Body Language

In this Section
Understanding context and clusters Open and closed body language Influencing others Have you ever heard it said that 93% of all communication is nonverbal? Think about that for a second. The words themselves would only make up 7% of what you were saying? That doesn't sound quite right, does it? This fact is one of the most misquoted findings in communication research. The 93% actually comes from a study conducted by Albert Mehrabian who found that in the communication of thoughts and feelings words convey only about 7% of the total meaning. This in no way pertains to communication in general, just to the communication of thoughts and feelings. For example, if you were trying to determine a speaker's true feelings from a statement such as I don't have a problem with you it's not the actual words which really carry the message. The meaning or impact of the statement is conveyed far more by tone of voice and body language than the words themselves. So what percentage of general communication is nonverbal? Most experts agree that nonverbal communication accounts for approximately 50-65% of meaning derived from a social interaction. Nonverbal communication can be broken down into two basic categories; speech patterns and body language. Speech patterns include volume, pitch, vocal quality, speed of response, tone of voice and any other component of speech that doesn't convey the actual meaning of the words. Body language is any gesture, posture, mannerism, or facial expression. Since both body language and speech patterns have such a large impact on communication, we will discuss them separately. This section will deal solely with body language and we will discuss speech patterns in Section 3: Rapport. Understanding body language is important in sales for two reasons. First, how a person moves and positions their body while communicating has been shown to be an accurate indicator of their feelings, emotions, and attitudes. Therefore, by paying close attention to your customers movements and body positions you can gain valuable insight into what they are really thinking and feeling. Secondly, by subtly manipulating your own body language you can influence the customers perception of you and your message and hence be more persuasive.