How To Sell Yourself With Mirroring – Stores Benefit From Attractive Sales People But Only If They Mirroring Customers
Christopher Philip
It’s common knowledge that attractive people are assets to stores as front run staff. This is why we so often find them stationed in point of sale positions, and on floor.
However, does attractiveness universally create a benefit? What if the attractive person has a bad attitude, is rude and dismissive, or unhelpful? What if they have bad body language?
A study led by Wojciech Kulesza, Florida Atlantic University, sought to measure one such variable on sales performance and customer ratings.
The study involved just one salesperson either in an attractive condition or un-attractive condition. The conditions were created by either using makeup or not using makeup.
The salesperson acted in a real life store context in three mimicking conditions: mimicking, nonmimicking, or antimimicking.
In the mimicking condition, the salesperson mimicked the customer’s nonverbal behaviour with a two second delay.
Cues mimicked included body position such as leaning forward when the customer did, hand gestures such as placing the hand on the counter or removing it from the counter just after the customer had done so, and arm gestures such as gesticulating similar to the customer with either small or large movements.
In the nonmimicry condition, the salesperson resisted mimicry in body, hand, and arm movements or gestures.
In the antimimicking condition, the customer performed the opposite to the customer. For example, if the customer leaned in, the salesperson leaned back. If the customer used large hand movements, the salesperson used small arm gestures and vice versa for large gestures.
The salesperson was instructed to use the same spoken tempo, accent, pause and tone of voice and otherwise remain consistent across conditions.
Results were as expected and showed that customers spent the most and had the highest service rating with the attractive and mimicking salesperson over any other condition.
When the salesperson was less attractive and antimimicked the customer, she received the lowest customer service rating and customers reported a tendency to not wish to return to the store.
While the attractive salesperson that mimicked customers produced about $151 in sales, the unattractive control that mimicked customers only produced $51 in sales. The antimimicking condition produced about $39 in sales for the attractive condition and only $18 in the unattractive condition. The nonmimicking condition had both attractive and unattractive conditions fall somewhere in between.
It is difficult to ignore these powerful results. While employing an attractive salesperson is important, equally as powerful are her nonverbals. While a salesperson can somewhat make up for her attractiveness with good body language, an attractive salesperson can just as easily throw away her inherent advantage with poor use of body language.
It should also be brought to attention that the attractiveness of the salesperson in this particular study was modified with the use of nothing more than cosmetics, all else remained the same – and this is something that all women can access.
Additionally, while this study was conducted in a sales scenario, it’s not as if it is not transferable between contexts. For example, using makeup and mirroring in a dating is sure to boost “customer” ratings.
Resources
Kulesza, Wojciech; Zofia Szypowska; Warsaw, Poland; Matthew S. Jarman and
Dariusz Dolinski. Attractive Chameleons Sell: The Mimicry-Attractiveness Link. Psychology and Marketing. 2019. 31(7): 549–561. DOI: 10.1002/mar.20716