Often in sales, you’re going to need to persuade prospects to take the plunge, to bite the bullet, to sign on the dotted line. Buyers are often hesitant to purchase for a wide variety of reasons. Very few closed deals come easily to sales reps.

Developing persuasive skills in sales can help youinfluence people to buy. Improving your sales persuasion techniques will allow you to increase your sales.

Here are some simple but effective persuasive skills in sales that you should definitely practice until perfection.

1. Make Eye Contact

The eyes are the windows to the soul, right? Studies show that eye contact can create a subconscious sense of connection. Looking away can make you seem dishonest and shifty. But staring down a buyer will just freak them out. So how much eye contact is the right amount? According to a body language expert, you should aim for 30 to 60 percent.

2. Smile, You’re on the Phone

If you’re trying to sell on the phone, then you obviously can’t use eye contact to persuade prospects to buy. The next best thing may be to smile and dial. Humans are extremely sensitive to vocal intonation. You’ll come across as more helpful and engaged if you smile during a phone conversation. This will make prospects happier to speak to you, and this in turn will help you sell better over the phone.

3. Strike the Right Pose

Did you know that buyers are paying attention to your body language? Subconsciously, at least. The type of body poses you strike can make the difference between effectively persuading someone to purchase and being very far away from making the sale.

Being hunched over or shrinking in your chair will indicate to prospects that you’re uncertain. But when you strike high power poses, like standing with your hands on your hips or sitting with your arms and legs spread, you can increase your testosterone levels and decrease your cortisol levels, which can make you seem more confident and less stressed—exactly the type of sales person someone will want to do business with. When you’re confident, you can inspire confidence in others.

4. Nod Your Head

Sometimes, something as simple as nodding can be persuasive enough to close the sale. People naturally mimic each other. So your nodding might just be contagious and be all you need to get the prospect to say yes.

5. Sequence Your Questions

One of the most important persuasive skills in sales you can master is to learn to sequence your questions in a way that makes it seem like the other person thought of the idea first. It’s tough, though. You’ll need to get an intimate understanding of the prospect’s strengths and weaknesses, and then ask questions in such a way that guides the prospect to your proposed solution, without you actually saying it out loud.

6. Mirror the Buyer

It’s a simple trick, but it’s effective. As we spend a lot of time with people, we naturally start to mirror their mannerisms and speech patterns because this makes us more likeable to them. It’s called the chameleon effect. Your buyer will report more positive feelings towards you if you mirror them. Of course, don’t use blatant imitation. Instead, just calibrate your behaviour to be attuned with your buyer’s.

7. Appeal to the Buyer’s Wants

It can be easy to put yourself in the middle of the purchasing decision. But if you want to win people over, you need to appeal to what they want—because that’s all they really care about.

Tap into your buyer’s motivations, wants, needs, and desires. When you do this right, you can hand the buyer a sense of empowerment and make them feel like they’re buying, rather than being sold to.

Go ahead. Try out these seven persuasive skills in sales and see if you can influence your prospects to buy.