Consultant: Several recent articles have discussed nonverbal

Consultant: Several recent articles have discussed nonverbal communication as an element of persuasion. Apparently, body language and eye contact are even more influential than words in persuading someone to adopt a certain point of view. Thus, my recommendation is that you hire someone to train your sales team in using nonverbal communication skills. This will ensure their being able to persuade more customers to purchase our products.

We see that the consultant is recommending a plan. The plan is the following:

hire someone to train your sales team in using nonverbal communication skills

The consultant concludes that the the plan will result in the following:

This will ensure their being able to persuade more customers to purchase our products.

The support for that conclusion is the following:

Apparently, body language and eye contact are even more influential than words in persuading someone to adopt a certain point of view.

So, we see that the consultant's reasoning is that, since "body language and eye contact are even more influential than words in persuading someone," "training the sales team in using nonverbal communication skills" will result in "their being able to persuade more customers to purchase our products."

The question asks us to find the choice that points to a flaw in the recommendation. Scanning the answer choices, we see that don't describe the argument. Rather, they provide additional information about the situation. So, this question is a hybrid Flaw-Weaken question, and the correct answer will work like a Weaken correct answer.

A. If the sales team makes excessive use of nonverbal communication strategies, this could lead to stagnant sales.

The recommendation is not for the sales team to make excessive use of nonverbal communication strategies, and we have no reason to believe that they will do so.

So, even though this choice may be true, it doesn't point to a flaw in the recommendation.

Eliminate.

B. The cost of hiring someone to teach nonverbal communication will be offset by increased revenue from higher sales.

Notice that what this choice says is positive for the recommendation. After all, if cost of hiring someone to teach nonverbal communication will be offset by increased revenue from higher sales, then the recommended plan will pay for itself.

So, this fact strengthens rather than weakens the case for the recommendation.

Eliminate.

C. The products sold by the company are not objectively better than the products against which they compete.

What this choice says might indicate that the company's products may be hard for the sales team to sell, but this fact about the products themselves doesn't indicate anything about whether the recommendation for increasing sales makes sense. After all, regardless of whether the products are better than others, it could be the case that training the sales team in using nonverbal communication skills will result in their being able to persuade more customers to purchase the products.

Eliminate.

D. The sales team's nonverbal communication skills are not optimal at present.

This choice is an assumption upon which the argument depends. After all, if the sale team's nonverbal communication skills ARE optimal at present, then training them in nonverbal communication won't help. So, for the recommendation to work, it has to be the case that the sales team's nonverbal communication skills are NOT optimal at present.

At the same time, since we are not looking for an assumption, this choice is not the correct answer. After all, a stated assumption would strengthen the case for the recommendation rather than point out a flaw in it.

So, we have to be careful to remember what we are looking for and see that this choice is not what need.

E. The company's sales force does not make most of its sales calls in person.

Notice that, if what this choice says is true, then the plan may not work. After all, this choice means that most of the sales calls are NOT in person.

If the sales calls are not in person, then body language and eye contact will not occur during the sales calls because they occur only when people are together in person.

So, if true, this choice points out a serious flaw in the recommendation.

The correct answer is (E).