Practice English Speaking&Listening with: International Retail CEO Cédric Moulin shares how important body language is in the retail industry!

Hello everyone this is Nafisa from Simply Body Talk and

I welcome you all to our show non-verbal champion i know

It's been really long and that is why we at Simply Body Talk

Today have a surprise for you for the very first time on this show

We have an international guest Mr. Cedric Molin.

Cedric Molin has worked in the role of CEO of multiple companies he has

Recently started his own retail venture, Cedric is also an

executive coach and consultant with 22 years of work experience with

leading international companies, He has traveled across the globe and

worked in different geographies cedric is also an amazing father and

He's also very fond of dogs

So this is Nafisa from Simply Body Talk and i welcome

everyone to our show non-verbal champion and today i'm very glad to announce our

esteemed guest Mr. Cedric Maulin on the show we welcome you Mr. Cedric how

does it feel to be on this show that's very exciting thank you very much

for welcoming with, becoming me into this project.

Okay, so we'll be asking you some questions and

let's see what insights do you have to share with us okay

You have been the CEO of the company of Belgium

So what different kind of human interactions did you have with different

kind of people well they're, they're on different levels

and that makes the specificity of the CEO role.

Because i i had to have frequent contacts with

with the board, board members and shareholders

I was obviously in very close touch with, with my team and

Then we also had the customers I had many interactions I

really made a big effort to be present especially on big days like

Saturdays and holidays will be open on bank holidays

and then, and then the all of the suppliers and the partners

So, so all of those interactions happen on a different level.

And it's quite interesting because you, you really need to adapt

To, to each of them it's a different posture

It's a different language, it's a different vision shorter or longer

term

It's actually sometimes employees think longer term than the shareholders

So we really need to adapt on a permanent basis

So as you mentioned about you know situations with the shareholder which

you would want to tackle I was just going to come to the next

question that being a CEO you know diversified

role it is right a very diversified rule so

then you might have encountered many different difficult situations

and you would have to tackle it so could you share some examples how you know you

could come over it or through your

communication and your body language. Well one of them obviously was really

at the beginning of, of my mission and the company

was just out of what they call in U.S chapter 11.

The company was nearly bankrupt and I was hired by the board

To, to relaunch the company and open for others,

Open new stores

And when I got into the company the team was really lacking close,

close support and even close touch with, with Management

Because for two years they had been just focusing on you know cost killing and

finance and treasury and so on, So I

decided to to ask the 12 people who were reporting

directly to me and at the time I started, I asked them just two questions

But what do you need for me and what, what are your general

expectations.

And the one of one of them was, was very

common among probably 11 out of 12 people it was

more consideration, I need more consideration

So I adjusted my, my own Body Language to, to the expectation.

That they needed to feel closer to the

management and the previous various people in,

In my position so it was, It was a moment when, it was really key

To show empathy to recognize

What people had been doing in those very difficult times,

Because they had been asked very, very strict.

Rules to follow and and very big efforts.

Physically mentally in terms of creativity as well,

So it was important somebody came up to them and

You know looked at them and looked at the, the way

products were presented and the the stock management and so on and really

Appreciate it. so it was it was a very key moment.

They they needed me to be, to be close to them actually so,

So I met them very often and It was very important to have

eye contact at the moment and to really take the time to listen to them

so I asked a lot of open questions and enjoyed

their reactions really.

Taking care of any detail they were giving me because that would be useful

for the following of my mission. we will come to the next question now that.

You have your own retail venture is there a change which you notice in

the human interactions which you have now versus when you were a CEO.

Well yes, I would say even yes and no because, because there are still many

similarities and from one store or one company to the other.

You will find especially in the same country,

similar reactions similar habits and, and the job is still the same

The the only difference here is especially cultural.

We were in the fashion business right in the city center of Brussels

The store we opened here is a, is a large store.

But It's in the countryside, It's a destination store.

People don't come by you know by mistake or by random they

really decide to come here starting with our employees so the,

the values. that you have in one company or the

other the Philosophy the overall mentality and the

the culture and definitely has an impact on how you

manage business and how people interact to each other

I'll give you a few, A few examples for instance we

in Belgium, in Belgium we normally people kiss each other to

Say hello It's just one kiss, in France It's two kisses and in Belgium very strangely although

It's more to the north compared to, to France

Men kiss on one cheek as well as they do with Girls

This is something you won't do in a big

Corporation, things started being a bit more turned down and more relaxed

in, in the in the corporate world that you

don't do these kind of things. We would tend to do it in in smaller

structures smaller stores you know it looks more like family like, like a

casual team spirit. So kissing is one thing we can't do it

anymore because of corona-virus and the first day we couldn't do it we

felt strange like, we like okay what do we do and we still need to

find contact so it will be with the elbow it

will be with the feet. But we, we were struggling because

something was missing

So did you actually like did you all actually start doing it

or is it something you would want to

well we, we had to stop contacts especially with the hands and the and

the face so anything remaining like the the

elbows or, or the feet would still be

doable so a few people still want to do something, you know they come and

they say okay I can't kiss you but give me your elbow

So what is the kind of thing which you do when you say you know, you show

more respect or you know with the younger audiences okay because they are

a bit chill so you know it's like how do you do that

well, I think showing showing respect is

is first of all listening to the person in front of you well if

I put things in orders actually in order it will be

first to adapt that person in front of you

and then truly connect so eye contact you know as they say

in the Avatar Movie I, I see you and trying to understand

the rhythm of the person that's, that's really specificity in retail because

everything, goes fast in retail you don't have

the time to do things in full depth there's always something

up, something coming up, something new, a new crisis new

customer something you don't expect out of

stock products a product that's not okay and so we have four thousand products

in the store four thousand types of products and

there's always something happening with one product

If you add up the customers we have like between two and three hundred coming in

the store. coming into store on a normal day

there's always something new so there's a rhythm and

You need to adapt to the rhythm some people need you to take more time

with them some people are in a hurry and it's

either customers or people from the team you know you need

to respect that it's quite important so observing the person and seeing in which they're, they're putting themselves and

how much time you can borrow from them and that's, that's pretty important.

