Consult Mirror Neurons with Vendors

Sometimes when you’re meeting with a vendor’s sales rep, you’ll have an intuitive uncomfortable feeling about the person or situation. These striking judgments almost always occur within the first few moments. Research indicates that if you’ve an abundance of experience dealing with sales reps, the quick judgments like this often pay off. They are good signals of whether you should continue working with the rep or the supplier. Overall, you’re best off dealing with vendors and sales reps you’re comfortable with from the start.
     But your discomfort might be for reasons which have little to do with the capabilities of this sales rep to help you achieve profitability. For instance, maybe it’s only that the clothes the sales rep is wearing seem wrong for the meeting. Or maybe the sales rep looks like an older version of a rival or bully from your high school days.
     How to tell if the discomfort is reason enough to stop dealing with the sales rep? According to some neuropsychologists, there are special cells inside your brain that might prove valuable. Those brain cells are called mirror neurons. Mirror neurons have also been called empathy neurons. Their role is to produce inside us what’s being experienced by the person we’re interacting with. Mirror neurons were first described by researchers at Italy’s University of Parma.
     Identify the negative emotions you began to experience as soon as you started talking with the sales rep. Fear? Insecurity? Impatience? Then do what you can to produce within yourself the kinds of emotions you’d like a sales rep to have: Courage, confidence, and patience, for example.
     If this empowers the sales rep’s mirror neurons to duplicate those desired emotions, you might be on your way to building a profitable partnership. Otherwise, you might want to trust that first intuition.