Episode 29 Decoding Subtle Cues

Speaker 1
Or doesn’t really buy into a grandiose vision statement I just put out there. I don’t like to keep going. In the room and say, you know, that’s what I believe, but you seem a little skeptical. Do you agree with what I just mentioned? You know, give that person space to address what you’re sensing. And often sometimes folks actually say, no, I’m not skeptical at all. I’m just there’s a lot going through my mind right now. That’s happened to me. And and I actually completely agree with you. I’m just trying to digest everything because it’s the first time this concept has come through my head, which can be a positive, right? If you’re telling them something that’s actually, you know, very exciting and unique. On the other hand, you know, it gives them the space to say, yeah, actually, I don’t agree with you. And you’ve read my body language correctly. So even if you’re incorrect about some the assumptions around body language, I think it’s important to just take a step back and call out what you think is going on.
Speaker 2
Can I try some analogy here? It was like you’re using the body language is like an alignment check during the meeting. Are we in the same headspace? Are we in the same place? And as long as you’re kind of in the same place, you know that everybody’s engaged, you’re having the conversation you want to be having. But

Speaker 1
Agree with my view of the world, it just might not be a good fit and that’s totally fine. Yeah, but it gives, it gives, I like what you said about like, if the threads diverge, it stopping and calling out something like body language or skepticism, allows you to bring them Back together, it allows you to course correct during the meeting, right? And I think that’s really, really important in sales. Because if you don’t course correct, you lose your audience and you lose credibility.
Speaker 2
You know, one thing that I think is always really interesting for maybe the founder listeners of the podcast is face sliding where they’re kind of at or their expectations against the Typical. So I’m actually quite curious. How often do you find that you need to course correct? Is it once in a call? Is multiple times a call? Once a week? How often does this actually happen?
Speaker 1
For something that’s new, like a new platform or a new concept, which, you know, we’ve mentioned Twingate multiple times, founders on this call, you’re probably selling something That’s unique and novel and that doesn’t quite yet exist in the world or maybe is five or six years ahead of its time. And in those situations, you’re constantly course correcting. I’m constantly course correcting and I’m constantly checking in on whether or not I’m hitting the right temperature and the

Speaker 2
Face sliding where they’re kind of at or their expectations against the typical. So I’m actually quite curious. How often do you find that you need to course correct? Is it once in a call? Is multiple times a call? Once a week? How often does this actually happen?
Speaker 1
For something that’s new, like a new platform or a new concept, which, you know, we’ve mentioned Twingate multiple times, founders on this call, you’re probably selling something That’s unique and novel and that doesn’t quite yet exist in the world or maybe is five or six years ahead of its time. And in those situations, you’re constantly course correcting. I’m constantly course correcting and I’m constantly checking in on whether or not I’m hitting the right temperature and the right notes. And so I’m constantly using phrases like, am I on the right Do you agree that these are problems? Does it make sense, the approach we’re taking? Now I know this is very different. So I want to pause just to make sure like I’m addressing any other concerns you might have or any questions you might have. Different take on zero trust networking or this is a very different take on this problem space, which is why I’m excited about this, but I just want to make sure that you also buy into the Statements I’m

Speaker 1
It is very exhausting. Yeah. And the concept of strip lining that you mentioned earlier, yeah, is very relevant in social settings too, right? Like you have to know when to cut bait, when to cut it loose. And yeah, there’s things we do socially to say, oh, it actually looks like you’re busy or, you know, hey, I’m gonna grab a drink actually. Or I’ll talk to you in a little bit. I actually have to like talk to my friend over here. You know, there’s all sorts of eject buttons that we have and it’s the same thing in sales, you know, like, in fact, in virtual sales, if somebody looks like they’re on a different screen Or they’re typing, I’ll sometimes say like, I’m sure you’re really busy. It looks like you’re really busy. So I’ll try to give you 10 minutes back at this call. Right. And that there’s a subtle cue in there where when I see somebody, a Slack message, I can just tell. You know, or like when somebody’s responding to somebody, they’ll be like, just one second, please. Sometimes there’s that weird 30 second pause at the beginning when you get on a call. And you’re like, hey, Alex, how are you doing? And then you’re like, I’m doing well, sorry, just one second, I’m finishing up something. That is a perfect subtle cue. You know, like that person is telling you, I’m really busy, and I barely got on this call. So then you have to instead of just going and bulldozing through that call and pitching your product, you have to say, well, I’m sure you’re very busy or head of security, I’m sure you’re Dealing with a lot of fires. This should only take 20 minutes, really, and we can even keep it to 15. And I’ll let you go about your day. Hmm.
Speaker 2
Well, you know, on that note, I have such a great example, by the way, leveraging that settle queue.

Speaker 1
Yeah, you have to be much more, I think, smooth and eloquent. And then also like, by the way, like bringing people into the conversation also means bringing up situations where you notice people wanting to jump in. So I’ve started using the phrase a lot. Hey, Tony, or like, hey, Alex, where are you going to jump in there? You know, and they just stop because I, you know, you notice the mute and unmute button going on and off all the time. I notice that all the time. And sometimes it’s a mistake. You know, sometimes I unmute myself by mistake. Sometimes I mute myself on purpose. I’ve rarely when I unmute myself, I rarely had somebody say, Hey, Peter, like I saw you unmuted, did you have something to say? Which is such a hugely missed opportunity. For me, every time I see somebody unmute, I log that in my mind. And even if somebody’s talking after that person finished talking, I’ll say, Hey, Alex, I think you unmuted a few seconds ago. Did you have something to say? Yeah.
Speaker 2
And you know what? That goes back to like aligning the energy because somebody has that energy to say something. If it gets bottled up, they’re not going to be paying attention for the rest of that part of the conversation. Yeah.
Speaker 1
And introverts don’t like to interrupt people. So it’s also communication style. Yeah, exactly. So, but you know, if you as a seller or or whoever is holding a meeting, if you can pick up on those and you can have the bandwidth to log all of those, hugely, hugely powerful. And by the way, amazingly empathetic moves to show the other side that you care about them.