Have you ever been so excited about something that you were completely sold out on it? Your belief is strong regardless of what anyone thinks of it. That external acceptance or approval of your opinion has no bearing on your unshakable belief. The ability to communicate this effectively is your posture.
Dr. Albert Mehrabian published a study about 55 years ago on ‘silent messages’ that we get from communication, and ever since then people have been stuck on the notion that effective communication is ‘55% body language, 38% tonality, and only 7% words’ or information. Lately, people have come out of the woodwork to say that this is a complete myth. Is it though? Jim Rohn, a great mentor and speaker in our industry said “Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.” There are valuable hints we can take from both of these. We know that information is very important to your presentation; BUT, we also know that you can present all the facts and proof, but why doesn’t everybody buy? In the beginning of your business knowing everything about your business is not always the case in getting an interest. The majority of your effective presentation hinges on HOW you deliver this amazing information about your business. It’s what people latch on to. That’s why building a relationship first is so crucial; it’s all about the connection.
What’s more important? Body language, tonality, or words?
Let’s break it down…
Body Language
Body language is your stance, how you hold your arms, your facial expression and all the little visual cues that can convey confidence, openness, and friendliness. Body language can also send signals to people if you appear closed-off, condescending, nervous, etc. It shows the person you’re talking to how engaged you are in the information you’re conveying.
Tonality
Tonality represents the quality of your voice. It demonstrates genuineness, control, and your connection to your information. Tonality also includes your speech rhythm, an accent and overall vocalization. You want to be warm and inviting in your language. Smile when you speak, and don’t talk too fast. And certainly be genuine, no one likes to listen to someone with a know-it-all attitude.
Words
Finally, information!! The meat and potatoes of your presentation. These are the facts about your company. They are vitally important; but, you want to make sure that you know the highlights of what is relevant to your prospect and not get bogged down in sharing everything or going through details that your prospect doesn’t care about.
Ignorance on Fire!
If you’re starting out in network marketing you’re not going to be an effective presenter if you’re busy trying to recite the ins and outs of your product or comp plan. I did say that you need some information, and you want it to be factual. You can go out with some basic information, but your enthusiasm – the tone and inflection in your voice, your gestures, your stance, your posture – will grab a person’s attention so that they can engage with your information. Sometimes knowing too much can scare a prospect. Being brand new isn’t always bad. It lets your prospect know that you don’t have to know everything and allows the prospect to feel like they can easily emulate what you’re doing and duplicate down. In our business, we teach that the most important thing for our new person to do is to get engaged with exposing people and ‘be the inviter.’ We call it “Earn while you learn” and it works! The information will come with experience, but initially you should keep your leaders in close contact to address any questions; and if you already have a team, you need to make yourself available to your people to answer questions so that they can have confidence that they won’t be lost if someone asks something that they don’t know yet.
The Danger of Knowing too Much
If you’re an experienced network marketer, you may have seen a new person who doesn’t know much hit the ground running, but as they gain more knowledge they begin to slow down. What happened? Invariably, they thought that the more facts they spewed out that surely more people would want to get involved. In doing so, they lose posture because they lose focus on the other two important parts, body language and tonality. It’s too much information; their body language and tone change to accommodate the vast amount of info they have to recite (for the worse); and, their prospect thought “this sounds complicated. I can’t do this.” or “I can’t be bothered. I’m already busy.” or, “I’m afraid I’ll have to know it all.” They just didn’t connect because they got overloaded with information and couldn’t build rapport. At that point, your product could be amazing, but your prospects have turned off their ears and have disengaged and they won’t get the message.
Are you setting the example?
If I took a candid photo of you in your house, or meeting with someone, wherever, how would you look? Would you appear enthusiastic, friendly, and confident or would you look like you’re down, depressed or unsure? Keep a positive attitude. You can learn body language, but you need to practice it every day and be conscious of it. Get out of your shell and talk to people. Practice in the mirror. Your tonality, the way you speak to people can be trained. Smile when you speak. Don’t be in a hurry to talk, speaking too fast can give an impression of nervousness or that you’re aching to get it over with. These are where you need to spend your time to become better. The information will come; but it means nothing without openness, warmth, enthusiasm, articulation, a good attitude, excitement, and of course, confidence.
Building posture on the internet, or by text
You might think that if a prospect can’t see you or hear your voice that you need a huge amount of information to make up for it. You’d be wrong. Nothing turns people away faster than spewing a whole novel of company information at them. Nobody wants to read through endless details. What you can do is use some language that entices people to want to know more. You can relay excitement and interest using descriptive language and punctuation. Don’t overwhelm your prospect with information, but let them sense your excitement and confidence. One thing that is fantastic in building their confidence in you and your company is social proof, sharing stories of product results or business successes from other people. Most good companies have tools designed to be shared on the web or on mobile devices; so, half the work is done for you. You would be wise to let the tool present the information and leave you to build the trust and rapport.
In the end, how you carry yourself and the tone of your voice are just as important as the facts you share. As a matter of fact, you could say that when you start out, learning how to present – with confidence and excitement that people can see and hear – will yield you better results in relating to people and encouraging them to join, sign up, or purchase. When you’re presenting, what you’re really selling is YOU. The company facts and information are just icing on the cake.
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