Nonverbal communication can be more powerful, even more accurate, than what people say with words. Human beings don’t communicate with ‘just words’ – we use body language and tone. The right understanding of the cues can turn a rather protracted business negotiation into an instant deal.

Get to close that big contract, open a new sales market, negotiate good credit terms, or enter into a rewarding partnership by rightly decoding cues on the spot through the use of interactive display panels

Importance of business meetings ¶

Generating Ideas: This is where business ideas are formulated, refined, or repurposed to keep the concept of going concern afloat, maintain profitability, or access the immediate environment for new business opportunities. A pro-active business will always place premium on ideation to stay ahead of competitors and increase market share. You would want to keep the channels of ideas flowing.

Project Implementation and review: There are a lot of business projects (internal or external), that concurrently may be running which needs the input of different units or departments in order to meet timelines. A meeting of this type might have reporting from different unit heads, stating the progress and collaborations from other units

Meeting Partners: Business Partners are a critical live wire of the business enterprise. They might be business associates, suppliers, technical partners, financial partners/ Investors, or market collaborators. While businesses have been negatively affected by COVID-19, majority of companies who were proactive by continuing business collaboration online, were able to see revenue growth between 34-68% especially in eCommerce, technology, logistics etc.

Effective virtual meetings ¶

The question then is, how does a business get the best out of its virtual and remote meetings with both staff and partners having adopted an interactive solution?

The answer is not far-fetched, it lies in understanding cues from non-verbal communication!

Get to see through interactive telepresence on a large screen what your team members body reaction is saying about a particular project, idea, product etc. Also, get to gauge first-hand the reactions of your business partners live on video before they utter a word. This gives you a good idea of what to pitch, and what idea resonates with them, thereby saving precious time and getting a deal done rather than the often time empty words, ‘’We’ll get back to you’’

Experts in interpersonal communication have estimated that nonverbal communication constitutes approximately 80 percent of what is involved in communication: 35 percent vocal (tone of voice) and 45 percent facial expression and posture (body mannerisms). That leaves the impact of the words we use at only about 20 percent.

The most obvious forms of nonverbal communication are body language and gestures, physical appearance, touching, and even design choices can be used to deduce a number of things about a person.

Nonverbal cues for business meetings/video conferencing ¶

The best area of the face to focus on while speaking to another person is their nose. By concentrating on the nose – if looking into the person’s eyes is too intimate – it appears that we are concentrating only on that person.

Eye contact is an important component of nonverbal communication. If someone is interested in what is being said, he or she will engage in more eye contact with the speaker. Too much eye contact, however, signals that the listener is somewhat aggressive or distrustful. It is possible to determine that someone is bored if they are looking directly at the person speaking, but that the eyes are a little unfocused. This may be accompanied by a tilt of the head and fiddling with the hands. Facial expressions convey a lot about what a person is thinking. While we can control our facial expressions to some degree, there are many times when they just naturally occur.

People who cross their arms over the chest are often keeping something to themselves, or they may even be protecting themselves from something. Of course, this has to be related to the situation. If the people speaking are very comfortable with one another, the crossed arms could signify that one person is thinking very deeply about what is being said.

In addition to body language, we are able to pick up cues about others through their style and other physical characteristics, such as clothing, hairstyle, home decor, etc. Also, legs crossing and uncrossing, or heels or toes tapping are all negative clues, perhaps that one is nervous, anxious or ready to leave. Never look at your watch or refer to it, it is a definite signal that you have stopped communicating.

Our eye movements are important giveaways to what is going on in our mind. For example, lack of eye contact or frequent glances to one side or the other indicate serious disagreement or disinterest. Our eyes give us away…

To be continued…

To take learning, business interaction, ideation and team collaboration to the next level using the best of interactive technology available, let us take a look at what you presently use, assess your needs and recommend what would best suit your home office or establishment to enhance productivity, ensure a sustained profitable business and expansion