5 “Secret” Nonverbal Sales Skills

What if you could harness the power of secret nonverbal sales skills to close even more?

It’s TRUE!

And here’s the most shocking part.

When we’re in roofing sales, we often think, Hey, I need to learn how to read body language, so I can read what my prospect is thinking and navigate the sale better.

What we don’t realize is that:

1. We DO send signals to our potential customers.
2. Those signals can make or break a deal by killing trust.

I started to notice this as I was roleplaying during roofing sales trainings with companies across the country (and I’ll share an example of that shortly).

So, I’m going to cover how to use nonverbal sales skills, meaning your body language, to close more deals.

How Nonverbal Skills Can Make or Break Trust in Roofing Sales

We can get hyper-focused on reading people and mirroring them in roofing sales. When we do that, though, we can lose sight of making people feel good.

As I’ve mentioned before, there are 3 Dominoes that we must knock down in order to get the sale. Specifically, we MUST:

1. Develop unshakeable trust
2. Create an insatiable need
3. Transform the money into a no-brainer, value proposition

BUT this whole trust piece is what can come crumbling down on us.

Time and time again, I’ve watched sales reps inside of homes go through their presentation, hit all the right things and on paper, and do it ALL right only to send body language cues, these nonverbal signals, that end up costing them deals.

When that happens, we tend to hear homeowners say things like:

We have to think about it.

I want to talk to my husband. I want to talk to my wife.

We just want to wait and see what the insurance company says.

We want to wait and see what the other contractor says.

So, I’m going to teach you 5 subtle ways to use secret nonverbal cues to drive more sales.

Welcome or welcome back, by the way. My name is Adam Bensman, The Roof Strategist. Everything I do here (and on my YouTube channel, Instagram, and my podcast on Apple and Spotify) is designed to help you and your team smash your income goals and give every customer an amazing experience.

And to help you do that, I have an offer for you. It’s my 100% FREE Pitch Like a Pro roofing sales training video library. Just enter your name and email to get instant access to more than 300 videos, organized by category, so you can binge on any roofing sales topic to your heart’s content.

Now, let’s get into the 5 secret nonverbal sales skills.

Nonverbal Roofing Sales Skills: An Example

I’m going to dive into this topic with a story. A couple of weeks ago, I’m off training this roofing sales company when the top sales rep comes up for some roleplay training.

He NAILED his pitch. I had no critique on what he said.

BUT, as he pitched, he was:

• Squared up to the door
• Clamping one hand around the wrist of his other arm

So, I said:

Your hands are doing what’s called blocking.

You’re blocking your body, which sends the nonverbal cue that you’re uncomfortable.

He was standing like this.

Then, I asked the rep to try doing the exact same pitch but to change his stance and hand positioning by:

• Steepling his fingers, so they were pointed out, rather than being folded up
• Blading his stance a bit, so his shoulders were angled and not squared up to the door
• Smiling, rather than having a serious or confrontational expression

Those subtle changes totally transformed the way that rep came across. It softened his demeanor.

And it shows how saying the EXACT same words with different body language can:

1. Have a very, VERY different meaning
2. Create very different experiences for the homeowner

This subtle body language shift replaces that more guarded, blocked, uncomfortable stance with one that’s far more comfortable and confident.

Nonverbal Roofing Sales Skills: Why Does Body Language Matter?

I’m sharing all of this with you is because, as children, we learn to spot signs of comfort or discomfort.

By the way, I want to give credit here to Joe Navarro, a former FBI agent and a spy detector. He studied non-verbal signals, and I’ve picked up his books and watched some of his videos.

As I’ve learned more and more about body language from Joe Navarro, what really blew my mind was the simplicity of it all.

In fact, it can all come down to the two signals that we learn when we’re infants — we send signs that we’re either  comfortable or uncomfortable. It’s that simple.

And remember, they say up to 93% of communication is non-verbal. People ARE reading you in your body, just as you’re reading theirs. Oftentimes, this happens unconsciously.

So, that’s why I describe these signals as “5 secret nonverbal sales skills.” You can use them consciously to send the RIGHT signals to your homeowner, letting them know that you want to make them feel comfortable.

And if you and your team have been using my Complete Sales Strategy, you’ve noticed that there’s a lot of emphasis around the word COMFORT and how to make people feel comfortable.

Why?

Because people’s feelings affect their choices. In fact:

• Comfortable homeowners make decisions that align with the emotion of comfort.
• Uncomfortable homeowners become guarded and distrusting. These folks say, “no.”

Throughout our sale, we want to create comfort in the customer experience. We can do that in door-to-door roofing sales by harnessing these 5 really powerful, secret nonverbal sales skills.

Now, let’s dive into each one.

Nonverbal Roofing Sales Skill #1: The Eyebrow Flash

The eyebrow flash is the facial expression that happens when we curl our forehead and lift up our eyebrows.

Universally, it’s a very friendly signal that says, “Hey, what’s up, man.”

This is a REALLY great nonverbal gesture to use when someone first opens that door because:

1. The eyebrow flash is friendly and non-threatening.
2. It can break the seriousness of a straight face, sending a comfort signal that says, Hey, everything’s good, man. We’re here for you.

