Avoid eye contact with the prospect

An optimal salesperson does not look a prospect straight in the eye. What? Not look the prospect straight in the eye? Doesn’t that send all kinds of bad signals? Of course, eye to eye contact is essential for building trust and generating sales. However, there are certain situations when eye-to-eye contact could be bad as a sales technique. It is at those moments when you should not look the prospect in the eye. For example, if you know you are going to ask a question that will be difficult for the prospect to answer, looking him or her straight in the eye can put more pressure on them and even intimidate them. By looking elsewhere when you ask the prospect a challenging question, you are basically saying – “Hey, I know this question is difficult. I’m respecting your struggle with it and I’m reducing the pressure on you.” You can actually be helping your prospect feel more at ease and that is good when you are seeking to close the deal.