How to Make a Strong First Impression: Seven Tips that Really Work

In his article "How to Make a Strong First Impression: Seven Tips that Really Work!" Bill Lampton, PhD offers some practical advice that's sometimes forgotten in the world of business. Some of his tips include:

• Pay abundant attention to your prospect. Lampton writes, "The greatest way to make a positive first impression is to demonstrate immediately that the other person-not you-is the center of action and conversation."
• Maintain eye contact. Lampton explains eye contact as a great nonverbal cue to show that you're fully engaged in a conversation.
• Use your prospect's name frequently. By using their name often, you're demonstrating that you've been paying attention from the moment the dialog began. Additionally, the conversation is more personal, raising the level of comfort between you and the prospect, according to Lampton.
• Watch the way you speak. We know our wardrobe should be respectable, but Lampton points out we should also dress our language for success. "Listeners judge our intelligence, our cultural level, our education, even our leadership ability by the words we select-and by how we say them," Lampton writes.

Here are a few additional tips:

• Always have business cards, brochures and other marketing material available to increase your credibility.
• Avoid sarcasm and humor. Be good-natured without constantly cracking jokes. A remark that may be amusing to you could be offensive to your potential customer.
• Know your sales pitch and stick to it.

And in case there was any doubt that first impressions genuinely determine the outcome of just about any endeavor, here's some research provided by Dave Jensen of the journal Science:

• Two experimental psychologists at Harvard University found that observers were able to develop impressions of videotaped professors within two seconds that matched the same ratings as individuals who'd known the professors for an entire semester. This means the professors were able to project everything about them-positive or negative-literally in an instant.


• Researchers at the University of Toledo in Ohio discovered that laypeople watching 15 seconds of videotaped job interviews were able to accurately predict the outcome of the interviews without knowing anything about interviewing techniques.

This information can be intimidating, but it's important to realize how quickly and correctly we can assess the people in our lives. Make good use of the tips above and you'll project a better first impression when dealing with potential customers! They'll sense your confidence and develop a much better opinion of you.