Part 12 (1/2)

As for the aporeans, Indonesians, Indians and Brazilians selected the ”naive” strategy as their least preferred one Thus, authors speculate whether such unanireeree of honesty is considered to be iers froy as their ht other nations (the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and the Philippines) rated it their secondfor a part of the earlier concession back in order toeven more Hendon and Hendon (1989) hypothesize that this choice a Asian nationals can be explained by their concern about losing face Siht not be an overwhelreed decision is considered unacceptable in business where, as Hendon and Hendon put it, ”a deal is a deal”

Reaching agreement

The final round is reached when both parties have settled all the terms of the future business contract Note that soreened, rushi+ng itExplore and research the practices of the local culture: how is agreement usually expressed? Cultural variations are the subject uage (see Chapter 4)

COMMUNICATION IN SALES

Perhaps more than anywhere else, nonverbal behavior plays a part in sales Consider the car showroom and what salesmen have been trained to do Most showrooms have three different areas: the reception desk, the car display and the relaxation (soft) area The customer meets the sales person behind the desk This is a formal area where particulars ed to inspect the vehicle Salespeople encourage the custo seat But they leave the door open, go around to the other side of the car and crouch at the sah the open door Thus, both front doors are open Experience has shown that custoht if the doors are closed It has also shown that talking to people froht position

Salespeople rarely show custo the hood because this serves hten and confuse, and re Salespeople are trained to watch eye movements carefully to see what customers are ”really” interested in boot space, baby seats, wheel tried to touch and later to drive the car: to mark it as theirs

The third phase often takes place in the lounge area, where sofas are arranged in a seles It is here that other discussions take place, covering any re, however, takes place at the desk

Salespeople know not to touch custoe them to touch the product They know the i the custolances They have to knohen ”No” means ”Yes” and vice versa; when one customer needs to be sold the product on its technical specifications and another on its family-friendliness

In his popular, influential and comprehensive book on the science of influence, Cialdini (2007) set out six well-known and often used methods of persuasion These have been docuists and are familiar to all sales people These persuasion techniques are types of heuristics and are concerned with influencing the decision of the other party

There have been many studies about how people ments rapidly and in a context of constant h or low involveh involve poould be a low involvement one The consequence of this differentiation is how h before they are ready to buy Low involveoods, in particular) are usually ht nobody spends a half an hour at a shop deteruoods there is only a certain a the product category before you choose the best option Hence, tiredient in sales and one of the es of a salesperson Third, these heuristics, orTheirthe most valuable couments in favor of their product or brand, they try to press these cognitive buttons by boasting the properties processed heuristically

Below is a brief overview of these influencing strategies: 1 Coe their mind once a decision has been made We have an internal story or script about e are, hoe ought to behave, and e represent in life Thus, people would go to great lengths to keep their word or stand by their position, especially if that position had been announced publicly Changing one'sin ability or vision, and thus reat way to use this tactic is to ask for a sreed, to solicit a er request The purpose of the small demand is not profit, but commitment This can be shown nonverbally

2 Reciprocation: we are social anih our ability to cooperate and share Tearoup assisting and backing each other up Thus, if someone shares his or her food with you, or pays a restaurant bill, you feel obliged to return the favor In sales,a discount will e, as your client will feel a compulsion to reciprocate

3 Social proof : we often look to others to decide what to do, especially in a claie, 236 eHarmony members marry every day in the United States” appeal so much Consider which cafe you would prefer to eat at while on a trip to a foreign country: one buzzing with people, or an empty one? The former is the visual, social proof of quality

4 Authority: an infaram in the early 1960s demonstrated the power of authority Participants illing to knowingly give electric shocks to another person when told to do so by a powerful and de doctor, even up to lethal levels While this would be an extreme example of authority abuse, it sho much blind trust we put in credentials and expertise The implication of this research is obvious: look appropriate and suitable for the occasion

5 Liking: we areto part with our hard-earned cash if we like the cause, the product or the salesperson Most of all, we like people who are si is also easy to increase through body language Note how friends and family members often sit in similar positions or adopt si often happens unconsciously, but relentlessly Thus, subtlyyour nonverbal behavior to that of your custo and, ultimately, sales

6 Scarcity: scarcity creates desire and value Think antiques, think collectables This is perhaps one of the ies in business: ”limited offer”, ”two items only per person”, ”three days of sales only” Make sure your client knohat they are ree to the deal or make a purchase on the spot

More iies of influence each have a relevant nonverbal component They are suiven examples cannot work in all situations at all tiies of influence and their relevant nonverbal co (NLP) experts propose sales techniques based on clients' preferred sensory modality While NLP is not by any means a science, research seems to support that the idea of different people have different preferences when processing infor styles tend to be more:Visual;Auditory; orKinaesthetic

However, it would be erroneous to conclude that once a customer's preferred channel of communication has been established, the salesperson should concentrate on it exclusively A much better approach would be to include inforardless of the apparent favorite

This idea of concurrent influence fits ith research on body language As we have already mentioned in this book, nonverbal behaviors rarely happen in isolation from each other On the contrary, it is the clusters of several behaviors that let us attribute es Thus a happy person not only sesticulates a lot and adopts an open, upright posture In a similar fashi+on, a custo a car (if we stick with the automotive examples) would raphs and the visual in However, they would be just as likely to want to touch its leather finish, or hear its engine running

Another area of applied body language research concentrates on rejection signs and signals People who are not convinced by the salesperson's argu other nonverbal behaviors, a shi+fty gaze pattern They would cover their ers, or clench their hands in front of their face Soy to ”unlock” the person is to give the to hold: a drink, a booklet, a pen But is this really true?

