Read the room. Self-explanatory (for some people). Pick up on the subtle, nonverbal cues of a group of people. Done properly, you become good at noticing & responding to the smallest of all cues & reactions. These might include body language, minute facial expressions & context clues.
Makes sense – unless you have no clue how to read a room. Or worse, if you don’t think the room needs to be read.
News flash: In sales, the room always needs to be read.
Even if you are one-on-one with a prospect, you still need to read the room. You need to pay attention to her eye contact, fidgeting, looking at her phone, other distractions & anything that clues you into her buy-in/engagement (or lack of buy-in/engagement).
This comes naturally to some salespeople. Their emotional intelligence (EQ) & street smarts are on high alert in selling situations. Most of the time it’s because they have been burned once or twice.
Many salespeople that lack the EQ & (shhhh . . . don’t tell them) the street smarts, haven’t a clue how to pay attention to these cues. Let’s face it, the people you know that lack street smarts never admit it.
And it’s killing them in sales.
These people think EVERY SINGLE SALES APPOINTMENT was great!
They think the prospect LOVED them!
They say things like, “I crushed it.” or “This deal is a lock.”
They cant wait to log a 90% probability into their CRM.
Then, a few months later, they are still looking at a giant Goose Egg in their CRM & the only thing they crushed was the ice in their cocktail as they sit wondering why they didn’t close the deal. . .
They didn’t close the deal because it was never opened! Ever. Pie-in-the sky salespeople do a poor job of qualifying opportunities. An abysmal job of setting & managing expectations. They don’t ask tough questions. Hell, they barely ask any questions. But, that meeting was GREAT. They LOVED me.
These salespeople need to learn how to read the room. They need to keep their head on a swivel. If your head were on a swivel, you’d always be on the lookout for things going on – wherever you are – whomever you’re with.
Salespeople who know how to read the room (Head-Swivelers) pay attention to:
- What is really being said. Ever have someone tell you yes, but if you look at them, their body language says, Oh, hell no?
- What is not being said. If your prospect is not engaged, curious, pushing back, etc. you are in trouble.
- Interaction between colleagues (on their side). Watch what happens between team-members. There are lots of non-verbal idiosyncrasies you can pick up (people can’t help it).
- A prospect looking at her watch. Not once or twice. All throughout the sales appointment.
- Poor eye contact. If you don’t know that poor eye-contact on their end is a giant indicator of no engagement, no belief or no interest, you are in the wrong profession.
- Other distractions. Cell phone. Checking email/texts. On the computer.
- Fidgeting. Clicking a pen. Leg-shaking. Constant blinking. Change of voice volume. All indicators of uncomfortableness (even mis-truthing).
Do you want to take your sales career to the next level? Of course you do. Start learning how to read the room & be honest with yourself. Not every meeting is GREAT! If they were, we’d all be crushing it!
