A few years ago, I was pulled over by the boys in blue, the police as we call them here in the UK. I hadn’t done anything wrong although I felt strangely guilty. It’s how they handle you. And I knew what they were going to do first.
That’s right, calibrate me.
being able to read your customer’s physiology is essential so you can understand their state of mind and pace them to an influencing position.
You see like it or not, if your state changes, so does your physiology – your body language. They say there is a “tell” for everything and as a modern influencer, being able to read your customer’s physiology is essential so you can understand their state of mind and pace them to an influencing position.
And my new police friend was about to do that by asking me some “yes” and “no” questions. He wanted to observe my physiology which is why he asked me to step out of the car because he wanted to observe my whole body language.
I also knew he’d have been trained on using his peripheral vision. Normally we use what’s called foveal vision or looking straight into people’s eyes – it’s years of conditioning but when you’re influencing, you really want to get good at peripheral vision. My new friend was.
And he began to ask me a series of questions requiring a “yes” and a “no” answer because he wanted to calibrate my physiology for a yes and a no. The reason? Quite simply, because when the real question came in, he wanted to gauge whether I was lying or not. Clever.
Try it yourself. Find someone you know. Ask them to think firstly of someone they don’t like, observe their physiology. Now ask them to think of someone they like a lot, observe their physiology and note the difference. You’ve calibrated them. In selling or influencing you can now use this to present an idea to them, if they like it, you’ll see it in their physiology without even asking them. Useful.
You could ask your customer or person you want to influence about sometime recently when they successfully bought something or took on someone’s idea. Just make it casual conversation. Observe and calibrate them and then move the conversation onto a purchase that didn’t work out. Observe, spot the difference and now you have the key.
I sell training and consultancy and I normally ask my prospective clients about training they’ve bought in the past that really worked out and then training that didn’t. Naturally I’m listening to what they’re saying, but carefully calibrating their physiology because I want to see the same buying signals when I make my presentation.
By the way, it was my rear fog light being on in clear visibility. I just reckon he was bored.
