people matters
Can You Spot
The Clues?
David Esler
Principal
Kaizen Executive
D
id you know that in the first 90
seconds of meeting with a customer
you could send or receive up to
10,000 clues on how the discussion will
proceed, how you or your customer is feeling
on that particular day or whether you will
engage in a productive discussion? Can you
spot the clues or, even more importantly, are
you aware of them at all?
In my last two articles, I have talked about
the art of successful selling being connected
to asking the right questions at exactly the
right time, then listening to the answers and
being able to identify with the type of buyer
you are dealing with and what they might be
looking to gain from you. In selling, as I have
said before, knowledge and understanding
brings insight and allows you to know and
address what your customer is looking for
and to provide the right solutions. In selling,
apart from questioning and listening, there is
a third aspect that must not be ignored; the
clues that our customers send to us every
day!
Now, I can hear your thoughts, ‘What is
this guy on about? Clues? My customers
don’t give me any clues as to what they
might be thinking or going to do. I don’t play
‘Charades’ with my customers when I visit.’
But actually you do. You just may not be
aware of it. The well known American expert
on body language, Patti Woods, puts it so
well: It’s the ‘silent sell’ that we must be in
touch with. The clues of unspoken intention,
more commonly known as body language.
I am sure that you have all heard of body
language, but were you aware of these
statistics? According to current sales
research:
• 55 per cent of your customer’s
impressions of you come from your
body language and the image you present
in less than 90 seconds after you meet
them.
For more information, contact David on 0420 905 580 or visit his website at www.kaizenexec.com.au
14 Australian Window Association Autumn 2015
• 38 per cent of the communication
message comes from the tones and pitch
you use in your voice.
• 7 per cent of our message or meaning is
conveyed by the use of words.
So, what does this mean? Put simply, before
you even get comfortable in your chair, you
could make or break the sale in that first 10
to 90 seconds and not even be aware of it.
Having spent so long working with sales
professionals, both in the board room
and out in the field, I have seen the more
successful ones connect the dots by asking
the right questions, listening to the answers
and, more importantly, watching their
customer and looking for the clues that they
are sending but not saying.
Simple clues might be: