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THE FIRST FOUR SECONDS

FOR BETTER OR WORSE, WE have to accept the fact that, as human beings, we’re basically fear-based creatures. We’re constantly sizing up our surroundings and making snap decisions based on how we perceive them. Is it safe? Is there danger nearby? Do we need to be extra careful about something?

This type of snap decision-making goes all the way back to our caveman days, and it’s wired into our reptilian brains. When we saw something back then, we had to size it up instantly and decide whether to stay or run. It was only after we were sure that we were safe that we’d start debating whether or not it made sense to stick around for a potential benefit.

That quick decision-making instinct is still with us today. The stakes are much lower, of course, because we don’t typically face life-or-death situations every day. But, still, the process happens just as quickly. In fact, it happens in less than four seconds over the phone, and in only a quarter of a second when you’re in person. That’s how fast the brain reacts.

Think about that: it takes only a quarter of a second for a prospect to make an initial decision about you when you meet them in person. We know this because scientists have conducted experiments where they hook people up to a certain type of MRI machine that reveals how the brain works as it’s processing information. Here’s what happens when scientists flash a test subject a picture of someone: first, the subject’s visual cortex lights up almost instantly, and then, a quarter of a second later, their prefrontal lobe lights up, which is where the judgment center of the brain is located, and a decision gets made. It happens that quickly.

During a phone call with a prospect, you have a bit longer—you have four seconds to make an impression.

To be clear, though, even when you’re in person, it still takes four seconds before a final judgment gets made. The difference is that the process starts sooner when you’re in person—literally from the first moment the prospect lays eyes on you. But, either way, whether in person or over the phone, there are three things that you need to establish in those first four seconds of an encounter, if you want to be perceived in just the right way:

1 Sharp as a tack

2 Enthusiastic as hell

3 An expert in your field

Those three things absolutely must come across in the first four seconds of a conversation; otherwise, you set yourself up for a major uphill battle.

Now, in truth, if you screw up the first four seconds, you have another ten seconds, at most, to play catch-up ball, but after that, you’re completely done. It’s basically a lost cause. You can’t influence anybody.

At this point you might be asking yourself, “What happened to not judging a book by its cover? What about that, Jordan?”

Well, my parents were actually big believers in that adage, and so were my schoolteachers.

But you know what?

They did it, and so do I; and so do you, for that matter. Each and every one of us judges books by their covers. It’s basically hardwired into our brains; and it’s not just an American thing; it’s also an Australian thing, a Chinese thing, a Brazilian thing; an Italian thing—it’s a human thing. It exists everywhere in the world, and crosses all cultural boundaries.

The bottom line is that you have four seconds until someone rips you apart, compartmentalizes you, judges each piece, and then puts you back together again based on how you were perceived. And if those three aforementioned things—being sharp as a tack, enthusiastic as hell, and an expert in your field—haven’t been established firmly in your prospect’s mind, then you have basically no chance of closing them.

Now, why is that?

Well, think about it for a second: do you really want to do business with a novice? When you go buy a car or a stock or a computer, who do you want guiding you through the process, a novice or an expert? An expert, of course!

In fact, we’ve been conditioned since we were yea big to seek out experts to help us solve our problems and eliminate our pain. When we were sick, our parents took us to a very special person called a doctor, who wore a white lab coat and had a stethoscope around their neck; and we were awestruck, at first, at how even our own parents deferred to this person—until they told us why. This person, they explained, had been through countless years of schooling, during which they learned everything there was to know about making sick people feel better. These people were even taught how to dress and how to act and how to talk so people would have confidence in them at a single glance, which is why you started to feel better just by being in their presence. This person had earned the right to be called a doctor, because they were a true expert in their field.

But, of course, this was only the beginning of our conditioning. As we grew older, the parade of experts continued.

If we were struggling in school, our parents might hire us a tutor; if we wanted to master a certain sport, they’d hire us a coach. And when we entered adulthood, we picked up right where our parents left off, and to this very day we continue to seek out experts and teach our children to do the same.

Think about it for a moment.

Who do you think Scarlett Johansson wants styling her hair on the day of the Oscars? Is she going to seek out some pimple-faced kid who’s fresh out of beauty school, or is she going to track down the world’s foremost stylist, who’s been making celebrities look fabulous for the last twenty years?

And who do you think Jordan Spieth or Jason Day will turn to if they’re in a slump: a local pro at a municipal course or a world-famous swing doctor who’s written books on the subject and who’s worked with other famous professionals for at least twenty years?

The simple fact is that we all want to deal with pros or experts, and we also want to deal with people who are sharp and on the ball, and who are enthusiastic about what they do. Experts have a certain way of talking that literally commands respect. They say things like “Listen, Bill, you need to trust me on this. I’ve been doing this for fifteen years, and I know exactly what you need.”

Novices, on the other hand, tend to speak in far less definite terms, and their limited grasp on the deeper nuances of their product and their particular industry becomes more and more apparent as they move a prospect farther down the Straight Line and enter the looping phase, and are forced to “free-form”—meaning, they run out of scripted material and are forced to make things up on the fly in an effort to push their prospect’s level of certainty above their action threshold so they’ll buy.

My point here is that how you are perceived will carry through to every part of the sale, but it starts in the first four seconds. If you screw that up and make a negative first impression, then you basically have no chance of closing the deal.