So, the FIRST thing you want to do the minute that door opens is a simple eyebrow flash (and, actually, you’re going to pair together the first through third nonverbal skills).

Send out that comfort signal from the very start.

Nonverbal Roofing Sales Skill #2: The Head Tilt

Now, we want to pair our eyebrow flash with the second nonverbal roofing sales skill — the head tilt.

This head tilt is simply the act of lifting your chin up to quickly set your head back a bit (I learned this from a gentleman named Jack Schafer, another FBI agent who wrote a book called, The Truth Detector).

As you’re doing the eyebrow flash with your head tilted and your chin up, you give off a universal sign that says, Hey, I’m comfortable. I trust you.

Why?

Because when we tilt our heads, we expose our carotid arteries, the pair of blood vessels in the neck that supply blood to the brain and head. If those arteries are damaged or hurt, we bleed out.

So, when we tilt our heads, exposing our carotid arteries, and give the eyebrow flash, we are giving off universal signals of comfort AND trust.

Nonverbal Roofing Sales Skill #3: Smiling

This next nonverbal signal is obvious — the smile.

Now, some people have resting B*TCH face. And there are some people who just always look very serious because:

• Their lips are downturned.
• They just don’t look very warm, friendly, or comfortable.

That expression changes tonality.

In fact, even if you’re saying the exact same words, those words will come across differently — they’ll have a different impact and “land” differently — simply because your lips are turned down. That can create:

• A serious, cold tone
• Intensity, tension, and discomfort

When we shift into a smile, though, suddenly:

1. The tonality changes entirely.
2. People are put at ease.
3. We appear more confident, more approachable, and friendlier.

Nonverbal Roofing Sales Skill #4: The Hand Steeple

The next nonverbal skill has to do with how we hold our hands. Now, Joe Navarro calls this steepling.

Funny enough, I’ve always held my hands like this when I’m presenting and speaking. I didn’t even realize it until I studied it and learned that this gesture is an unconscious sign of confidence.

You’ll even notice politicians will often hold their hands like this, with steepled fingers, their fingertips touching, and their thumbs pointing out.

Again, this hand steepling is a sign of confidence and clarity.

Now, remember, if your hands are in any way blocking your body, it’s a sign of discomfort, and it’s a shock.

This type of stance, with crossed arms or blocked hands, is what you’ll see homeowners do.

When they’re squared up, that blocking stance expresses distrust and discomfort.

So, we want to keep our hands and our chest OPEN.

And that brings us to the last nonverbal skill for door-to-door roofing sales.

Nonverbal Roofing Sales Skill #5: The Chest Position

Our chest is a vulnerable and expressive area of our bodies that can also be used to express a threat.

How?

Well, if you open your door and my chest squared up to you, it’s threatening.

This stance, with your chest puffed up, IS threatening.

Instead, we want to stay oriented towards our prospect but blade our stance away, so it’s non-confrontational.

Now, I’m going to put all this together, so you can instantaneously see the difference in how these nonverbal skills can make or break trust.

Connecting the Dots: How to Use Nonverbal Sales Skills Simultaneously

When a homeowner opens the door, we’re going to link all these nonverbal signals together to try to make that prospect as comfortable as possible.

That means we’re going to:

1. Pair the eyebrow flash with the head tilt.
2. Give an authentic, friendly smile (one that makes your eyes smile and gives you crow’s feet, not a cheesy smile).
3. Steeple your hands.
4. Blade your stance and your chest.

Putting it all together, you’ll appear something like this when the homeowner opens the door.

When you use these nonverbal roofing sales skills, you’re going to send your prospect unconscious but POWERFUL signals that can have a lot more meaning than ANY of the words you say.

So, those are the 5 secret nonverbal skills that you can:

1. Use at the door to instantly make a good impression and make people feel comfortable.
2. Splice throughout the sales process, as you’re engaging in the home, meeting the spouse, and meeting the neighbors.

If you’re smiling throughout the process, making sure to stay bladed and keep your hands visible and steepled, you’re going to have an easier time:

• Making a great first impression at the door
• Getting more homeowners to say “yes” to letting you on the roof
• Closing more deals and making more sales

At the end of the day, it’s ALL about making people feel comfortable, so they choose you. And these nonverbal roofing sales skills give you a simple, effective way to do exactly that.

Get More Roofing Sales Strategies, Tips & Videos

If you want more on body language and door-to-door roofing sales, check out my all-in-one sales training, sales strategy, and sales system, the Roofing Sales Success Formula & Complete Sales Strategy.

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If you have questions, just call or text (303) 222-7133 for more info.

You can also subscribe for the latest roofing sales training videos and/or get a copy of my Pitch Like a Pro roofing sales training video library. It includes every roofing sales video I’ve ever done, organized by category, along with a bunch of tips, tricks, and more. It’s great for new people and seasoned veterans, and it’s updated all the time to help you and your team smash your income goals and give every customer an amazing experience.

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It’s affordably priced and comes with a 100% money-back guarantee. There’s also a playlist of instructional videos in there, explaining every single thing. So, you can watch the videos, and you’ll know exactly what to do.

Thanks for joining me, and I look forward to sharing more with you in the next blog.