Page 46 - How To Sell Yourself

Selling Your Likability 45 Practice with a friend
In the last chapter, I suggested an eye-contact exercise with a friend. Now try it as a face exercise. Close your face. Frown hard. Now introduce yourself. Next, neutralize your face. Wipe off all the expression. Introduce yourself again. Open your face. Let your eyes open all the way and arch the brows upward. Introduce your- self. Now, have your friend do the same exercise as you watch. The difference is remarkable.
The key to likability is the open face. And remember: Likabil- ity wins.
Using your body
The second likability tool is your body. It’s another key part of that critical first opinion of you. It involves the way you stand and the way you sit, your posture, and the way you use your hands and arms. I call the gesture “the com-municator’s equivalent of a hug or a handshake.”
The gesture is like a handshake or a hug.
If you’ll agree that
communication is an intellectual act of love, you’ll realize that the open face says, “I care,” and the gesture says, “I share.” But as the face is, the hands are naked. We’re not at all comfortable with them, so we hide them. We put them away. Standing, we immedi- ately go into one of four “no-no” hand positions, each effectively killing any chance to use gesture as a communication tool.
The 4 “no-no” hand positions
1. One hand clutches the other wrist and together they come to rest in front of the crotch. In photography, this is called the “fig leaf” position.