Greg Bennett's Rambling Thought #28

Greg Bennett's Rambling Thought on Successful Selling #28:  First Impressions Are CRITICAL to Sales Success

On a flight recently I was reading a Psychology magazine (keeps most people from talking to you cuz they figure you MUST be a nerd)...and the story was on Hypocrisy...and how being a hypocrite doesn't necessarily mean your message is flawed or bad, it just means that the people you're talking to have to work through your hypocrisy and in the end will probably reject you and your message. 

For instance, if you're a dad and you smoke a pack of cigs a day and you tell your teenage kid, "You shouldn't smoke, it can kill you!"  Of course your smart-ass kid will say, "Well, you smoke...".   "Uh...well, yes...this is true, but it doesn't change the facts."  Dad's message is RIGHT, people shouldn't smoke, but pops IS a hypocrite...and it taints how the son will receive and respond to what is being said.

In the article they quote a 2007 study performed at Northwestern University, where they asked a number of university students to read 24 different stories involving a character who behaves in a way that suggests he is sloppy or lazy.  Later in each story however, the individual acts in a manner that contradicts this judgment.  Nevertheless, less than half of the respondents revised their view of the character!

From all this heavy head-shrinker stuff I walked away with one thought...first impressions are VITAL to our long-term success with clients!  If they see us as sloppy, dispassionate, boring, stupid, pushy, arrogant, etc...it may not only get in the way of our powerful message...but it may NEVER change even when we show more positive characteristics down the road!

Wow...I've heard all this before..."you don't get a second chance at a first impression"...but this really confirmed it.

Straighten up that outfit folks (and cut the smokes...they're bad for you :)

GB