[Webinar] From AE to VP in 3 years - Join Scott Leese LIVE on Feb 20 to learn his proven framework.
Register Now
January 30, 2025
Anwesha Mishra
The secret to successful negotiation, the hack for dealing with finicky prospects, the key to building rapport , the secret sauce to closing high-ticket clients – all begin and thrive on genuine, meaningful conversations.
Every client is unique, and every buyer presents a new scenario. How quickly you make them think, “You totally get me,” whilst conversing can boost your chances of conversion by manifold.
Of course, learning their dialect is a proven way. But mastering your prospect’s literature is more than what meets the eye.
It means understanding their needs & apprehensions, picking up on the subtle non-verbal cues, and much more. The trick here is using a powerful communication tactic called ‘sales mirroring’.
In the pages that follow, you’ll learn the intricacies of sales mirroring and the art of mastering it for your sales success.
The mirroring technique is a sophisticated strategy in sales psychology that involves subtly mimicking your prospect's behavior through a nuanced process of emotional and non-verbal intelligence. Examples of mirroring can include:
At its fundamental core, selling transcends traditional transactional exchanges - it is a profoundly intuitive human skill, deeply embedded in our social DNA. From the earliest tribal negotiations to modern corporate boardrooms, we are constantly engaging in sophisticated acts of persuasion. And every human interaction carries the potential for influence: pitching an idea to a colleague, negotiating terms with a partner, or simply presenting ourselves in a way that builds trust and credibility.
That being said, each sales conversation is an opportunity to build genuine connections and guide prospects toward meaningful decisions. Sales mirroring transforms these interactions from transactional exchanges to empathetic dialogues. It goes beyond mere surface-level imitation, requiring a deep, almost empathetic attunement to the prospect's internal state - deciphering verbal and non-verbal cues such as posture, tone, energy, and emotional undertones.
Yes, it is.
Essentially, sales mirroring taps into a fundamental human instinct: we are wired to connect with those who mirror our behaviors because familiarity breeds comfort and trust.
An eye-opening experiment led by behavioral scientist Dr. William Maddux, and his team on how mirroring affects negotiations revealed astonishing results. In the study, MBA students were assigned to negotiate deals, with some told to subtly mirror their counterparts’ behaviors. The outcome? Those who mirrored were able to seal the deal 67% of the time, compared to just 12% for those who didn’t.
Another study published in the Journal of Consumer Research took this finding even further, revealing that salespeople who mirrored their prospects’ actions not only came across as more likable, but their products and services were viewed in a more positive light too.
These findings underscore how mirroring can dramatically transform your sales outcomes. By creating an unconscious bond of familiarity and trust, mirroring helps cross the chasm that invisibly exists between you and your prospects. Keep reading to learn the crucial techniques for mastering sales mirroring.
In the seminal book, Never Split the Difference, author and former international hostage negotiator for the FBI, Chris Voss, explains how mirroring helped him de-escalate an NYC bank robbery and save hostages. Voss got on the phone with one of the bank robbers and mirrored his own words to get him to admit his identity.
Here’s a snippet of Voss’s interaction:
“The other vehicle’s not out there because you guys chased my driver away . . .” he blurted.
“We chased your driver away?” I mirrored.
“Well, when he seen the police he cut.”
“We don’t know anything about this guy; is he the one who was driving the van?” I asked.
The mirroring continued between me and Watts, and he made a series of damaging admissions. He started vomiting information, as we now refer to it in my consulting business. He talked about an accomplice we did not know of at the time. That exchange helped us nail the driver of the getaway car.
By mirroring Watts’s own admissions, Voss was able to direct the conversation to his own advantage. He explains, “When deliberating on a negotiating strategy or approach, people tend to focus all their energies on what to say or do, but it’s how we are (our general demeanor and delivery) that is both the easiest thing to enact and the most immediately effective mode of influence.”
Now that we’ve explored the power of mirroring in sales, dig into the science behind mirroring technique.
For centuries, philosophers puzzled over how humans truly understand each other. Back then, they had no science to rely on, just speculation. Fast forward to today, and we’ve unlocked decades of research from psychologists, neuroscientists, and cognitive scientists. Yet, even with all this knowledge, understanding how we intuitively ‘get’ one another still remains a bit of a mystery.
