Reading Body Language in Sales

This article will not be like any article that you have read anywhere because of the nature of the information it contains. After years of studying body language, I extracted the best applicable parts of that science. I discarded the inferior advice found in many places, and so the result was developing the most powerful body language section on the web.

Body language enables you to read the emotions of the person you are talking to with an accuracy that is close to 100%.

You might be thinking that you don’t need to read an article about sales because you are not a salesperson, but in fact, that’s a common misconception. To become successful, you will need to sell yourself and your skills in many places even if you are not a salesperson.

For example, When trying to get a job, you will need to know how to sell your skills; when trying to attract someone, you need to know how to sell your real value and so on.

Body Language Gestures and Sales

If you felt that you need more explanation of any body language gesture, make sure you visit the body language section. There you will find lots of articles covering everything in detail.

• Negative Evaluation: Touching the nose or scratching it is called “the negative evaluation gesture.” when someone does it, then it means that he didn’t like what he just heard. If, for example, you told a person that your product costs 500 USD and at the same moment he took this gesture, then be sure that he didn’t like the price. Talking further about the price will definitely result in losing the sale so instead, talk about the value he will get. So whenever you see this gesture while talking, change the point you are talking about and shift to another.
• Positive Evaluation: Positive evaluation is the opposite of negative evaluation, and it happens when the person likes something. The gesture can take many forms, like rubbing his eyebrows, scratching them, scratching the part of the forehead just above the eyebrows, or pushing his glasses back in place. For example, if you told your customer that your product costs 500 USD, he took the positive evaluation gesture and made sure that he liked the price. Before leaving, tell him that he won’t find such a price anywhere, and this will really impress him because this is already his opinion.
• The defensive Position: This is the most famous body language gesture. It is recognized by folding the arms and is sometimes accompanied by crossing the legs. The defensive position is taken when the person becomes offended or when he is not comfortable (you should use common sense to differentiate between both cases). What if you told your customer that the warranty for your product is one year, then he immediately crossed his arms? This means that he got offended when he knew about this fact. Whenever someone takes the defensive position while you are talking to him, try to be more flexible.
• Tilted Head: A tilted head means that the person is interested in what he is listening to. If your customer was tilting his head while listening to you, keep talking because he is already interested.
• Confidence: Clasping hands behind the back or in front of the body reflects confidence. If the customer took any of these confidence positions while trying to sell him something, you should avoid debates because he knows a lot about that topic. In such a case, Change the topic or the point you are talking about until he rereleases his hand.
• Orientation: If you found that the customer is not facing you directly (his shoulders are not parallel to yours), then he may be wanting to leave, or he may be in a hurry.
• Evaluation: If the customer started touching his chin, then this means that he is evaluating what are you saying, keep talking; you are about to convince him
• Hands-On mouth: Hiding the mouth with one hand reflects doubt. Your customer needs reassurance for him to be convinced.
• Rapport Building: Hundreds of websites recommend establishing rapport without telling you what it is or without giving you adequate information about it. Rapport building is a big topic that can boost your sales.

Final Words

Body language can help you boost your ability to sell a product if you understood it well; I strongly recommend reading more about body language before using it to raise the accuracy of your guesses and increase your sales.