Beware of first impressions
Avoid making snap judgments by maintaining objectivity and probing with open-ended questions.
By Michael Feuer
September 2006
It happens to all of us.
Sometime, somewhere, we have all fallen victim to one of the most deadly sins in business making snap judgments based on first impressions. It can happen when someone walks into your office for an interview or when you meet a client or customer for the first time.
Take the highly anticipated interview that you have scheduled with the prayed-for Mr. or Ms. Right. After months of scouring resumes and talking to head-hunters, you are certain you have found your savior. You fantasize that this person will join your company, initiate changes, fix what’s broken, make you even more successful and give you that elusive time to spend with your family.
Your assistant announces that the water-walker has arrived, and with much anticipation, you eagerly have the person ushered into your inner sanctum for the moment of reckoning.
You straighten your tie, pull down your jacket, prepare to flash your best smile and extend your right hand as the hoped-for miracle-worker crosses your threshold. In seconds, you size up the candidate from head to toe and feel a searing pain in your frontal lobe as your great expectations deflate like a cheap carnival balloon.
What happened? You have just made an instant decision based on an initial visual scan. Deep down, you know by training and intellect that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but nonetheless, you feel as if you’re in a book store staring at the dust-covered book jacket of what must be the worst novel on the planet.
In this case, something has turned you off. OK, so the candidate’s big, bold, very out-of-date glen-plaid suit with the wide-striped shirt and polka dot tie may not exactly go together. And perhaps your would-be messiah grew up in a place where dentists and orthodontists were unavailable.
You know in your heart of hearts that beauty is truly only skin deep. So what do you do next after making this superficial decision? 1. Salvage the interview and dig deep to find the person’s inner strengths and capabilities. 2. If the applicant is from a competitor, gain insight as to why the other guy seems to beat you. 3. Try to figure out a way to make the session professional, doing so in the shortest amount of time acceptable and without the risk of the candidate filing a legal complaint for perceived discrimination. Although rudeness doesn’t justify a lawsuit, it can tarnish your reputation and that of your company.
The best course of action is to force yourself to ask intelligent, insightful questions that may penetrate the candidate’s negative aesthetic faade. Ask open-ended questions requiring him to respond by stringing together a few intelligent sentences.
Never ask yes or no questions but instead probe by framing your interrogatories in a manner that makes the candidate think. Ask him to walk you through how he salvaged a bad business situation or explain the steps taken to land the best business deal of his career. After five or 10 minutes, you may find that he grows on you and has unique redeeming qualities.
If your issue is merely cosmetic, there are fashion consultants, coaches and, under the most severe circumstances for an otherwise superstar, minor cosmetic surgery. Seriously, though, over the years, I have found that many of my first impressions have been proven totally inaccurate once I dug a little deeper and determined how someone thinks under fire, communicates and translates concepts into actionable plans.
The most successful salespeople have learned never to judge a customer who walks into the showroom based solely on garb or physical appearance. The best story I have ever heard occurred in a very tony New York city Fifth Avenue jewelry store when an unshaven gentlemen in tattered jeans and a work shirt came through the door.
All salespeople but one looked askance at this shopper. However, a young new saleswoman engaged the potential customer, asking basic qualifying questions before jumping to a “not going to waste my time” conclusion. The result was a fairy tale come true for the saleswoman when the unkempt customer purchased a 70-carat diamond ring for his wife.
The buyer was a high potentate from a foreign country, and this salesperson earned the highest commission in the store’s history.
Not all interviews or stories have happy endings. About 50 percent of the time, that first gut reaction will probably be closer to the truth, but the other 50 percent of the time, you may have the opportunity to discover a diamond in the rough.