The key lies in mirror neurons – a groundbreaking discovery in neuroscience. First identified by renowned researcher Giacomo Rizzolatti while studying monkeys, mirror neurons are responsible for our instinctive ability to mimic the actions of others. These neurons fire not only when we act but also when we observe someone else doing it. This explains why we often yawn when we see someone else yawn, cringe when we witness a fall, or feel the weight of someone else’s grief.
This neural mechanism’s discovery has helped us understand intentions and learn by observation. What makes mirroring particularly effective in sales is its subtlety – it influences prospects without being detected, avoiding any sense of manipulation.
Undeniably, mirroring can significantly boost your chances of closing a sale. However, to see real results, it’s imperative that you use it strategically.
Here are 5 key ways to make mirroring work for you.
In Never Split the Difference, Chris Voss talks about the power of simply repeating three words back to the other person. Those can include the last three words of what someone just said or the most important three words of what someone just said.
For example:
Sales Pro: “How is your current product management system working for you?”
Prospect: “It’s working pretty well.”
Sales Pro: “Your current system is working well?”
By repeating back the same idea to the prospect, you prompt them to continue explaining a thought. Most people would respond to the above statement by diving more into how their current system is working for them, or introducing any concerns that they have with it.
“Yeah, it’s been working well except that it doesn’t yet integrate with our CRM…” That’s your cue to take the conversation forward and make it meaningful.
Smile every time your prospect does. When they nod slowly, mirror that gesture with a subtle nod of your own. It may seem forced at first, but this behavior is deeply rooted in our biology. It’s a natural part of the 'mirror neuron system' in our brains, which plays a crucial role in fostering empathy and building connections.
While some of this mirroring happens unconsciously, actions like smiling and nodding are within your control. By consciously mirroring these small cues, you can tap into the instinctive human desire to connect, making your interactions feel more genuine and rapport-building.
When you display a positive, engaged demeanor, it encourages your prospect to adopt a similar attitude. In this way, you lead the conversation, guiding it toward a more productive and empathetic exchange.
(Check out this video to see how mirroring can be strategically applied in interviews or sales interactions to foster deeper engagement and create a positive atmosphere.)
Body language in sales is one of the most important parts of communication. It helps to decode the true mood, intent, and response of the other person. For example, crossed arms may signify resistance, while a nodding head signifies agreement and engagement. While on a video call, pay attention to the body language of your prospect and mimic it when appropriate.
If your prospect has a rushed demeanor, it might make sense for you to go a bit quickly as well - as long as they continue to engage with you properly. In the right contexts, this would ensure the prospect that you value that they are strapped for time and would make sure to cover more ground in less time.
Seek to match the tone and volume of your prospect’s voice. If they’re speaking in softer, quieter tones, avoid coming on too strong with a loud, blustery voice.
Like mirroring body language, tone, and volume mirroring makes the prospect feel that you understand where they are coming from. It also helps them feel like they are talking to someone with similar modes of interaction or personality as themselves.
Finally, make an effort to mirror the attitude of your prospect. You’re not trying to change their mood; you’re entering their space and building a connection. If your prospect is feeling chipper and outgoing, then you can match them. But if they are behaving more formally, match their attitude and make an effort to match language and tone.
Genuine empathy is the cornerstone of effective mirroring. If your intentions aren't rooted in a true desire to understand and address your prospect’s needs and challenges, mirroring will come off as nothing more than a manipulative tactic. And when this happens, the entire process falls flat. Remember, mirroring isn’t about using a set of behaviors to make the prospect bend to your agenda; it’s about fostering a genuine connection, establishing trust, and creating an environment where open, honest communication can thrive.
While effective mirroring builds the essential bridge of rapport between salespeople and prospects, it's just one tool in a successful sales arsenal. Proven techniques like solution-based selling, conceptual selling, and SPIN selling can also boost sales effectiveness.
But what makes mirroring special is how it helps prospects feel truly heard and seen for genuine rapport.
This is exactly the kind of rapport Sybill helps sales professionals build. Using advanced behavior AI, Sybill tracks and analyzes subtle facial expressions and body language during video calls, providing valuable insights into how your prospect is truly feeling.
With Sybill, you can see how often you and your prospect mirrored each other’s smiles or nods, and how these gestures impacted their mood throughout the conversation. It helps you track your success in building rapport, allowing you to monitor mirroring behavior across your calls and your team’s interactions.
Plus, you can revisit past calls, offering feedback on whether you’ve used mirroring effectively or identifying missed opportunities to enhance engagement. Take a free spin around Sybill’s behavioral AI to discover how it enhances your engagement efforts.
