---
title: "How Sales Representatives Can Build a Great First Impression"
description: "In business, everyone prefers to work with highly intelligent people. Making clients perceive you as a top-notch salesperson is key to establishing a perfect first impression. This involves selling yourself first, being fully prepared for closing deals, using effective opening lines, and maintaining a positive demeanor."
author: "孟庆亮"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2015-12-20"
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# How Sales Representatives Can Build a Great First Impression

> In business, everyone prefers to work with highly intelligent people. Making clients perceive you as a top-notch salesperson is key to establishing a perfect first impression. This involves selling yourself first, being fully prepared for closing deals, using effective opening lines, and maintaining a positive demeanor.

In business, everyone prefers to work with highly intelligent people. Making clients perceive you as a top-notch salesperson is key to establishing a perfect first impression.

1. Sell Yourself First
Is your hair neat? Are your clothes clean and tidy? Are your shoes polished? Do you have any body odor? Are your teeth clean for fresh breath? Does your smile convey approachability?

2. Always Be Ready to Close the Deal
1) Failure Due to Lack of Preparation
I recall once seeing a salesperson pitching products to Mr. Ni at Guangdong Dafang Pharmaceutical Company. Initially, the salesperson talked about his products, and since there were few manufacturers, Mr. Ni engaged in conversation. When Mr. Ni began to show some interest, he asked, "Do you have product materials?" The salesperson replied, "Sorry, I didn't bring them." Then Mr. Ni asked, "Did you bring the product packaging?" Again, the salesperson said, "Sorry, I didn't bring it." Mr. Ni continued to discuss the product's operational methods, but there was no specific model. At that point, Mr. Ni had to say, "Well, sorry, let's talk next time." Many of our salespeople travel like VIPs, carrying only a small bag, often missing this or that. When clients see such a salesperson, they inevitably think about how poor the company's management is, and how could they dare to cooperate with you.

2) Perfect Preparation Leads to Closing
Top-notch salespeople always carry the most complete materials to develop clients, ready to provide verification for whatever the client asks to see. I remember visiting a chain with Mr. Liu from Guangdong Dafang. After we had discussed all the details, the client suddenly asked to verify whether DK Cefaclor Dry Suspension dissolves in cold water within 10 seconds. We immediately took out a box of the medicine, scissors, a prepared disposable transparent cup, poured half a cup of mineral water, then poured the powder onto prepared white paper, let the chain store client smell it, touch it, then poured the product into the cup, counted to 10, and after counting, the product dissolved completely and was very pure. We let the client taste it, and as we said, the taste was indeed very good and suitable for children. So they called in the purchasing manager, and all of Teacher Meng's planned DK Chinese and English series products were put on the shelves.

If Mr. Liu had not had the contract or materials at that time, only heaven knows when this chain would have opened an account. Only with complete preparation can you close deals with clients in one go. Experts aim to close in one visit, saving time for both parties.

3. Use Three Common Opening Lines
A good opening line gives you the initiative in conversation and makes the client cooperate with you. Generally, there are several common methods:

1) Compliment Others
For example, when we go to a town to develop an exclusive terminal client, if you say this, the client will be very willing to meet you: "Client, through a friend's introduction, I learned that your pharmacy is the largest in Sanhe Town, and many major controlled marketing enterprises cooperate with you. We also do controlled marketing, so we have brought an exclusive project to cooperate with you." Later, this client became a VIP client for one of our projects.

2) Arouse Curiosity
In my article "How to Find Clients in a Strange Large Market," I mentioned that through three days of professional investigation, I learned 70 terminal data points about the client. Based on the data, I found the client, but the client was not interested in our domestic "Nanshan Milk Powder." So, I used just one sentence to get the client to give me one hour and close the deal: "Mr. Li, I spent 3 days in Wuhan investigating 70 terminals to find you. Can you give me 3 minutes to hear how I found you?"

3) Directly Ask What the Client Wants Most
In the article "Understanding Growth for Better Growth" (afterword 2 of "From Unsellable to Best-selling"), there is a case: "6 hours of training produces good results." We visited 7 stores. Except for the first store where our method was wrong, and the seventh store which didn't stock due to GSP certification, we used the method of directly stating benefits, asking questions 5 times in a row based on the client's size, guiding terminals to place orders and close 5 deals, generating 15,000 yuan in terminal orders that afternoon. Many salespeople cannot close that many deals in a month.

"Our controlled marketing products: if you order 1,000 yuan, do you want to earn 1,000 or 1,200 yuan?"
"Our controlled marketing products: if you order 2,000 yuan, do you want to earn 2,200 or 2,400 yuan?"
"Our controlled marketing products: if you order 5,000 yuan, do you want to earn 6,000 or 7,000 yuan?"
All clients chose the latter, and after communication and providing guarantees, all deals were closed.

This case occurred in the most transparent Taihe market for health products, showing how much everyone wants high gross margins.

4. Three States Clients Like
1) Smile When Meeting Clients
Smile whenever you see someone; your smile is worth a million. You cannot change your appearance, but a smile can change your expression. Your smile must come from within; practice smiling more, and you will develop it.

2) Let Clients Feel Your Enthusiasm
You must be enthusiastic whenever you meet clients. Think about how you can impress clients without enthusiasm. My highest record was visiting 22 clients in a day and closing 17; all clients were moved by my enthusiasm and guarantees to place orders. For clients who haggled over price, I immediately gave up.

3) Let Clients Feel Your Friendliness
Use your eyes and body language to convey a friendly atmosphere. Start by practicing in front of a mirror; do you feel that the person in the mirror is friendly?

These are the three magic weapons I used when running terminals at Heinz, and they are still effective today. As soon as you start working, you must remind yourself to maintain these three states. This is human nature; not only do clients like it, but who in life doesn't like friendly, enthusiastic, smiling people?

Imagine a friendly, enthusiastic, smiling salesperson visiting a client, and another with hostility, no expression, and no smile. Who would the client talk to?

Homework for this section: How to build a perfect first impression in front of clients?

Reprinted from: Meng Qingliang Studio "Get Good Orders, Run Good Meetings"

**-END-**

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