Business Advantage: Smiling Helps

A funny thing happened today. In the most unusual spot, the local supermarket of all places! I got a shot in the arm that helped me reap a tonne more success during my day at the office.

A big part of my day to day role involves selling. Recent times have been pretty successful, I have made a stack of new clients through forms of networking, referrals and even some cold calling. However, today was fairly poor in terms of results and I couldn't work out why I wasn't firing on all cylinders.

Anyway, as I headed up to the supermarket to grab a stack of energy drinks (cheaper to buy in bulk) one of the shop attendants passed me and said "Hey smile, it's not that bad!" I was initially taken aback, but I quickly went over to her and said "Was I really looking that unhappy?" She laughed and quipped back "Yep, you looked way too serious! Lighten up."

At first I was a bit shocked about the comment, but then I thought hey maybe thats why I have been off the mark today in terms of generating new business. So after grabbing my energy drinks, I headed back to my office armed with the tip from the shop assistant.

I started making a few calls, some follow up calls at first then some cold calls. I was amazed, I got a much greater hit rate and even though these weren't face to face discussions, my attitude had gone from negative to majorly positive and suddenly it was rubbing off.

So my day ended pretty well and all because a young shop attendant gave me a simple little tip, that passing comment turned it all around. So just remember, smile it helps you in more ways than you think.

Happy Selling!