – they don’t want the deal to slip away.
Touching the chin: Touching the chin is a powerful signal showing thought, and if seen along with
accompanying buy-signals, closing should be attempted.
Greater relaxation: Tension is heavy during negotiations, but as demands are met and agreements
created, a sudden release of tension from the body indicates that your client is prepared to accept the
deal and is okay with its terms.
Any reversal of these signals, midstream or a lack of buy-signals shows that a buyer is not yet ready to
purchase. With what we have covered throughout this book, it should be obvious from their body
language, the reason they withhold the sale. If possible, addressing concerns as you go through hints in
their body language, but if you miss them and get hung up put the ball in their court by asking them
what needs addressing. This is only a fail-safe tactic since in most cases, as we have seen people give
off plenty of solid clues to negative thought patterns.
Chapter 14 - Office Body Language
Summary – Chapter 14
In this chapter we examined body language as it relates to business. We learned that we can signal the
desire to help in a sales environment without developing friendship by first identifying the type of
consumer they are. There are four types of consumer; they are clients who prefer to help themselves,
the friendly client who is looking to chat and build rapport before deciding on what to buy, the follower
who will want the salesperson to take charge and the dominator who wants to stare clerks down and
remains suspicious of their motives. We also learned ways of dealing with each type of client.
Next we covered how people prefer to orient themselves while speaking and found regional
differences. For example, Americans will speak at forty-five degree angles to each other, but Arabic
cultures will speak so close their faces nearly touch. We then covered handshake techniques and types