Micro expressions and body language

Is it useful in selling?

YES. Is it a psuedo-science, NO, and yes in some quarters.

Supposedly the hand shake originated as a way to pass strangers on the road, by holding each other's hand, it prevented a going for the weapon.

PTSD is a condition most often brought on by a terrifying event, which is the first and classic definition of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a trauma occurs. But if that trauma takes place when in a constant state of hyperarousal, the fight/flight response, then the trauma may get further dug deeper, quicker, into neural pathways.

Hyperarousal is a state of mind which increases the energy, often with negative results.

Hypervigilant is being ALERT to danger.

Hyper Awareness is usually turned inward. OK, OK...

There is a different and opposite state of mind. Tranquility. Calmness. The eye of the typhoon.

I began with the negative effects because we are aware of them and can clearly see the effects they have on people. We probably all know someone in one of the above categories.

In the ancient days, where the handshake began, we remained on ALERT for longer periods of time, danger lurked all around. This has been hard wired into us, and anyone who has had the hair on the back of their neck stand up knows the feeling.

Selling is hardly combat. But early psychologies of selling treated it as combat. A war of the minds. A beating down resistance, an overcoming of objections.

Even today, there is residual ideas of winning in a sales situation. If you make the sale, you are a winner, if not, you are the loser.

Just as in nature, when we sense danger, our automatic systems turn on, there is a similar reaction AS SOON AS the prospect realizes they are being sold too.

When it is no longer conversation, and the questions are no longer benign, they get recognized as "going for the weapon".

And any good sales person, and almost all new ones, can sense when that moment happens. Scripts are written with little arrows drawn, so there is a READY reply to the moment of being sold something gets recognized (all too often, "I'm not trying to sell you anything")

To your point.

Yes. Micro movements, keys, ticks, body language big and small are available to be used against a resistant target, the catch is, when implementing them toward your goal, a sale, there are defenses which counter.

It takes training, and the key is AWARENESS. And being able to read people works for stage magicians, astrologers, Tarot card readers and any number of people who have studied human behavior.

It actually is a natural, hard wired ability to "feel people out" when we meet them, and that is the so called first impression.

Sorry to run around the bush, but the short and sweet answer is, YES, reading body languages can be a boon to a trained sales person.

GordonJ

PS Many years ago I wrote a report, COSMIC GAZE, which detailed the methods for doing this, centered around the concept of Total Conscious Awareness. I quickly took it off the market, when I realized one of the gurus of picking up women had ordered a copy. I learned a lesson, anyhow, there are those who use these weapons of influence on us on a daily basis.

This may be hard for some to accept.

Yes, reading mico-movements is real. Yes, everyone does it. Women are a bit better at it than men, especially in recognizing small facial changes.

But the mind readers that use micro-movements to tell what you are thinking?

It's a trick. They are telling you that they are reading the person's micro-movements, because that is the trick.....convincing you that that is how it's done.

No. It has nothing to do with reading micro-movements. In most cases, an assistant is in the audience, or the mind reader has foreknowledge.

The trick of knowing which hand something is in can be done by seeing the slight whiteness around the knuckles, compared to the other hand.

Darren Brown is famous for using his observation of micro-movements to give answers that astound people. But none of it is by using micro-movements. THAT is the illusion. The reality is that the situation is set up in advance, almost always using confederates.

In selling? A person gives away their intentions and interests by tone of voice, rate of speech, and changes in body language. But it's not an exact science.

Even after 40 years of study and selling, I can only tell when someone is becoming more interested, or less interested by watching micro-movements. If it were on video, and slowed down, maybe more could be seen.


On a related subject, you can cause a person to react a certain way by using your own body language and micro-movements.....although I exaggerate them slightly, so they will be picked up. Like stage acting, instead of acting on film. You can convey lots of meaning with a nearly invisible gesture, or facial expression.

The actor Robert Redford was reading a script with lots of dialog. He crossed out most of the lines. He told the director "I can say all of that with a look".. Yup.

Kanigan is right, and it's a deeply insightful statement.


It's also easy to sell them. I would much rather try to sell someone who is angry (even if they are angry with me) than someone who is indifferent.

When someone is emotional, it shuts off their pre-frontal cortex. It inhibits their decision making ability.

And I hate to say this, but in my experience, the reasons someone buys or doesn't buy is nearly always irrational. Rational thinking is almost never at play.

Even when they are buying from me, I know that the reason they are buying really...makes no sense. But there we have it. We are bundles of prejudices, superstitions, biases, triggers, emotions, unfounded beliefs....with just enough logic added to get us through the day.

I've seen that when selling - but you don't see it unless you are tuned into the customer (as opposed to thinking about making a sale).


I've seen the 'parking' thing, too and my belief is it's a subconscious way of saying 'not committed to buy' or 'just looking'.

Rarely come to this forum but was pointed here by the discussion in mindwarriors.

This is one of the things I have learned and worked on in the last few years . More as a way to communicate with my own body language than fully read or predict others .

And it was mainly do to street performing in Vegas . Add to a selling situation the factors that you can ask for money or say a figure when some says how much . Or you risk getting arrested and fined like 500$.

Then with thosands of people walking buy an hour it reading reactions from a distance to pick out who is likely to get a photo