Mastering the World of Selling: The Ultimate Training Resource from the Biggest Names in Sales

Chapter 67. Use Social Dynamics to Control Sales Appointments

Frank Rumbauskas

FJR Advisors

Many areas of selling that I've studied and taught to others are rarely, if ever, known and used in the world of professional selling. One of those is the science of social dynamics—before I ever began learning it myself and including it in my training, I'd never before seen it used in sales.

Social dynamics is the science of using nonverbal subcommuni-cation to influence others. What does this include? The primary elements of our nonverbal subcommunication are body language, vocal tone, inflection and volume, eye contact, movement and carriage of the body, and other subtle but important elements.

The consequences of not using proper social dynamics in your sales interactions are severe, and most of us don't even know we're doing anything wrong because we haven't been taught. The situation is much like cold calling—salespeople who cold call only do so because they don't know any alternatives. However, by not paying attention to our social dynamics, we unknowingly give our power away to prospects, let them have control of sales appointments, create an impression that we are not successful, give prospects the "gut feeling" that they should not buy from us . . . all unknowingly.

So, that said, what can we do to make sure we don't short-circuit all of our efforts by using improper social dynamics? Following is a brief and very basic—but highly effective—checklist of things you need to watch out for ...