Do not confuse Body Language with Nonverbal Communication.
 
Body Language is just what the phrase implies.
 
Nonverbal communication includes body language but includes all the far more important aspects of communication.
 
The least important elements in communication and selling are words and body language.
 
Far more important are the context a sale is being made within. That context includes both the meeting, the meeting place, the perceptions of the person’s name, the perception of the company the salesperson works for, the perceived authority and status of the sales person and all of the same perceptions from the salesperson’s point of view, about the customer.
 
And there is more.
 
The distance between two people changes “yes” into “no” and “no” into “yes” far more quickly than any words you can speak or gestures you can make.
 
The duration of time spent within spatial regions around another person or within a group have the same effect.
 
This is all nonverbal communication and this is all part of The Secret Language of Business.
 
Here is a specific application of the Secret Language of Business that you can use five minutes from now.
 
Intention: Optimize your location from your customers point of view to cause a “yes” response if it is possible. (Where will you sit, exactly? Where will you stand, precisely?)
 
Background: The right brain hemisphere of a right handed person stores emotional and autobiographical memory to a significant degree. The left hemisphere has Broca’s Area, and accomplishes much of the logic, spatial and analytical thinking.
 
The right hemisphere of the brain is largely activated when a person looks to their extreme left. (cover your right eye with your hand, look “hard left” but don’t turn your head)  In two minutes you will report some form of anxiety or fear. Some people experience panic. (assuming you are right handed!)
 
The left hemisphere of the brain is largely activated when a person looks to their extreme right. (cover your left eye with your hand and look “hard right.” but don’t turn your head) In two minutes you will report some form of “calm,” “comfort,” “fine,” “no problem, why? (again this assumes you are right handed)
 
Utilization: With right handed customers, you will sit to their right so they look right, activating more of the left brain. Logical, non-emotional, non fear and non anxiety producing…
 
Research in selling situations shows calm exhibited in contrast to discomfort and anxiety when the salesperson is seated to the left of the customer.
 
Similar research has been done for attraction and attractiveness. People seated to the right of someone are perceived as significantly more attractive than if they were seated to the left of the same person.
 
And in therapy you see similar but more dramatic results. Calm vs. anxiety and fear.
 
Results: With right handed individuals you will accomplish more in a shorter amount of time, get to “yes,” much quicker in a significantly greater environment of trust, attraction and perceived credibility.
 
Left handed people?
 
You’ll have to pick up a copy of The Secret Language of Business. I’ll tell ya’ lefties can be a challenge until you know how to set them at ease.
 
Cool?!