Interestingly, the first time I said this was close to thirty years ago, on that very Tuesday evening when I invented the Straight Line System. I told the Strattonites that evening that they had precisely four seconds to make that all-important first impression.

However, as it turns out, I was actually wrong.

In 2013, a professor at Harvard University published a study on this exact topic—the importance of first impressions—and what the study found was that it wasn’t four seconds until a prospect made the initial judgment; it was actually five seconds. So I have to apologize for being off by one second.

Apologies aside, what the study also found was that if you make a negative first impression, it takes eight subsequent positive impressions to erase that one negative first impression. Frankly, I don’t know about you, but in all my years in sales, and with all the products I’ve sold, I can’t think of one industry where, if I screwed up the first meeting, I got eight subsequent chances to redeem myself. It simply doesn’t happen.

That’s why it is absolutely mandatory to establish those three crucial elements in the first four seconds of the conversation, every single time. Otherwise, you’re toast.

1 First, you’re sharp as a tack. If they don’t think that you’re sharp as a tack, you’re wasting their time. You must come across as someone who’s totally on the ball, a born problem-solver who is definitely worth listening to because you can help them achieve their goals. In essence, you have to sound and act like someone who can help the prospect fulfill their needs and desires. You can accomplish this by demonstrating mental speed and agility, fast decision-making, and a unique pace of delivery that immediately impresses the prospect and builds trust.

However, to achieve lasting success, you must actually become an “expert in your field,” so that you do, indeed, know what you’re talking about. In other words, you can’t just talk the talk; you also have to walk the walk. So while you’re busy “acting as if,” you’re working at lightning speed to learn everything there is to know about your industry and the products you’re selling, so you truly do become an expert.

2 Second, you’re enthusiastic as hell. This sends a subliminal message to your prospect, telling them that you must have something great to offer. You must sound upbeat, enthusiastic, and full of energy, and be a positive influence in their lives. One of things that I had to learn the hard way was that just because you can sell someone something doesn’t necessarily mean that you should.

Today, I have a strong belief in sales as an honorable profession, and I’ll only operate in sales situations where I have an unyielding and passionate belief in the value of the product or service I’m offering to prospects. I need to genuinely believe in that value before I sell a product or service, and then I’ll describe it passionately. I also have to have a firm belief in the company that the product and I represent. This is what allows me to act enthusiastically in any sales situation.

3 Third, you’re an expert in your field—an authority figure and a force to be reckoned with. From the time they’re old enough to walk, people are taught to respect and listen to authority figures. In sales situations, I convince the prospect that I am a highly competent, ultraknowledgeable professional by coming off as a world-class expert in my field, right out of the gate. Not only does this allow me to instantly gain the prospect’s respect, but it also causes them to defer to me and basically hand over control of the sale.

To demonstrate this authority, I translate features of the service or product into benefits and value for the prospect, while using technical industry lingo that I’ve taken the time to simplify—allowing the prospect to easily grasp what appear to be very complex statements. I’ll also add value by offering a unique perspective during the sales conversation, demonstrating extensive knowledge and understanding of the market, industry, product, prospect, and competitors.

Remember, the biggest misconception among new salespeople is that they feel like they have to wait a certain amount of time until they can brand themselves as an expert. That’s a load of crap! You need to be “acting as if” from the very start, while you educate yourself as fast possible, to close the knowledge gap.

Show Them You’re Worth Listening To

When you immediately establish these three things, they roll up into one simple fact in the prospect’s mind, namely that you’re a person worth listening to. In other words, it makes sense for them to take time out of their busy day, because someone who’s as sharp as you and enthusiastic as you, and who’s achieved your level of expertise, is going to:

1 Get to the point quickly

2 Not waste the prospect’s time

3 Have a solution to their problem

4 Be an asset to them over the long-term

In addition, once the prospect has come to this positive conclusion about you, their brain will instantly extrapolate your value to its logical end, which is:

You can help them achieve their goals.

You can help get them what they want in life.

It could be a core need they’re looking to fulfill; it could be a simple want or desire; it could be to gain control over a certain aspect of their life; or, at the highest level, it could be to alleviate a pain they’re feeling.

And, again, because the human brain is so naturally adept at this, it takes less than four short seconds for your prospect to rip you apart, analyze each piece of you, and then put you back together based on how you were perceived.

If you’re perceived the right way—that you’re sharp as a tack, enthusiastic as hell, and an expert in your field—then the prospect will defer to you and let you take control of the sale.

If you’re perceived the wrong way—that you’re as dull as dishwater, a disinterested bore, and a stone-cold novice—then the opposite happens and the prospect takes control. It’s nothing less than a make-or-break situation.

Now, that being said, one thing that I want to make crystal clear to you is that I am not advocating that you become one of those talking-head types, the kind who go on and on while their prospect just sits there and listens.

While that might be what pops into your mind when I say, “take control of the sale,” I assure you that this is not what I’m talking about. I mean, think about it for a second: don’t you utterly despise being on the receiving end of a salesperson who goes on and on without ever letting you speak?

It makes me want to run out the door!

That’s why the Straight Line System is as much about becoming an expert listener as an expert talker.

However, to truly become an expert listener, you first need to learn how to take immediate control of the sale. There’s simply no other way.

The million-dollar question is how?