Smile! It's catching!

Have you seen the news on TV lately? Did you read the newspaper this morning? So has your customer. It seems, these days, the media is less of a source of news and more of a source of doom and gloom. I’m not suggesting we bury our heads in the sand – I’m suggesting that we focus on what we can control, like our attitude. What a refreshing change for our customers if we show up for a meeting, happy, with a smile and confident. It is actually, contagious and there are studies to prove it.

Are you happy?
If so, it is more likely your circle of friends and acquaintances are happy too. Even, a friend of a friend of a friend can be happy because you are. New research shows that within a social circle, happiness can spread three degrees – three people removed from you. The University of California and Harvard Medical School studied over four thousand friends, spouses and siblings across a twenty year period. They reported that people with a wide social circle are more likely to be happy if a direct connection is happy, 10% more likely if a friend of a friend is happy and 6% if it’s a friend of a friend of a friend. It is amazing how far our mood can reach out and effect other people!

Set the mood!
In selling, we know that we can set the mood of a meeting. We also know that we can’t let the mood of our client take control of the meeting either. We need to be positive, confident and upbeat. It is a waste of time to subscribe to the doom and gloom, to worry and despair over what might be going wrong next and drain our energy on things we can’t control. Yuck! Through our attitude, let’s create an environment of positive energy and productivity. If we do this, our customer will walk away from our meeting feeling better, more confident and in control and most importantly, looking forward to the next interaction they have with us!