Seven Strategic Actions In Seven Seconds To Make A Great First Impression, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
Seven Strategic Actions In Seven Seconds To Make A Great First Impression, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
So now you ask why is this so important? It is important because we know that in a time span of about seven seconds you have already decided whether or not you like the person you have encountered and they have made that same judgment about you. And yes, we know that our opinions may change once we get to know the other person better and vice versa. However the power of that first impression can be awesome and can stay in one’s mind for a long time.
We also know that business is built on relationships. And relationships are formed based upon a variety of business interactions. Therefore first impressions in business relationships are critical. It is an oversimplification, but if someone labels another person as "likeable" or "unlikeable," everything else that person does will be viewed through that filter of “likeable” or “unlikeable.” When someone likes you, they will tend to look for the best qualities within you. While on the other hand, if someone does not like you or mistrusts you, they may believe that you have ulterior motives behind all your actions.
Another very important thing to remember is that we know that first impressions are more heavily influenced by our body language or non-verbal cues, than verbal ones. Research studies have shown that body language can impact the impression you make four times more than anything you say. Therefore, if we want to do business with people who we can trust and who can make us feel comfortable and positive about being around them we need to make a very positive first impression in those critical seven seconds when we meet them.
So what can you do in those seven seconds? Here are seven strategic actions to take for you to make a positive first impression:
Strategic Action #1: Prepare for your encounters by “rehearsing” what you will say and do in those first seven seconds.
Strategic Action #2: Adopt a positive attitude before you greet and meet someone. Your attitude will manifest itself in your body language and your words.
Strategic Action #3: Make very positive eye contact with whomever you meet and greet. Look at the person’s eyes while greeting them. This action will send a message that indicates your interest and your openness. A little tip to remember is to notice the color of the person’s eyes when you meet.
Strategic Action #4: Always smile as you are greeting and meeting someone. A smile is very powerful and is a clear sign of welcome and a clear demonstration to the other person that you are friendly and approachable.
Strategic Action #5: Extend your hand to shake hands with the person you are greeting and meeting. This is a very quick and efficient way to establish an initial rapport between you and the other person or persons. And please remember to observe the rules of good etiquette when shaking hands.
Strategic Action #6: Opening your eyes slightly more than normal when making initial eye contact can enhance your body language message to the other person to send a signal of recognition an acknowledgement.
Strategic Action #7: Respect the other person’s personal space or “private zone” which is about 2 to 3 feet away from them. Be very mindful not to invade this personal space.
Creating positive first impressions provide a great strategic advantage for you and your relationship building efforts. Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach encourages you to take advantage of every encounter you have at: conferences, meetings, seminars, workshops, business lunches, public gatherings, social events, and anywhere else that you are around other people. Each of these situations present an opportunity to meet people, network, and expand your professional network of contacts by making a positive first impression. Always remember – you only have seven seconds to make that positive first impression and you have seven strategic actions to help you do just that.
Seven Strategic Actions In Seven Seconds To Make A Great First Impression According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach - To learn more about this author, visit Glenn Ebersole's Website.
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Have you ever been at a business gathering and you feel ackward, ill at ease and downright uncomfortable because you are encountering many people you have not met before? And are you actually afraid of meeting someone or simply making a negative first impression? If you answered YES, you are not alone. There are many people that do have this type of fear or uneasiness.
So now you ask why is this so important? It is important because we know that in a time span of about seven seconds you have already decided whether or not you like the person you have encountered and they have made that same judgment about you. And yes, we know that our opinions may change once we get to know the other person better and vice versa. However the power of that first impression can be awesome and can stay in one’s mind for a long time.
We also know that business is built on relationships. And relationships are formed based upon a variety of business interactions. Therefore first impressions in business relationships are critical. It is an oversimplification, but if someone labels another person as "likeable" or "unlikeable," everything else that person does will be viewed through that filter of “likeable” or “unlikeable.” When someone likes you, they will tend to look for the best qualities within you. While on the other hand, if someone does not like you or mistrusts you, they may believe that you have ulterior motives behind all your actions.
Another very important thing to remember is that we know that first impressions are more heavily influenced by our body language or non-verbal cues, than verbal ones. Research studies have shown that body language can impact the impression you make four times more than anything you say. Therefore, if we want to do business with people who we can trust and who can make us feel comfortable and positive about being around them we need to make a very positive first impression in those critical seven seconds when we meet them.
So what can you do in those seven seconds? Here are seven strategic actions to take for you to make a positive first impression:
Strategic Action #1: Prepare for your encounters by “rehearsing” what you will say and do in those first seven seconds.
Strategic Action #2: Adopt a positive attitude before you greet and meet someone. Your attitude will manifest itself in your body language and your words.
Strategic Action #3: Make very positive eye contact with whomever you meet and greet. Look at the person’s eyes while greeting them. This action will send a message that indicates your interest and your openness. A little tip to remember is to notice the color of the person’s eyes when you meet.
Strategic Action #4: Always smile as you are greeting and meeting someone. A smile is very powerful and is a clear sign of welcome and a clear demonstration to the other person that you are friendly and approachable.
Strategic Action #5: Extend your hand to shake hands with the person you are greeting and meeting. This is a very quick and efficient way to establish an initial rapport between you and the other person or persons. And please remember to observe the rules of good etiquette when shaking hands.
Strategic Action #6: Opening your eyes slightly more than normal when making initial eye contact can enhance your body language message to the other person to send a signal of recognition an acknowledgement.
Strategic Action #7: Respect the other person’s personal space or “private zone” which is about 2 to 3 feet away from them. Be very mindful not to invade this personal space.
Creating positive first impressions provide a great strategic advantage for you and your relationship building efforts. Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach encourages you to take advantage of every encounter you have at: conferences, meetings, seminars, workshops, business lunches, public gatherings, social events, and anywhere else that you are around other people. Each of these situations present an opportunity to meet people, network, and expand your professional network of contacts by making a positive first impression. Always remember – you only have seven seconds to make that positive first impression and you have seven strategic actions to help you do just that.
Seven Strategic Actions In Seven Seconds To Make A Great First Impression According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach - To learn more about this author, visit Glenn Ebersole's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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