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Tuesday Book Club: Blink!
May 15, 2007
Have you ever met someone and taken an instant liking or disliking to them? Have you ever entered a situation and thought, ‘I am getting a strange feeling about this!’ In the words of Blink author Malcolm Gladwell, you have experienced ‘thin slicing.’ Gladwell also wrote The Tipping Point, a book that I first thought was about knocking over sleeping cows but to my dismay I learned it was really a business study of the origins of killer ideas (that is, if Hush Puppies can be considered as such).
Blink challenges the reader to consider educated first impressions. What, you might be thinking, does this have to do with selling? Well, I might be thinking back, a veteran sales person usually recognizes an appropriate client the instant he/she meets him/her, and it all happens in, well, the blink of an eye and most reps don’t even know that it’s happened. In truth, the instinct can be taught and/or honed to be a key skill.
The book is a quick read and though it has no pretty pictures (a must for 6th grade readers and Yankees fans), is fascinating and simple. For veteran sales people, it is validation. For rookies, it makes you aware of who you need to be someday when you grow up.
Posted by Bill Farquharson on May 15, 2007 | Comments (0)
