Was it something I said?

When meeting someone for the first time we do our best to 'get on' with them don't we? Particularly in sales when we meet prospects or customers for the first time. Those first few minutes are crucial to the first and often lasting impression.

Communication is both simple and complex. It can easily go right or easily go wrong. Our choice of words, our voice, tonality, pitch, intonation, speed and volume, our facial expressions, degree of eye contact, gestures and body language - we use them all instinctively and unconsciously to communicate the little and the large things in life.

We may even get a 'gut feeling' about how things are going as we decide 'I like this person or I don't like this person'; often without really knowing what it is that leads us to these decisions.

Here's a true story.