Body language is both conscious and unconscious communication through movements and postures by which attitudes and feelings are displayed. By paying attention to these details, any advisor can acquire an advantage during a call.

To make reading body language easy, one of the most basic principles is to categorize gestures into positive or negative domains. Positive body language includes open arms, walking forward, eyes opening wider and displaying more energy.

Negative body language includes folding of arms, being tight-lipped, moving backwards and frowning.

During any sales meeting, an advisor will be able to sense if the sales meeting is going well or not simply by noticing the body gestures.

In this first slide, you see the client in a neutral position and ready to listen to the advisor. If he finds your presentation interesting or intriguing, you will see his body leaning forward as if he wants to come closer to hear you better and not miss anything. This is the best body posture to have during a sales call. [visual]

But part way through the presentation, you see him move from a positive position to an evaluating position. He moves his hands and puts his fingers on his face. [visual]

This means he is beginning to evaluate certain conditions in your proposal. The good news is that you have not lost the case, but the bad news is the body language is showing some negativity, and there is a lot of clarification and explaining to do to move this client out of his evaluation position.

For example, your client seems very interested in your proposal until you mentioned something like, “Mr. Client, do you understand that as a smoker, we will have to levy a slight premium on your policy?” Since he cannot understand why he needs to pay more, he puts his finger on his face and begins to evaluate what you just said. At this juncture, you do not move on to the next point but backtrack and ask the client if he feels it is unfair that he needs to pay more. In almost all cases, the client seeks a clarification on why he needs to pay a premium. That is when you take this great opportunity to clarify your position and win him back again. This technique helps to retrieve and clear up many unanswered questions.

Defensive position

Similarly, perhaps you are presenting a sales proposal and notice that your client suddenly shifted from a neutral position or positive position to a defensive position. He suddenly leans backwards and folds his arm. His facial expression may be frowning or show that he has changed from a positive state to a defensive state. It is because you have mentioned something that causes him to change his attitude towards the sales proposal. Do not proceed with the presentation because he has unanswered questions. Figure out what you have just said and ask him if he has any reservations with that condition in the proposal. You need to clarify his doubts and queries before moving on with the presentation. [visual]

I am done listening to you

If you see your client leaning back in his chair and placing both his arms behind his head, this means that he has already decided to stop listening to you. [visual]

In such a case, you need to change your communication strategy and get him back into the conversation. You can use communication lines like, “Dear Mr. Client, how can I make this sales proposal more attractive for you?” This will get him back into the conversation.

Tight smile

You may have noticed that when some people make eye contact with you, they do not give you a full-blown smile, but instead they give you a tight smile as indicated in the slide.

What do you think this means? [visual]

From the people who display such facial gestures, it means, “I am friendly, but I am not sure if you are.” If I know for sure that you are friendly, I will give you a full-blown smile. When you meet such people, and if you approach them and say hello, they will respond to you in a friendly manner. This is a great tip for advisors as they are constantly looking to expand their network.

Mirroring

Mirroring is a common technique known to sales people where they follow the body language of the client that they are dealing with. For example, if the client leans back onto his chair, the salesperson will follow accordingly. When the client leans forward to communicate, the sales person will reciprocate in the same manner.

This isn’t really mirroring but more of mimicking. My suggestion is that you mirror the personality rather than the actions. Say for example, you meet a quiet and introverted client, you then should mirror the personality. Likewise, if it's a more boisterous individual who speaks loudly, you will reciprocate with the same behavior. Once again, we do not mimic the actions, but we mirror the personality. We do this because people like others who are like themselves.

Red flags

In body language, the more “red flags” you are able to spot, the more conclusive the readings are. Here is a list of red flags that you might like to take note of when you are speaking to an individual.

• Not maintaining eye contact
• Contracted pupils
• Fewer body movements or more body movements
• More self-touching
• Perspiration
• Flushed cheeks (when the conversation doesn’t warrant it)
• Increased blinking
• Hands to mouth, covering it or wiping/rubbing it
• Fingernail biting
• Fake cough
• Nose rubbing
• Eye rubbing or pretending something is in the eye
• Increased swallowing
• Unnecessary facial touching

During a conversation, when the client does one or more of the above signals during the stressful part of the conversation, it can be constituted as a red flag. An example of a stressful part of a conversation is when you are asking probing question to your prospect, e.g., “Are you are smoker?” or “Do you have any existing illness?” He may rub his nose or bite his nails or break eye contact, meaning that he is uncomfortable or has something to hide.

In such an instance, we will take note of the probing question which made him uneasy and return to the questions a little later just to confirm the hunch.

When you return to the same question and you see a similar nervous gesture, you can conclude that that person is being apprehensive over that subject.

Similarly, everything that has just been taught to you on how to read your client could similarly work against you if they have the same ability to read you too. Therefore, be totally aware of your own body language when dealing with a prospect. Always know that any attempt to deceive the client can be picked up by the client. It is best to be an honest, authentic advisor because if you have nothing to hide, then there’s nothing to read.

Christian Chua is an international class business motivator with more than 19 years of professional speaking experience who incorporates good, clean humor in all his presentations. Chua has also authored seven successful books, including the popular “How to Be a Success Magnet” and “The Referability Factor.” As a body-language expert, he is regularly featured in various media including radio, television, magazines and newspapers.