flexible enough to adapt to the many different kinds of people you must deal with, being able to pace many varieties of behavior, and to do it all without sacrificing your own integrity as an individual.
Pick up on any point of similarity between you and the client that you might use for openers. As an exam- ple, more and more business contacts involve people who speak different languages. If you have a client whose primary language is not English, that person usually uses English as a secondary means of communication. It might be worth a lot if you know just a few words or phrases in his or her tongue. Walk in his office and say “good morning” in his language. The effect can be electric – a big smile to set the stage for a good contact. Speak the prospect’s language and you’ll find you’re harder to resist. But what if you don’t agree with what your client is telling you? Well, just because you disagree with it, that doesn’t mean you need to confront it head-on like a raging bull. Differences in viewpoint can be respected by any fair-minded person if they are properly put. But you must have respect for his or her views – and the best way to set up an agree- able climate for disagreement is to seek out what you can agree with in the opposing point of view. With care and a good ear, you can almost always find some point of agreement on which to build (pace) an accord.
PACE FIRST, THEN LEAD Having paced a belief, you are in a position to lead with your own sug- gestion. Remember Thomas Jeffer- son’s adage: “In matters of principle, stand firm like a rock; in matters of opinion, flow like a river.” The pace/lead strategy is, as a rule, an effective two-step process to follow – and the top producers do it without even being aware they do it. Sometimes it may be better strate- gy not to lead too quickly. Sometimes it may be wiser to back off and not try to lead at all until the time is ripe. A
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sense of timing is essential in sales, and you alone are the best judge of the time to inject something new into the presentation. On the other hand, don’t be timid: When the time is right, ask for the business. What if you aren’t sure about the timing? Test the waters first. This can be done unobtrusively at the non- verbal level by synchronizing with some aspect of the prospect’s body language, such as posture. Mirror the client for a little while (a couple of minutes should be enough). Then change your posture and see if and how soon the other person responds. The response could be a move to a mirror of your new posture, or it might just be an innocent shift of position. Look for a complementary response – something that follows within mo- ments of your own shift, and comes pretty close to it in result. It may indicate that you have gained the rap- port you need at the non-verbal level to proceed directly to your close.
PRACTICING FOR PERFECT PACE Like other tools of effective sales- manship, pacing must be practiced and perfected. In practicing these techniques, it is best to try pacing just one aspect of speech or behavior at a time. Trying to take on various speech characteristics as well as body lan- guage and gestures, all at once, will
probably overload your system at first. Many find the easiest place to start is by pacing the rate of speech. If you are afraid to try it initially “under fire,” then try it on someone you know. Listen to their rate of speech, their speaking volume, the kinds of imagery they use in conversation. Do not attempt to be a parrot, but try moving your own speech characteristics and the kinds of words you use closer to theirs. Or you can even practice pacing by using the TV. Practice sitting in the same position as someone on the tube. Study and become aware of their speech characteristics, and how they vary from the characteris- tics of other people. Talk shows are best for this because you have an opportunity to pace or study several different individuals. Pacing may sound pretty esoteric, but it is something we all do – all the time, to a greater or lesser extent – without being aware of it. When you become aware of it, think about it and learn to use it to your own advantage; it can be a powerful ally.
It not only has a powerful impact on others – it has a dramatic effect on you. By consciously pacing others, you are, in a sense, getting inside their bodies and minds so you come to have an ex- perience similar to theirs. Effective pac- ing enables you to achieve a profound degree of empathy with them.
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