“Two men were walking along a crowded sidewalk in a downtown business area. Suddenly one exlaimed, “Listen to the lovely sound of that cricket!” But the other could not hear. He asked his companion how he could detect the sound of a cricket amidst the din of people and traffic. The first man, who was a zoologist, had trained himself to listen to the voices of nature, but he did not explain. He simply took a coin out of his pocket and dropped it on the sidewalk, whereupon a dozen people began to look about them. “We hear,” he said, “What we listen for.”

-Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, The Discipline of Trancendence 

Your prospects are telling you everything you need to know, it’s simply a matter of knowing what to listen and look for.

Numerous articles, blogs, and books have been written on the topic of body language. You have probably considered picking up a book on the subject yourself.If you did, however, you’d discover the material to be more of a dictionary than a practical application guide. I recently stumbled on an idea I’ve find useful in developing my body language reading skills. This tip can be found in a seminar from Allan Pease, the author of the first book on body language.

 He suggests watching 15-30 minutes of TV a day with the sound off. Try to see what’s going on by the facial expressions and nonverbals used. Turn the sound on every 10 minutes or so to make sure you have the right idea. Allan says that after 3 weeks you’ll develop a “sixth sense” of what others are actually thinking. I don’t expect to become  a street psychic, but I’ve been doing this for about a week and already notice an increase in my intuition.

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A couple weeks ago, I was considering working on my Spanish. I’d taken two years of Spanish in high school, but hadn’t practiced much since then. I then stumbled upon this article in the Wall Street Journal, Ask for a Raise — in a Second Language.

The article states, “Especially in jobs in …sales, learning languages …could make sense. Workers who depend on commissions or are looking to introduce products overseas could also benefit, experts say.”

Bilingual sales professionals are not only more hirable, but are also in a position to negotiate a more favorable pay.

Language training courses are expensive, however, with prices ranging from $500-$1500. After some digging online, I found several languages courses whose prices range from free to free.

The first is Mango. I like the interface and straight language instruction of Mango. Mango offers training in 11 languages (12 if you count Pig Latin), each with approximately 100 lessons which consist of approximately 100 slides each. Mango takes you step by step through the most common phrases in each language with a sprinkling of grammar and culture tips throughout.

The second is LiveMocha. LiveMocha is a completely different animal. LiveMocha has fewer languages to learn from lessons (six) but offers a new twist to perfecting it. You can interact with native speakers of the language you are learning and have them correct and train you.

Starting out either one of these options will teach you the basic phrases to get by in a conversation as you develop your skills. Using LiveMocha, you can locate someone in the industry in which you you work and learn the specific lingo for that market.

When I started spending so much time (re)learning Spanish I was losing time reading business/sales books. Today I stumbled upon the perfect solution. I could read known sales books in Spanish! I picked up a copy of Brian Tracy’s Psicología de Ventas (Psychology of Sales) and am one-third of the way through the Introduction.

While I may be at a second grade reading level right now, I know that reading books including the “lingo” I use already in English increases my marketability.

¡Convertido un millionario por ventas!

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