What Got You Here Won't Get You There in Sales: How Successful Salespeople Take it to the Next Level

Habit 6—Curb Qualifying

The tendency to judge a prospect’s means and motive superficially from a distance.

This is a common practice across the retail and real estate sectors: Sometimes we’re guilty of knowing all we need to know about someone simply by watching that person step over the curb on her way in. She is still 40 feet away and hasn’t spoken a word, yet we gather quick surface assumptions and act on them (or, more often, don’t act).

Many a sale has been stalled or broken by leading with incorrect assumptions that are based on what someone is wearing, what he’s driving, dirt under his fingernails, or his need to pass a comb through his hair. In most cases the downside lies in underestimating the prospect on the basis of appearance.