The secret to successful negotiation, the hack for dealing with finicky prospects, the key to building rapport , the secret sauce to closing high-ticket clients – all begin and thrive on genuine, meaningful conversations.
Every client is unique, and every buyer presents a new scenario. How quickly you make them think, “You totally get me,” whilst conversing can boost your chances of conversion by manifold.
Of course, learning their dialect is a proven way. But mastering your prospect’s literature is more than what meets the eye.
It means understanding their needs & apprehensions, picking up on the subtle non-verbal cues, and much more. The trick here is using a powerful communication tactic called ‘sales mirroring’.
In the pages that follow, you’ll learn the intricacies of sales mirroring and the art of mastering it for your sales success.
The mirroring technique is a sophisticated strategy in sales psychology that involves subtly mimicking your prospect's behavior through a nuanced process of emotional and non-verbal intelligence. Examples of mirroring can include:
At its fundamental core, selling transcends traditional transactional exchanges - it is a profoundly intuitive human skill, deeply embedded in our social DNA. From the earliest tribal negotiations to modern corporate boardrooms, we are constantly engaging in sophisticated acts of persuasion. And every human interaction carries the potential for influence: pitching an idea to a colleague, negotiating terms with a partner, or simply presenting ourselves in a way that builds trust and credibility.
That being said, each sales conversation is an opportunity to build genuine connections and guide prospects toward meaningful decisions. Sales mirroring transforms these interactions from transactional exchanges to empathetic dialogues. It goes beyond mere surface-level imitation, requiring a deep, almost empathetic attunement to the prospect's internal state - deciphering verbal and non-verbal cues such as posture, tone, energy, and emotional undertones.
Yes, it is.
Essentially, sales mirroring taps into a fundamental human instinct: we are wired to connect with those who mirror our behaviors because familiarity breeds comfort and trust.
An eye-opening experiment led by behavioral scientist Dr. William Maddux, and his team on how mirroring affects negotiations revealed astonishing results. In the study, MBA students were assigned to negotiate deals, with some told to subtly mirror their counterparts’ behaviors. The outcome? Those who mirrored were able to seal the deal 67% of the time, compared to just 12% for those who didn’t.
Another study published in the Journal of Consumer Research took this finding even further, revealing that salespeople who mirrored their prospects’ actions not only came across as more likable, but their products and services were viewed in a more positive light too.
These findings underscore how mirroring can dramatically transform your sales outcomes. By creating an unconscious bond of familiarity and trust, mirroring helps cross the chasm that invisibly exists between you and your prospects. Keep reading to learn the crucial techniques for mastering sales mirroring.
In the seminal book, Never Split the Difference, author and former international hostage negotiator for the FBI, Chris Voss, explains how mirroring helped him de-escalate an NYC bank robbery and save hostages. Voss got on the phone with one of the bank robbers and mirrored his own words to get him to admit his identity.
Here’s a snippet of Voss’s interaction:
“The other vehicle’s not out there because you guys chased my driver away . . .” he blurted.
“We chased your driver away?” I mirrored.
“Well, when he seen the police he cut.”
“We don’t know anything about this guy; is he the one who was driving the van?” I asked.
The mirroring continued between me and Watts, and he made a series of damaging admissions. He started vomiting information, as we now refer to it in my consulting business. He talked about an accomplice we did not know of at the time. That exchange helped us nail the driver of the getaway car.
By mirroring Watts’s own admissions, Voss was able to direct the conversation to his own advantage. He explains, “When deliberating on a negotiating strategy or approach, people tend to focus all their energies on what to say or do, but it’s how we are (our general demeanor and delivery) that is both the easiest thing to enact and the most immediately effective mode of influence.”
Now that we’ve explored the power of mirroring in sales, dig into the science behind mirroring technique.
For centuries, philosophers puzzled over how humans truly understand each other. Back then, they had no science to rely on, just speculation. Fast forward to today, and we’ve unlocked decades of research from psychologists, neuroscientists, and cognitive scientists. Yet, even with all this knowledge, understanding how we intuitively ‘get’ one another still remains a bit of a mystery.
The key lies in mirror neurons – a groundbreaking discovery in neuroscience. First identified by renowned researcher Giacomo Rizzolatti while studying monkeys, mirror neurons are responsible for our instinctive ability to mimic the actions of others. These neurons fire not only when we act but also when we observe someone else doing it. This explains why we often yawn when we see someone else yawn, cringe when we witness a fall, or feel the weight of someone else’s grief.
