First Impressions yes, but also work on your Your Last Impressions.

First Impressions yes, but also work on your Your Last Impressions.

They say, first impressions are lasting impressions. Which I believe to be true. 

However, Daniel Kahneman a psychologist who won the Economics Nobel in 2002 for his groundbreaking work in the field of behavioral economics tells us, (as reported in Psychology Today), our memories are very selective.  In particular, no matter how extended an event (party, commercial transaction), we form our view and make our evaluation based—with dramatic skew—on the “most intense moments” and the “final moments.”

This is just one of the many compelling arguments for what I call EEM, or Emotional Experience Management. The “final moments” evidence is particularly startling; it explains why we might attend a brilliant, four-hour dinner party, yet three months later only remember that two guests exchanged heated remarks on the way out the door. (This is not an “illustrative story.” A ton of hard data supports such tales.)

With this in mind, and how it might relate to you if you are a salesmen, looking to network or meet important people that might assist you in your career, other events, jobs, interviews, keeping loyal clients, repeat business and other situations where you want to be remembered positively. 

Sometimes it is how you end, not always how you begin. 

When I was first starting out in commercial real estate, there was a transaction that took me well over 18 months to close. It was a complicated deal with many moving parts including a relocation and the sale of their existing headquarters. The deal could not go forward, until I sold the buildings. When it was all said and done, I completed the transaction to the delight of the client.  Upon exiting the settlement office and saying goodbye to the client, I offered to buy his company, several lunch platters as a “thank you” for his business.  Later that month I had a dozen platters sent to their new offices, and we celebrated in the new space. 

10 years later, when his lease came up for renewal, he called me to have me work on his lease, again.  He asked me, “If we complete another deal together, do we get lunch platters again?”  Ten years later, this is one of the things he remembers? Obviously, if I had not done a good job on his lease, he would of found another broker.   

But the point of the story is, how you exit is sometimes more important than how you begin. A bad exit can ruin a relationship, even though you were flawless throughout, it might not matter. 

Just food for thought!