Smiling with Your Tail

Let me be clear: I’m a dog person. I have nothing personal against cats, even if they seem to always be plotting against me. My challenge with cats is that I can never tell what emotion they are experiencing from one minute to the next and I personally find that unsettling. Even worse, the more effort I put into understanding cats and what they might be thinking, the more I am reminded how misguided I am when it comes to felines. It reminds me of my attempts to sense what the fairer sex was thinking at any given moment back when I was on the dating scene in high school and college – and with about the same rate of success.

I really am a dog person, mainly because they love and trust so unconditionally. The picture at the top of this blog is Bailey, who for the past 15 plus years has been the Petrie family pooch. She’s some freakish mix of beagle and terrier and, while I’ve owned several dogs throughout my life, Bailey is the one that immediately comes to mind when I think of happiness. Not only does she bring our family joy by merely being, I like that I always tell when she smiles.

This the point of the blog where you say or think, “dogs don’t smile.” This is also the point where I get to tell you that you’re wrong.

Dog’s smile with their tails. More accurately, dogs smile nonverbally.

Take a closer peek at that picture – if you look closely enough you can see that her tail was wagging as I snapped the shot. It’s that non-verbal communication that I love so much about canines and, in particular, my Bailey girl. Even though she can’t speak, I know when she’s happy and when she’s not.

While we humans may not have tails, we do communicate more with our non-verbal behavior (55%) than with our verbal (45%). While the verbal includes the words we speak and the tone of voice we use, the non-verbal is far more revealing in terms of the actual message being sent: arm movements, eye contact, fidgeting, posture, and much more.

If you have teenagers, then you already know that you glean much more accurate information from their body language than the words they speak – especially when you ask them to do a chore. They may say “yes” to taking out the trash, but their body language typically communicates quite the opposite.

When asked by clients to do something that may require the burning of a few extra calories, what do your non-verbal cues communicate? More importantly, are they in harmony with the words you are speaking?

The fact is, many times they are not and by sending those mixed signals to the client, they are left to figure out true intent and will experience just as much frustration as I did dating in my late teens and early 20’s. Is it annoying that your client asked for a 10th revision on a project? Of course, it is! However, if you don’t smile both with your words and your non-verbal cues, you are letting that client know just how annoyed you are regardless of what flowery phrases come out of your mouth.

In a competitive industry, clients who feel like their salesperson is annoyed with them will eagerly find someone who is not.

Make no mistake about it, much of what we do as salespeople contains a large element aspect of show business. This means projecting positivity and happiness at every opportunity. If you’re not careful, your non-verbal communication will betray you, damage relationships, and drive clients away. In each client interaction, make certain you are smiling with all of you – not just your mouth.

As salespeople, we smile with our tails as well.