Pass A Smile.....
Smiling is infectious; you catch it like the flu.
When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too.
I passed around the corner, and someone saw my grin-
When he smiled I realized, I'd passed it on to him.
I thought about that smile, and then I realized it's worth,
a single smile, just like mine, could travel round the earth.
So, if you feel a smile begin, don't leave it undetected -
Let's start an epidemic quick and get the world infected!

A smile increases your face value

There is a whole host of scientific research and evidence to prove the value of the saying that “one smile can make you feel like a million dollars!” I even read one study from a place called “The Happiness Institute”, which claimed, “A smile can give more pleasure than sex or eating chocolate.” It went on to say that according to actual clinical tests “Receiving a smile from a friend or relative generates much higher levels of stimulation to the brain and the heart than being given money or having a cigarette.”

Author, psychologist, Dr David Lewis has said that a smile changes our brain chemistry and can trigger incredibly powerful emotions. These emotions help us remember other happy events more vividly, making us feel more optimistic, more positive and more motivated.

Dr Lewis makes a point of confirming that whilst a genuine smile can make us feel so good, fake smiles on the other hand can be detected and have the opposite effect, giving the person an untrustworthy and hypocritical image. Customers are hyper sensitive and can easily spot insincerity in a smile.

Have you ever noticed how yawns can be “catchy”? Well we now know that smiles too are infectious, if you smile at someone they will usually return the compliment.

How good are you at smiling genuinely? Have you ever seen your own genuine smile in a mirror or photo? Your customers want to see you at your best; they want to feel good about being around you.

Get your customer relationships off to the best possible start and open your communication up with a nice big and GENUINE smile.

By the way, armed with this new knowledge with regards the power of a smile, the “next time if you see some one with out a smile, give them one of yours” - Unknown

"A SMILE costs nothing, but gives much.
It enriches those who receive, without making poorer those who give.
It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is so poor but that he cannot be made rich by it.
A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in business, and is the countersign of friendship.
It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and is nature's best antidote for trouble.
Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away.
Some people are too tired to give you a smile.
Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give."

- Believed to be based on the writings of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch

“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.”
- Henry Ward Beecher

Do you know someone who has made an art out of cooking? Do you know someone who conjures up the most magnificent dishes by tossing together ”a little bit of this, and a little bit of that”?

My grandmother would bake exquisitely by touch. No recipe required, just a taste and touch here and there. Yet even without a formal process her baked goodies were always consistent, down to the last crumb. Her chocolate chiffon and baked cheese cake were works of art.

There was a time however, when she was taught to bake by following a recipe. As a young girl learning to bake with her mother, she would have followed the same recipe over and over again, without changing anything. Then over time she would have experimented.
“What if I threw in a touch of cinnamon? What if I added less sugar and more eggs? What if I baked at 120° for 20 minutes versus ½ an hour at 140°?” and slowly baking her had become “art”.

First however, came the science (recipe), and then came the art. The same is true when it comes to developing the “art” of persuasion. First you must learn the science and then you can begin to sculpt the tactics and techniques you learn from others. First practice the skills you learn, see and hear to perfect your form and then the material will have become yours to “play” with.

Think back to when you learned how to drive. Remember the concentration it took to become a competent driver? Now think about the last time you drove to work and when you reflected back could remember little or nothing about the trip. Where were you whilst driving? You were on autopilot. What did it take for you to get to the point of unconscious competence? Practice.

Practice, practice and more practice. Research has shown that for any skill to develop requires a process of continuing and ongoing repetition over time. Only through regular practice the new neural pathways and patterns in your brain are established and thereby enable the new skill. It is whilst learning the “new skill” that the neural pathway is immature and underdeveloped, making one feel unnatural with the new desired routine and the skill feels weak.

Just like developing a muscle the new skill must be worked on over and over again until it it has become a part of your persuasion repertoire. So train.
Keep on learning and practicing because as the 1st century roman slave and writer Publilius Syrus once said, "Practice is the best of all instructors."

Practice, drill and rehearse until you become competitive. Hone your sales skills to the point of “art” and you will leave your competition in your dust!