You already mentioned that observing person is really very important so

I would want to know that as an entrepreneur

what do you think you know is the role of the Body Language cues which

any person be it a client a customer or an associate

which gives to you how important is it? It's I think it's crucial you cannot

do a good business without using Body Language in retail

because everything comes down to Human Relationships.

A store, a retail store is a place where people meet you got the

products in between but there's always interactions,

Especially in a store like ours we, we will know, we will never go the way

of Amazon you know suppressing the cashiers and

having people just do everything themselves

We're not interested into this because the the added value

of the products we have in store have to be taught

and we have to understand on the relationship with the customers what

they really need in the store and what's missing

And what they don't understand about the products that they are buying

that's, that's very important so. so the

The, the cues we we, we're looking at our well first of all the eyes because

somebody was really looking for something

you know they you will see it on their face you know,

And the the ones who are in a hurry you will also see in the movement like

okay you know they feel already ready to go

Just give me my information and i'm out we

well basically i would say there there are two very important things

You need to understand

if you're really getting it if you're really

understanding what the person is telling you, you know

the person customer, the customer would will give you needs and sometimes you

need to understand what's the need behind the need

because the product they want doesn't exist in organic stores

or they have a specific product and they don't want to tell you immediately

so they're asking for products it's probably not the right product for what

they need so it's very important to understand

whether you really took it if you took the information

properly if you digested it properly so that's the first thing and the second

thing is when you're really able to convince the person when you're

able to convince the shopper about what, what you're proposing either an id or

recipe a product doesn't matter but it's important to

not wear that proper feeling did I understand the person correctly

and was I able to express myself and convince the person correctly as well

Simply Body Talk consists the retail companies in order to improve

interaction between the Sales floor personnel as

well as the customers this helps them to build a stronger

relationship with the customers and also ensure that the customers they

have a stronger loyalty with the retail brand

About culture you have been traveling across the globe for work right

so would you want to tell us you know how

Body Language has played a very crucial role for you because

the culture are different human interactions would be different the

language and everything so how was it well again

it's, it's fascinating our Body Language

helps to, to relate to people even in

very distant cultures from yours. The first thing yeah when you, when you

travel across the globe

first thing is to is to learn the code basically

it is, it is key to be able to understand what will be disrespectful

in the country you're visiting whereas in your own country it's not a

problem

and these are things that are more linked to the

well the habits the customs than, than Body Language but,

But it starts with this actually because everything you do

everything you show gives a message to the person in front of you.

Whether you know or not and if they don't understand that

It's something that you can do fully in your country you are shocking.

If you, if you if you do in front of them that

that would sometimes look like something very very gross

and I'm taking examples for instance in Muslim countries

You're not supposed to show the bottom of your out soles you're not

supposed to show your feet and this is something that people don't

mind in, in Western Europe It's very important to learn about this

When I settle down in Turkey there's one rule

that I didn't know I felt very annoyed when I finally heard about it you

know like six months after settling

something down in Istanbul it's, it's very gross to

blow your nose in front of people especially when you're eating

My father always did it with us because nobody told him it's not possible to do it

so I continued doing it this time until

someone told me you know

don't do it again.

You know it's those things that, that are very small details

You never think about them when, when you're

When you're on in your usual social circle but

they can't for others another thing which is

related to Body Language obviously is is when the the variable language isn't

qualitative enough to make sure um you can you know make yourself

understood or you can understand the person

in front of you so I've communicated with people

with whom I, I didn't know language and sometimes you can you can still make

good friends with these people and make sure that

that basics are covered basic needs and so on and

I have another interesting experience

in the same, in the same street well eastern Istanbul

Turkey are areas where men show their masculinity you know

they're strong and they some of them like to you know show their muscles and and they're having a big mistake for

for the older generations and so on and some

when something's wrong they will tend to raise the voice

and I had a, I had a car with a french license

license plate back at that time in Istanbul and

It was very difficult to park in the area and

usually stores will put things in front of their their showcase their

windows to prevent cars from parking and

hiding the store behind and especially one of them was very good at

you know he was putting barrels and the metal bar and so

on and one evening after turning around for

half an hour I realized that the space was free they

probably had the delivery and forgot to put the bars back

so I parked my car, I went home and then I forgot about it and I left it

for three days and when, when I, I went to pick it up

He was you know eagerly waiting to

jump and and start screaming at me

and usually what people will do something you know somebody

shouts at me I will shout louder and I will

you know show that I'm shocked and you shouldn't speak to me

and so on and instead of going that direction

I just looked at me with my hands again the body and

I looked at him and I said I'm so sorry I completely forgot I spoke to him

a very gentle voice I, I speak Turkish which really helped

and then the guy was like no it's okay, it's okay don't worry don't worry,

It must be something really unexpected for him he might have thought

that you would you know really get more agitated but then you were really

cool He was ready to fight and I was not

ready to fight and that really stopped the you know the

you know ongoing aggression and the escalation basically

so, so that that's also where it's useful like.

You can surprise people positively when you have a different culture and

they understand it sometimes it helps to connect people. Yeah!

thank you so much our audience would

get really great insights and this was an

amazing interview thank you so much for your time

You're truly a Non-Verbal Champion and

So thankful. Well, thank you very much it was

You enjoyed too it was not really from our end. It was a great interview

very well prepared and I really enjoyed the experience we can have

any other opportunity whenever you want

It would be great Thank you so much