Success @ Starbucks
At the most recent U.S. Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference I presented a role playing exercise, which I use with students called Success @ Starbucks. Many home-based entrepreneurs will meet prospective vendors or customers at Starbucks or similar places, so I showed the entrepreneurship professors in attendance how they could get students out of the classroom and replicate a real-world experience.
The primary learning outcome is to show students how to react to non-verbal cues. You may have heard or read that 93% of all human communication is non-verbal. This statistic is hotly debated in the scholarly community, and probably isn't accurate. I've seen studies that place the percentage from 55-80%. As with any data, you need to look closely at the methods and reliability of the study. While we may not know the exact percentage, all would agree that non-verbal communication plays a huge role in business. When you become aware of body language you can interpret what people are telling you when they are not speaking a word. People communicate 24/7 365 days a years. Even when people are sleeping they are communicating, aren't they? They are non-verbally communicating they are asleep.
Potential customers will be communicating throughout a meeting, both verbally and non-verbally. Be aware that they are sometimes going to give you mixed signals. You need to have self-confidence in these situations and not get discouraged. For example, if you feel like a presentation is going well but notice a buyer begins giving negative cues, such as folding her arms, shaking her head etc., don't get thrown off. The buyer is probably not even aware of her body language. Her movements are physical manifestations of her thought process. Get excited when you get these cues because the buyer is telling you, non-verbally of course, that you should switch gears and change your approach. Once you read her body language as positive, and she accepts your value proposition, have the confidence at that point to ask for the business.
As an educator, I place a lot of emphasis on body language. Students tell me far more with their body than they do with their words. I can tell by the way a student looks at me if they understand the concepts. I can tell if they are paying attention, confused, annoyed, or frustrated all within a second. Likewise, I can convey a message to students without saying a word. An extended look can actually be more effective than saying "you need to pay attention".
You'll be able to do the same in your entrepreneurial career. You may be able to do it already, and it gets easier with practice. Remember, interpreting a customer's body language to indicate when you should stop selling is as important as knowing when to start selling. Selling isn't synonymous with speaking. Selling involves far more listening and observation skills than it does verbal skills. The more you speak the more likely you'll talk yourself out of a sale. Have the confidence to speak only as much as needed, and spend more time listening and observing.
If you are a business educator interested in using the Success @ Starbucks exercise in your class you can click here for a video tutorial.
