Hard body language to mirror

When we try to relate to people and make them comfortable in talking to us in sales, it is right for us to try to mirror body language and overall mood. However, when someone’s approach to life is tough, cold, analyzing, and overall the way many successful business people and c-suite people are, mimicking their body language as someone they do not know might not set a conversational mood in the air. Disproportionally when compared to the general population, these types of people with that type of body language tend to be in positions with which salesmen may sometimes have to talk with to engage in sales negotiations. And in such situations, sometimes lightening the air in some way may be situationally appropriate when talking with or negotiating with others.

For those who are fine with a video with two curse words, this is a video on an analysis of the body language of Vladimir Putin, the current President of the Russian Federation. If you were trying to negotiate with Vladimir Putin diplomatically, or talk to him or someone like him with his body language you would think he is not interested in discussing anything and is not exactly neutral towards you. However, as the video discusses, Vladimir Putin throws in jokes from time to time and tries to tie the jokes to the aura he gives off, such that he seems confidant instead of aggressive. I imagine that a conversation, let alone a meeting and negotiation, between two people with the body language of Vladimir Putin would not go well except for this tendency to lighten the mood with humor. If some likes feeling dominant, in charge, or if you are selling a product about self-image to people, then your prospect will not at all be more likely to agree to a sale if you mirror their body language, and so as sales is about unplanned conversations dependent on empathy, how you out to act may sometimes be situational and dependent on empathy and intuition.