How Singapore salespeople can detect if the customer is bluffing

So you are negotiating with your customer (or adversary) for an important deal. Somehow, you feel that your adversary may be hiding something from you, or worse, giving you false information.

In many books about body language, there are various ways to tell if the person in front of you is lying such as shaking their heads while saying "yes", or not maintaining eye contact.

However, studies from acclaimed psychologist Paul Ekman , you don't just read body language or facial expressions to see if your adversary is lying to you. You need to first establish a baseline.

The "baseline" is a set of stress-free questions that you know your adversary will be saying the truth. Things like "isn't it hot today?", or other mundane issues. If your adversary looks at their toes while giving you some very direct answers, or he covers his mouth even when asked about the most obvious question, perhaps he's not lying when he displays such actions during your negotiations.

The key to spotting if someone is lying or hiding something is when your adversary's facial expressions, voice tonality, words or body language displayed a sudden change, especially when a stressful topic is being raised. Below is an example:

Seller: so you are saying that your budget is tight, and you need us to give you a discount. Is that right?

Buyer: Yes!

Seller: well if you can guarantee a certain minimum quantity per year, I'm sure we can do something about price. Is a minimum of 4 shipments a year something you can commit to?

Buyer: That should be OK for us.

Seller: So can the first shipment start from early next month?

Buyer: Err....that, that should be achievable.

In the above conversation, the buyer started out very confident when asked if he wants to have a discount. However, when asked further if he could commit to a minimum quantity, he became less confident by saying "should be". When pushed on a start date, he became even more unsure of himself.

Assuming if the Buyer in this scenario had been maintaining eye contact, and when asked if he could make a minimum commitment, he suddenly avoided eye contact, that's a sign of hiding something.

And when asked to make the commitment within a deadline, in addition to sounding unsure, his lips curled and there was some signs that he was being uncomfortable, it's a clear sign that he's saying something that he has no clue.

Still, there are no guarantees that even when someone changes their behaviours or postures when asked stressful questions, that person is lying. We can only say we suspect that person withholding something or displaying signs of discomfort. We can't say for sure that person is lying.

You may need to ask more questions at different times to different people in your adversary's organisation to build a more complete picture.

What is more important is the question of, what is your adversary IS really lying and hiding things from you? What will be your next steps in this negotiation?

There is usually one of a few ways. One is to seek to communicate or negotiate with other people in your adversary's team.

If the adversary's stance is that they are not really serious about giving any kinds of commitments, then perhaps your next best step is to walk away.