When the Body Talks

The keys to reading body language in a sales environment.

By Pete Mercer

Can you tell when someone is lying? Unless you know them well, it can be difficult to determine when the other person is not being completely honest with you. Body language is often a great indication for identifying whether someone is lying to you or not. Knowing how to read body language is an invaluable skill in a sales environment, giving you an edge on your competition that allows you to improve your sales technique and drive revenue.

Traci Brown is a body language expert, trained to spot even the slightest deception. Ranked No. 3 in the world as a body language expert, Brown has studied her craft alongside members of the military and law enforcement. While she’s qualified to work at that kind of level, she uses her talents to help businesses detect fraud and help sales reps improve their tactics.

Repertoire recently sat down with Brown to discuss how body language and fraud detection can be used in a sales environment to better understand the needs and wants of the customer.

Defining body language

Body language is a person’s physiology. People like Brown who can read body language are looking for certain movements to indicate meaning beyond what they might be saying. While a person’s body language can tell you a lot about how they feel in the moment, it doesn’t always mean the same thing for everyone. More than anything, body language can tell how and when to dive deeper.

Traci Brown

“The important thing is to understand someone’s baseline and how they normally behave. Look for certain shifts around important topics, because if you make a broad decision about someone based on one movement, you may be wrong a lot of the time,” Brown said.

Sales reps can also use body language to gauge the interest of potential prospects during a sales meeting. “You need to see if the body language matches with the words,” Brown said. “It doesn’t matter if we’re looking for fraud or not. I work with a lot of sales teams because buyers are liars. They’ll tell you anything.” These skills can assess if the person is actually interested in what you have to offer and if they are going to set up a follow-up call for more information.

Fortunately, a good sales rep is already equipped with the tools to be able to read people and situations. Sales reps work based on the needs and challenges faced by their customers, so anyone in sales should have a rudimentary understanding of how to navigate these situations. All it takes is a good eye for what people need and how you can address those needs.

The most important thing is to pay attention to any of the obvious signs and look for a way to ask questions based on how they are reacting to what you have to offer. “The goal is to use the information that is available to you, instead of just their words. Words can lie, but the body can’t.”

Studying body language can improve sales

For Brown, using body language in a sales meeting with a client is not about creating ‘gotcha moments’, but more about knowing how to better drive the conversation with better questions that address the needs of the buyer. She said, “Are they happy with the proposal? Are you really the last person they’re talking to? Is that the best price they can do? Is it really their decision? Will they call you back? All of these things are what you need to know.” teams to identify any challenges or pain points they might be experiencing. As the structure and the idea of the office continues to change post-COVID, flexibility is critical to keeping your team happy with their work situation.

By using strategic body language, sales reps can use the available information for what Brown calls ‘unconscious persuasion’. People are more likely to make a purchase from someone they know and trust, which gives the sales rep the opportunity to leverage that relationship into a purchase. Matching and mirroring the other person’s body language will help to facilitate an environment that will make the customer or prospect more comfortable.

“It’s really bad when you lose a salesperson that you really wanted because they’re not telling you they are unhappy,” Brown said. Make sure that they are equipped with the resources they need to sell your product with confidence and ease. Perhaps even

This is a fairly typical sales technique, but it takes practice to get it right. You are working to unconsciously get on their page and, if done correctly, it can bring them over to your page, where you can come to an agreement more easily.

Brown said, “When you engage in the conversation by mirroring their movements, their tone and their words, you are creating behavioral flexibility. Most of us hope that our message gets across through what we say and do as it’s intended, but there’s a huge risk that you could be missing other people without knowing it.”

When sales reps can get strategic and intentional about using body language and being flexible in their communication, it’s much easier to turn the tide and win the sale.

Reading the body language of your team

Leadership can also use these tools to read the body language of their more importantly, ensure that your sales collateral and other resources for your sales team are up to date and accurately reflect what you offer.

Because sales reps can sort of float in and out of the office due to the nature of the work, leadership needs to effectively utilize those brief windows of time to connect with them. The body language is important, but you also need to pay attention to their tone and choice of words to better understand what they’re going through.

More than anything else, your sales reps need to be able to trust their leadership team to have conversations like this. A big part of building company culture is establishing a sense of trust between leadership and employees that will make room for conversations about their happiness in the workplace. “If you can create that personal connection with your team, they will be much more likely to open up and tell you how they’re feeling.”