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Your presentation materials may be eminently persuasive and your delivery equally flawless, but your prospect’s mind may be on an entirely different topic. Here’s how to tell if your prospect is listening and – more importantly – interested in what you are saying.
In his fascinating book, Honest Signals, MIT professor Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland recounts an experiment. A group of executives presented business plans at a meeting at MIT. The group then chose the best ideas to recommend to a team of venture capital experts.
Pentland rigged a device to record certain characteristics of the speakers. It didn't document what they said, but rather measured the variability in their speech, their level of activity, their gestures, their facial expressions and the presence or absence of head nods between the presenter and the listeners.
When the meeting concluded, the group voted on the ideas they thought were best. All of the ideas discussed -- and not just the one selected by the group -- were then given in written form to venture capitalists, who evaluated and ranked them.
The ranking by the venture capitalists was starkly different from the set of ideas selected by the group of business executives. When Pentland analyzed the results from the device, he was able to predict the business plans the executives would choose "with nearly perfect accuracy."
The venture capital experts, however, made their decision based solely on the data presented in the documents they were given, disconnected from the subtle messages conveyed in a live presentation.
Pentland’s conclusion from this study, and many others, has broad ramifications for advisors: "People have a second channel of communication that revolves not around words but around social relations. This social channel profoundly influences major decisions in our lives even though we are largely unaware of it.”
Here are some "honest signals" that may denote a prospect’s interest or lack thereof:
Mimicry
As I wrote in a previous article, mimicry (also called "mirroring") is a powerful indicator of interest. If you see your prospect unconsciously mimicking your behavior, it is likely your interaction will be successful.
Activity level
"Activity level" refers to the amount of energy expended by you and your prospect. There is a strong connection between increased activity level and interest.
In another study, Pentland examined the interaction between men and women at a speed-dating event. He measured social signals in an effort to predict whether both the man and the woman on a given “date” would consent to an exchange of contact information. He found a strong correlation between a high level of activity in the women and their willingness to consent to share their contact information.
If you are "presenting" while your prospect is sitting quietly in a meeting, this might indicate a low level of interest and low probability of success.
Change in speech volume
When we feel strongly about a particular point, we tend to emphasize it by increasing our speech volume.
In the speed-dating experiment, low consistency by women (lots of variability in their speech volume) correlated with a higher degree of interest. High activity, coupled with low consistency, was an accurate predictor of contact sharing 71% of the time, compared to only 20% accuracy with random guessing.
Variability in emphasis is a strong indicator of interest.
Active listening
"Active listening" refers to the amount of time spent listening to another person. Pentland found that a combination of variability in emphasis and the amount of listening time together could accurately predict successful sales calls.
He analyzed activity at call centers in an effort to discern the "honest signals" that predicted a successful call. He found the following factors had a high correlation with success: longer call duration, variable emphasis and low activity by the caller (thus leaving ample opportunity for the customer to speak).
When meeting with prospects, keep these findings in mind. It may not be the persuasive power of your presentation that carries the day. Rather, focus on indicating that you are receptive to feedback from your prospect, and extremely interested in learning more about them. Your "active listening" skills may be more important than your "presentation" powers.
Dan Solin is the director of investor advocacy for the BAM Alliance and a wealth advisor with Buckingham. He is a New York Times best-selling author of the Smartest series of books. His latest book is The Smartest Sales Book You'll Ever Read. He limits his sales coaching practice to advisory firms that advocate evidence-based investing.
Read more articles by Daniel Solin
