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How to Read Customers

Written by: John Brennan

Article Overview: Actions do indeed speak louder than words. In sales, our customers actions communicate feelings a lot more clearly than their words do. It is the salesperson´s job to "read" a customer; it´s the sales person´s job to determine how serious the prospect is, if indeed, he/she is the decision maker, and whether or not the prospect has the budget. It is the rare prospect who comes right out and offers this information. More often than not, they prefer to keep this information to themselves. Fortunately for us, their body language often betrays them.

How to Read Customers

Going with your Gut
The best sales people I know are really good at reading customers. They seem to know just when to close, they know the right questions to ask, which buttons to press and when to cut their losses and move on.
When I ask them how they know what to do, they often cannot explain. "I just know" "It just felt right".
My guess is that these sales people have highly developed intuition, a sixth sense, a "gut" feeling, that is not bound by the laws of social science. Intuition is not rational, i.e. it cannot be explained by logic or common sense; it just appears and exists.
Example;
You meeting with a prospect and all indications are that the meeting is going nowhere. The prospect´s body language is defensive; she is sharing very little information and asking few questions. Suddenly you get the sense that there is something very big going on in the company, something that the prospect is confused or worried about, or maybe not even aware of. The meeting progresses and the intuition gets stronger. So you ask her quite simply,
"Is there something big going on here that I should know about?"
She answers, "Funny you should ask that. I´ve been picking up some weird vibes myself lately, but I don´t know what they are about".
Next day, the prospect´s company announces that a competitor is acquiring them.
Neither is intuition a feeling, though we very often refer to it as a "gut" feeling. Feelings can have a powerful effect on our perceptions and behavior. I might feel excited about a prospect because he said something positive about my product. The reality might be that he has no budget for it, and in any case is not the decision-maker. My positive feelings may be so strong that I waste an awful lot of time pursuing what is in fact an unqualified lead. At the same time, my intuition might be saying "Forget it" and my rational thoughts might be "You have to ask a lot more questions before you can conclude whether this guy is qualified."
And let´s dispel the stereotype that women have it and men don´t. I believe that we are all born with intuition, but perhaps our culture accepts it in women and is suspicious of it in men. As a sales trainer, naturally I´m intrigued by intuition and have tried to figure out how to develop it in learners. Personally, it developed slowly in me, and it is definitely not yet finished. The key is to trust it. In interactions with customers, or anyone else for that matter, I strive to become aware of my intuition about a customer. This not easy, because it goes against a very well developed rational brain that has had the upper hand for a very long time. I try to respect my intuition, sit with it, and talk about it with someone I trust. It is not an either/or situation; the challenge is to allow rational thought and intuition to co-exist, especially when they are contradictory and confusing. At a certain point, my intuition and the rational thoughts come together. I cannot hurry this process. If I allow it to take place at its own pace, the correct "read" and the right course of action becomes clear to me.

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Article Tags: body language, budget, decision maker, feelings, job



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