This neural mechanism’s discovery has helped us understand intentions and learn by observation. What makes mirroring particularly effective in sales is its subtlety – it influences prospects without being detected, avoiding any sense of manipulation.
Undeniably, mirroring can significantly boost your chances of closing a sale. However, to see real results, it’s imperative that you use it strategically.
Here are 5 key ways to make mirroring work for you.
In Never Split the Difference, Chris Voss talks about the power of simply repeating three words back to the other person. Those can include the last three words of what someone just said or the most important three words of what someone just said.
For example:
Sales Pro: “How is your current product management system working for you?”
Prospect: “It’s working pretty well.”
Sales Pro: “Your current system is working well?”
By repeating back the same idea to the prospect, you prompt them to continue explaining a thought. Most people would respond to the above statement by diving more into how their current system is working for them, or introducing any concerns that they have with it.
“Yeah, it’s been working well except that it doesn’t yet integrate with our CRM…” That’s your cue to take the conversation forward and make it meaningful.
Smile every time your prospect does. When they nod slowly, mirror that gesture with a subtle nod of your own. It may seem forced at first, but this behavior is deeply rooted in our biology. It’s a natural part of the 'mirror neuron system' in our brains, which plays a crucial role in fostering empathy and building connections.
While some of this mirroring happens unconsciously, actions like smiling and nodding are within your control. By consciously mirroring these small cues, you can tap into the instinctive human desire to connect, making your interactions feel more genuine and rapport-building.
When you display a positive, engaged demeanor, it encourages your prospect to adopt a similar attitude. In this way, you lead the conversation, guiding it toward a more productive and empathetic exchange.
(Check out this video to see how mirroring can be strategically applied in interviews or sales interactions to foster deeper engagement and create a positive atmosphere.)
Body language in sales is one of the most important parts of communication. It helps to decode the true mood, intent, and response of the other person. For example, crossed arms may signify resistance, while a nodding head signifies agreement and engagement. While on a video call, pay attention to the body language of your prospect and mimic it when appropriate.
If your prospect has a rushed demeanor, it might make sense for you to go a bit quickly as well - as long as they continue to engage with you properly. In the right contexts, this would ensure the prospect that you value that they are strapped for time and would make sure to cover more ground in less time.
Seek to match the tone and volume of your prospect’s voice. If they’re speaking in softer, quieter tones, avoid coming on too strong with a loud, blustery voice.
Like mirroring body language, tone, and volume mirroring makes the prospect feel that you understand where they are coming from. It also helps them feel like they are talking to someone with similar modes of interaction or personality as themselves.
Finally, make an effort to mirror the attitude of your prospect. You’re not trying to change their mood; you’re entering their space and building a connection. If your prospect is feeling chipper and outgoing, then you can match them. But if they are behaving more formally, match their attitude and make an effort to match language and tone.
Genuine empathy is the cornerstone of effective mirroring. If your intentions aren't rooted in a true desire to understand and address your prospect’s needs and challenges, mirroring will come off as nothing more than a manipulative tactic. And when this happens, the entire process falls flat. Remember, mirroring isn’t about using a set of behaviors to make the prospect bend to your agenda; it’s about fostering a genuine connection, establishing trust, and creating an environment where open, honest communication can thrive.
While effective mirroring builds the essential bridge of rapport between salespeople and prospects, it's just one tool in a successful sales arsenal. Proven techniques like solution-based selling, conceptual selling, and SPIN selling can also boost sales effectiveness.
But what makes mirroring special is how it helps prospects feel truly heard and seen for genuine rapport.
This is exactly the kind of rapport Sybill helps sales professionals build. Using advanced behavior AI, Sybill tracks and analyzes subtle facial expressions and body language during video calls, providing valuable insights into how your prospect is truly feeling.
With Sybill, you can see how often you and your prospect mirrored each other’s smiles or nods, and how these gestures impacted their mood throughout the conversation. It helps you track your success in building rapport, allowing you to monitor mirroring behavior across your calls and your team’s interactions.
Plus, you can revisit past calls, offering feedback on whether you’ve used mirroring effectively or identifying missed opportunities to enhance engagement. Take a free spin around Sybill’s behavioral AI to discover how it enhances your engagement efforts.
