You've got to keep your eyes open to read and look for subtle changes in facial expressions and body language. Whilst multitasking and making eye contact with your customer. This is obvious. The problem with many advisers and people come to think of it is that they stare at the camera. We're so scared of not looking at the lens Continue Reading
You've got to keep your eyes open to read and look for subtle changes in facial expressions and body language. Whilst multitasking and making eye contact with your customer. This is obvious.
The problem with many advisers and people come to think of it is that they stare at the camera. We're so scared of not looking at the lens if our customer doesn't believe we're engaged. This is dangerous so let me re-introduce you to peripheral vision.
My mum, God bless her soul, had a third eye. In the back of her head, she could see what my brothers and I were up to whilst multitasking with the washing up and cooking. This is a metaphor because she didn't have a third eye like Cyclops.
Foveal versus peripheral vision. If you're used to foveal, that's staring, then train yourself to go peripheral. Try this quick exercise.
Imagine a large dot in front of you may be on the far wall. Focus on that dot. Now, try to focus on everything around you without moving your stare. Keep your head still and don't move your eyes but continue to stretch your peripheral vision until you can naturally see 180 degrees from the spot.
Armed with peripheral vision capability, you can now look for leakage. Leakage is when you see a sudden change in the customer's appearance.
Before Lockdown, I was invited to deliver sales training for some clients in Dubai. It was over three days, and I trained over 60 people. Nothing unusual about that but carting 60 sets of workbooks through the skies meant I had to take 2 large suitcases with me, one completely filled with workbooks.
Naturally, I still had two large suitcases on my return journey, again nothing odd there. But if you factor in that I was a businessman in a suit returning from a business trip in Dubai with two huge suitcases, it looks a little out of the ordinary.
The customs official at Heathrow airport thought so too and beckoned me over as I passed through customs. Here comes the suitcase search, I thought, thinking about missing my train home.
He began by asking me some odd questions:
"How are you today, Sir?" – Fine.
"Do these suitcases belong to you?" – Yes (obviously, since I was carrying them).
"Have you been to Dubai on business?" – Yes (obviously, since I was in a suit).
"Was it warm out there?" – Yes (obviously, it's always warm in Dubai).
I soon figured out what he was doing. He observed me closely; looking at my physiology – body language, facial expressions – he studied my signals when I said "yes". I knew what he was going to do next. He would do the same thing with the word "no".
"Did you manage to get any sleep?" – No (obviously – it was a daytime flight of only 6 hours).
"Have you been doing any dangerous sports in Dubai, sir?" – No (good odds that most business meetings in Dubai don't involve bungee jumping)?
"Do you have anything in those cases that shouldn't be there?" – No (this was the truth).
"Off you go then, Sir, and sorry to trouble you". And I left.
He had calibrated my physiology for when I said no and was telling the truth. The body doesn't lie; there's a tell for everything; leakage always shows, and he found it for the word "no", so he didn't even bother to search the case. Clever man.
The police do this, and so do barristers in court.
Remember physiology; there's always a tell for everything you do.
Thankfully I managed to catch my train home, it was a long, arduous journey, and I was keen to get the train, so thank you, NLP calibration, for helping me do this.