This tactic works on the assue in the person's position is likely to lead to a change in ly, it is backed up by experiations In one of these, participants were asked to rate their roup was asked to hold a pencil between their teeth (creating aa smile), the other was instructed to suck on the tip of the pencil (thus generating a siroup had noas asked, all the participants indicated their ly, more people in the ”smile” condition felt happier, and more people in the ”frown” condition felt sadder coroup

Another curious observation has been made about the temperature of the drink offered An experis about their encounter with a stranger ht vary as a function of an offered drink's temperature Participants were met by a confederate in the hall and taken to the laboratory While in the elevator, they were asked to hold a plastic cup of either an ice-cold cola drink or a hot coffee for a few seconds They then proceeded to talk with another researcher in the lab and, before they left, filled in a questionnaire indicating howas it sounds, participants exposed to the wars One of the speculations explaining the reason for such a result links physical warested that such an association is an unconscious response to a basic stimulus that we learn in very early childhood

The lesson is simple Nonverbal clues, processed both consciously and unconsciously, influence our decision-reat deal of nonsense is spoken about interviews But one, so, ”factoid” has proven to be half true The surprise is not so much that people make up theirthem, but rather that their estimation can be quite accurate in that short time

In research terms this is called ” the validity of thin slices of behavior” Early researchers were i to erroneous judgments For example, a celebrated study conducted in the early 1970s de spectacles in a 15-second video clip were judged to be significantly lasses However, if the tape clip was extended to five minutes, this effect (fortunately) disappeared

Various studies have exaers with ”zero acquaintance” of others to see how accurate they are This is the procedure Certain individuals are targeted as ”experimental stimuli” They are tested so that their ability level and personality test scores are known In the best of these studies the test scores are validated by people who know theeted individuals may also rate themselves; for example, on a 10-point introversionextroversion scale, or the extent to which they worry or are stress-prone

Thus, the researchers know if their targets are bright extroverts, average neurotics, conscientious dullards or whatever Then a video-tape isfro interview questions The video may last up to 10 , 10-, 15- or 20-second segroup of people who have neverabout them are then shown the short clips The question is how accurate the viewers' opinions are Do they rate extroverts as introverts, diht, and quite conscientious people as inadequate? Do the self-ratings of the video-taped people concur with those who have seen them only for a matter of seconds?

The first serious study in this area was undertaken in 1966 It showed, as have roups in different countries since then, that there is a surprising and significant aet self-ratings, and between these ratings and test scores In one study, people rated either a photograph, heard a short audio recording, watching a silent video clip or watched a clip with sound Naturally, they were ly, they could quite accurately rate extroversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness froraphs

Clearly, some attributes are more observable than others Also, some people arethan others So telling a joke, talking about hobbies and inventing a neologis a role play or describing how one overca implications One study looked at the correlation between students' ratings based on ”thin slice” video exposure of one of their lecturers, and the average rating of the lecturer after the full course involving many lectures, seminars and so on They saw first a 10-second clip and rated the lecturer on such attributes as ”accepting”, ”competent” and ”enthusiastic” If they were shown a 30-second clip the correlation was very high indeed (r = 089)

So students' ratings before the course, based on first impressions, were virtually identical to those elicited after a long, thorough and revealing set of lectures which presentedquality

These researchers then showed, a shown only a 6-second, silent clip of the lecturer, the rating correlated highly with post-course ratings

What are the i you want to know about a teacher in six seconds? Or, in the jargon: there is high validity of the inferences people make about complex performances based on s are based on superficial, possibly trivial, criteria? Do bouncy extroverts do the best even if they are poorly prepared, badly organized and moderately incoly accurate, though the accuracy depends soed are asked to do, and the criteria used What you see is what you get!

The average interview may easily reveal social skills, self-confidence and articulation However, it says little of job attitude, technical skills and specific abilities Those, alas, takes a little longer to understand

MEETINGS

Meetings frequently do, as the old adage has it, ”take minutes and waste hours” Fully three-quarters or s However, despite deep cynicism about their productivity and usefulness, they remain sacrosanct Many a caller has been fobbed off with the si”

Most of us know thatto do with the quality of decision- or the communication of information Their two major functions are, quite simply, first, the diffusion of responsibility, and second, decision acceptance That is, they are there to ensure that all present take equal blame and responsibility for the decision taken (particularly if it goes wrong)

Frustration with the tianizations to atteies to iin with expectations and end with benefits and concerns So a return on invest out the real cost (inthe salaries of the people present per hour and totalling it all up

A recent fad is to color code s beforehand to indicate the type and amount of acceptable and unacceptable verbal and nonverbal behavior at the ories used by police and security services Others like a siht systee conceptual associations So a simple one-to-five with varied colors works best