Your card must speak

for itself in 2 seconds!

     Do NOT underestimate or undermine the value of your business card. People will size you up and decide if they want to do business with you in the first 7-1o seconds that you meet. If your first impression isn’t crispy sharp AND warm and friendly at the same time, you lose.

     Your business card is as important as the genuineness of your eye contact, smile and handshake. A business card will often be a 2-second focus of attention out of that first 7-10 seconds! [Many similar characteristics accompany your email signature; be careful with what it says and how it’s used; it may sit in a file for years before being re-visited!] 

    Your business card is probably more important than any other factor in making a favorable first impression, because once your meeting, encounter or presentation is over, it’s your card that customers and prospects take away with them. It’s your card — and sometimes your email sign-off — that people will remember you by (or not).

     It’s your card that must stand on its own two feet and command acknowledgement over the trash basket. It will not succeed if it is bent, dog-eared, faded, coffee-stained, dirty, boring-looking, or failing to present as many contact options as possible. The all-time worst scenario (and you’d be amazed at how many business owners do this) is to have no cards available.

It should be sufficient to say that the only thing business cards sitting in a box will succeed in attracting is dust! 

     Take your cards everywhere all of the time. There are no boundaries for discussion openers or follow-ups that prevent you from discretely handing a card to someone at a wedding or funeral with just the suggestion to “please contact me here when you get a chance” instead of a sales pitch. Take them on vacation, on your honeymoon, to family gatherings. Laminate some for beach and gym visits. Timidity never made a sale.

     One standout tactic for using cards, by the way, that many successful salespeople practice, is to intentionally not print their cell phone number on the face of the card and to instead hand write it on the back.

     This practice gives the recipient a feeling of having an “insider” contact option; this is especially effective at a trade or professional show where time is at a premium for establishing a sense of confidence. And the extra couple of seconds to do it rewards the recipient with an iota more personal attention than 99% of your competitors and other exhibitors will bother with.

     Oh, one other thought: The famous theatre producer David Balasco always made a practice of requiring salespeople to write their “story” on the back of their business cards before he would consider seeing them (most reportedly failed at this task!).

     It has always seemed to me that this is a good practice for every business owner, manager, entrepreneur, and sales professional to do on a regular basis as a “brush-up” for themselves. It’s what some corporate gurus have called the “elevator speech” or one sentence explanation of “what your business is all about.” The exercise might surprise you! 

  # # #               

Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US or comment below.

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You!

Make today a GREAT Day for someone!