Judge not ... The truth in business and in life: we're judged all the time.

AuthorWiesner, Pat

YOU WALK INTO A ROOM FULL OF PEOPLE YOU have never met before to have a meeting about something you are all concerned about. It could be a business meeting or a session of your home-owners' association. Suppose it lasts an hour or so. By the time everyone has had their say you will have made some judgments about each of the people in the room. You will have established some sort of pecking order about each of the participants in the discussion, measured your regard for them, and determined a value for what each has to say.

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So will everyone else in the room. Each person will make a ranking of everyone else. Who is the strongest? Who would I like to have on my team? Who would I work for? A lot of this may not be conscious, but, if not, it still occurs just below the surface.

I have been a salesman almost my whole life. I figure that my average customer has at least 25 salespeople just like me, calling on them. And I know that my customer has a ranking in his head for each of us. It might not be something he thinks about every day, but he could easily tell you which sales people he hopes never call him again, and which ones he is happy to hear back from.

So if I'm an average salesman, I'll be in the middle of the pack of that bunch of 25, and I'll probably have a hard time getting to see Mr. Big. I'll be average in my sales performance, and I'll make an average income and probably have an average life. I probably have learned to do things like most other salespeople do them.

If on the other hand, I am not like the other 25--if I dress differently, act differently, perform better, provide more information to the customer, sound less like I'm only interested in myself and my product, contribute to the solution of my customer's problems, etc.--then things will be different for me.

I will move up in the rankings that my customer is sure to make of his list of 25! I will find it easier to get appointments (because I always bring value, not just my product). I will make...

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