Public Displays of….

…Hygiene???

I believe that sales is all about know, like and trust. In other words, people have to know you, like you and trust you in order to consider buying from you. It goes lik e this:
 
First you have to look and act like someone I want to get to know.

Then once I know you, I will decide if I like you based on your behaviors towards me and others.

And finally….if I like you I start to or not to trust you based on your continued behavior.

Sounds simple right?
 
If so, why do I see so many people – sales and business professionals alike – behaving in public in ways that make others not want to know them?
 
Case in point. Chris and I were on a 6am flight home from St Louis. The flight was full of men and women in suits. The business crowd. Any of them could be a potential client. Yes, the world can be that small.

Sitting next to Chris was a normal looking middle aged man in a suit, clipping his fingernails.  First, Note to TSA how did he get the metal clippers past security? Second, we were seriously worried Chris was going to get hit by “nail shrapnel”. Gross.
 
Cutting his nails on the plane. Are you kidding me? Let’s give it the “know, like, trust” test….
 
1) Is cutting your finger nails in public a behavior that would make others want to get you know you?
 
Nope. It’s a repellent behavior not an attractor behavior.
 
So it’s over. No chance for like, trust or a sale.
 
You think I am being extreme? Last year I sat next to an Executive VP for a large Fortune 500 company on a flight from Edmonton to Ottawa. For 4 hours we chatted about sales performance and that year they booked over $20,000 in training and consulting with us. I had never met nor heard of this company before I met the executive, on the airplane.  Do you think I would have got that deal if I had hit him square in the face with a dirty fingernail clipping? Absolutely not.

Dedicated to helping you be known and liked by others,

Colleen