Beauty has muscle. Beauty captures our attention and pulls us in?

Beauty is only skin deep, but it counts almost for everything. Especially , within the first few seconds of meeting a prospect.

Most, if not all of the time, we take things at face value. Here are a few examples:

1) You buy the ?orange-ist' orange ? even though you know they've probably been sprayed with chemicals to look that way.

2) Your mouth waters as you stumble across a succulent joint of lamb in a Sunday supplement ? even though you know it's probably been lightly ?dusted' in creosote to look that way.

3) Your attention is drawn to a lithe, tanned young thing on the TV screen ? even though? see 1 above.

We take things at face value? And so do your prospects.

A colleague of mine is an N.L.P expert, and I mean EXPERT. He has spent years and years learning and developing his skills. Pouring over books, attending seminars, taking exams? He's worked closely with Paul McKenna? He's a Master's Masters N.L.P instructor (or something or other), and yet? He struggles to find clients. Why?

Well one major reason it that he doesn't LOOK like an expert. People judge and they don't see beyond the clothes, the haircut and the bad time keeping. And so he doesn't get hired. Totally unjustified, but true?

You could say he's a ?green' orange*.

It doesn't matter how good you look on the inside - your prospects judge the ?packaging' first. So are you good looking enough for your job? Or in other words? Are you looking good enough for your job?

*Ethylene is used commercially to degreen oranges, however, it is for cosmetic reasons because oranges can be fully ripe even if they are green on the outside. Reference Wills, R.B.H. et al. 1989. Postharvest: An Introduction to the Physiology and Handling of Fruits and Vegetables. London , BSP Professional Books.