"Gut Feel" Decision Making Is NOT Cosmic

Here is a follow up to a post I wrote on "What Would You Wear For A Client Presentation":

As a salesperson, have you ever made a "gut feel" decision on a prospect that prevented you from being your best or caused you to act your best? I'm talking about that sales call where within a few moments you are in your mind closing down the meeting as a waste of time and those calls where you are connecting and are in your comfort zone. Even the best sales person has had both experiences. Of course we know that the best sales people will match and mirror verbal and body language, not pre-judge (cherry pick) and ask questions that get the prospect selling them self to you and focused on them. But, I don't care how good you are we all had at least once the gut feeling that sent a sales call into a tail spin.

Have you ever asked yourself where that gut feel comes from? It is NOT from the cosmos. It is not the perfect or not so perfect alignment of the stars or a universal vibration theory. It is a culmination of all the external stimuli entering our subconscious mind.

Let me put it to you this way, if you were meeting with a financial expert for the first time who was going to plan a personal financial freedom portfolio for you and he arrived at your house in a 15 year old car that was falling apart and got out of the car in loose fitting clothes that were wrinkled and his appearance was unkempt your subconscious mind would be sending a message to your gut feel center of your body that maybe this isn't the right person to manage your money.

Or, what about the construction contractor you are meeting that is going to discuss building an addition to your house for a budget of $100k and he shows up in a beat up old rusted van and doesn't take notes and after looking around the house in 5 minutes he is quoting numbers to you on how much it will cost to complete the project. Again, your gut feel is telling you that maybe this isn't the right guy to trust with your home and money.

Both of these examples, if not for our gut feel, could have been the best person for the task at hand but we will never know because we elected not to do business with them. In fact, we probably elected to not listen to what they had to say because we made a snap decision to not use them and now you are focused only on how to get them out of your house sooner as opposed to later.

Now we know our gut feel can be fairly accurate but I'm sure it can be just as often not so accurate. For example; I'm a sales person calling on a General Construction company and the owner is dressed in blue jeans and a t-shirt. His office is decorated in construction industry chic, drafting table and coffee table covered in blueprints, sales samples, business cards, junk, etc. He is hurried and his language is very blunt and to the point. My gut feel might be telling me that this guy is uneducated, blue collar tough with cash flow problems and will never buy my product or service. If that was my feeling my attitude will be to end this call as quickly as I can and move on. Guess what, that person might have been me. I am dressed this way because today I'm on the job site and my guys who I know don't respect the suit. In fact, my clients expect me to be dressed down and when I meet with them I was in jeans and a golf shirt with my company logo. What you never found out is that we are busy because we are good and as a result we have loyal customers with repeat business. In fact our bank account is in 7 figures. You just lost a great account.

When you are in sales you must research your prospect before you meet them and know that prejudging (cherry picking) can cost you business. Be careful of the "Gut Feel". Gut Feel decision making is not cosmic and in reality is a culmination of what we see, hear and feel. Now that you know this, how do you present yourself to your prospect? What subconscious message are you sending to your prospects gut feel center?