The Most Important Component of First Impressions is the Handshake

First impressions are very important and pretty much dictate how people will perceive you and your business. This will ultimately reflect upon your business future so you really need to make the best impression you can.

Always dress the best you can. Depending upon what the reason for your first meeting you need to dress appropriately.  By this I mean you will dress differently if your meeting is in the field compared to a meeting held in the office.

There are two most critical elements in the first meeting between you and your new business associate or client. These items are the confidence that you display and the way you shake hands.

The potential issue is that in many Indian Tribal cultures a light handshake is more traditional but in the American business world a firm handshake is the acceptable norm. This means that some Indian contractors may be pushed beyond their comfort zone.

We have to remember that a lot of business depends upon how others perceive the contractor and the first impression is critical.

That being said; let’s explore the art of the handshake:



The importance of eye contact cannot be stressed enough!   You need to maintain eye contact; do not look down because that sends a message of submission or you do not feel equal to the other person..

Do not use the bone crusher method; this borders upon rudeness!  The best method of handshaking is a firm confident friendly grip.

There is nothing that makes a woman more attractive than confidence and a confident handshake.  This sends a message to everybody that they are confident in their space and you had better respect their position.

The same can be said about a confident man.  It has been said that the world will step aside for the man that knows who he is and knows where he is going!  Most business people will try to help the business person that  has the confidence to push ahead in today's world.

Do some serious research and thinking about how you can improve your method of meeting people for the first time.  If you have a tendency to be shy; you may need to work on building up your confidence;

Practice on being the best you can be!