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Your handshake says a lot about you. It can convey confidence, warmth, and honesty, or it can signal weakness, uncertainty, and disinterest.

Either way, it sends a subtle yet powerful message about who you are, that is not lost on prospective buyers. Use these pointers to make sure your handshake sends the right signals, and creates a good impression with prospects and customers.

• Avoid the power grip. A handshake should be firm, but not overly forceful. Beware of the unconscious tendency to pull the other person toward you as you shake. This can be interpreted as aggressive, and the prospect’s resistance to you will go up a notch or two.
• Nothing wimpy. It may seem painfully obvious, but it’s amazing how many salespeople offer weak, perfunctory handshakes. This is a major turnoff to many customers. Firm and friendly always wins the day.
• Look ‘em in the eye. As you extend your hand, establish eye contact and smile. Show some teeth! A warm and sincere greeting can make you an instant friend - and all things being equal, people prefer to buy from friends.
• Get a grip. Never grasp the other person’s fingers. Take their entire hand completely in yours, and gently pump it two or three times.
• Turn on the charm. You’ve been talking with a customer on the phone for several months, and meet them in person for the first time at a trade show. To express your pleasure at finally meeting face to face, you may want to cover his extended hand with your left hand briefly during the handshake. This increases the familiarity and warmth of the handshake. Do not attempt this with someone you don’t know. However, it is often a pleasant gesture when you are shaking hands with someone you’ve met previously. It simply says, “I’m very glad to see you again.”
• What to say? No handshake is complete without a spoken greeting. You can’t go wrong with, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” When meeting someone of high rank, such as the chairman of the board or founder of a company, you may want to up the ante with, “It’s a great pleasure to meet you.” After the initial greeting, your conversation should begin while you are still shaking hands, for example, “John tells me you’ve made some significant additions to your product line.” Your hand should be slowly and somewhat reluctantly withdrawn as the person begins to speak. This slow withdrawal indicates your keen interest in the person and what he is saying.
• What’s your body language saying? Posture is important, so stand erect, about three feet (one pace) away from the client, with your hands out of your pockets. Face the client squarely; never approach from an angle, or when the subject is engaged in conversation or otherwise distracted. Wait until you have his full attention before extending your hand.
• Saying goodbye. When the meeting is over, it’s time to shake hands again. You now have the opportunity to leave a lasting impression. If you’ve established rapport with the buyer, it’s a good idea to gently grasp his right forearm with your left hand during the handshake, and restate any promises you may have made during the meeting, for example, “I’ll put the technical report you requested in the mail to you today, and give you a call next Wednesday. I enjoyed meeting you.” This two-handed shake signals your interest and commitment to your customer.
• Practice makes perfect. Much like dancing, the fine art of the handshake takes practice. Stand before a mirror and extend your hand. Check to see if you’re projecting an image of confidence, warmth, and enthusiasm. Keep in mind that your handshake reflects your personality, and should be a spontaneous gesture of friendly greeting that comes naturally from within. With a little rehearsal, you will develop the ability to tailor your handshake to every situation you face, and each individual you meet.

Your handshake is a powerful business asset that can help you close more sales, and build lasting and profitable relationships. The time you spend working on it will be time well spent.

Michael Dalton Johnson is the Editor & Publisher of “Top Dog Sales Secrets”, the best-selling sales book featuring advice from 50 renowned sales experts. He is the Founder and Publisher of SalesDog.com, an education resource for sales professionals. Johnson is a successful entrepreneur with over 30 years of business leadership. For a free subscription to his weekly sales tips newsletter, visit his website at http://www.SalesDog.com

It’s an integral part of being a parent: you make sacrifices to give your children the best chance to succeed in life. And there is an expectation that each succeeding generation will take those chances and be happier, better educated and better off. But university education delays entry to the workforce, which could account for the relative drop in income that Morgan found for this age group.

Even here baby boomers are breaking the mould. Where once people in middle age had paid off their mortgages, these days paying off the mortgage is a reason to borrow more, for extensions, an investment property or shares.

But what if the behaviour of one generation - however inadvertent - caused a new generation to be worse off?

What if today’s young adults, the so-called generation Y, were finding it tougher than their predecessors, generation X, while at the same time baby boomers grew ever richer, using their wealth to lock their children out of the housing market?

That is exactly what appears to be happening. Not only are people under 30 earning less (in relative terms) than generation Xers did when they were the same age, astronomical prices mean they are increasingly locked out of home ownership. They are in danger of becoming the renting generation.

(There is no clear definition of the label, but generation Y is vaguely used to define those born in the 1980s and ’90s. Baby boomers are those born between the Second World War and 1961 (sometimes 1964) and Generation X is the period in between.)

Every week Roy Morgan Research knocks on Australians’ doors and asks questions.

Apart from the well-known questions about who those surveyed would vote for, the researchers ask a host of other questions: which bank they use, how big is their mortgage, how much superannuation do they have?

They have been doing so for years, and not just in Australia. They also collect data from the United States, Britain, New Zealand and, in recent years, Indonesia. The result is a treasure-trove of information about the way Australians think and behave, both over time and in comparison with people overseas.

The researchers have now decided to bring some of this information together to provide a more accurate picture of trends over a 10-year period.

Their first report, State of the Nation, focuses on housing affordability. Right in the middle of an election campaign in which interest rates are a big issue, and with the Reserve Bank tipped to raise rates again this week, it is very timely.

The data draws a disturbing picture of Australians under 30 (which, for the purposes of this story, we will call generation Y). This generation is doing exactly what everybody says is the right thing: they are getting a good education.

More Australians than ever are gaining university degrees; up from 15 per cent 10 years ago to 23 per cent today.

While the average income of all Australians has increased by more than half in the past eight years, the income of Australians under 30 has only increased by about 40 per cent. People over 60 had the greatest rise, with an increase of more than 60 per cent, reflecting people staying longer in the workforce and the power of their investment income.

While increased education among younger people is undoubtedly a good thing, and normally considered a key to increasing income over a lifetime, Morgan speculates that there may be less of an income premium attached to higher education than previously, because the graduates are competing against each other for jobs.

It notes that while part-time and casual work has increased across all age groups, it was most pronounced among the under-30s. That makes sense for people who are still studying, but it may also reflect, says Morgan, “increased difficulty in finding stable, long-term employment.”

While their income (relative to everybody else’s income) has declined, at the same time house prices have skyrocketed.

Morgan finds that the value of the average mortgaged home has increase from $170,000 in 1997 to $434,000. But the value of a home owned by someone under 30 has not increased by as much as homes owned by older people, suggesting generation Y has had to settle for properties of relatively lower value to get into the market.

And while they are buying cheaper houses, they are borrowing more. Those who have stretched themselves to buy a home owe, on average, more than $200,000. Generation Xers owe $179,000 and baby boomers owe $128,000.

The equity that people own in their homes increases as they age, but the 10-year trend shows while young people own about the same proportion of their home as they did 10 years ago, older age groups have benefitted from house price inflation to gain a larger share of their homes.

Meanwhile, baby boomers continue to strengthen their grip on society, even as they age. Ten years ago those aged 45 to 59 owned about a third of the money in bank deposits, managed investments and superannuation. Today they own 42.6 per cent of those assets.

But generation X has the most debt. Thirty to 44-year-olds, who represent 27 per cent of the population, have 46.7 per cent of the credit card and loan debt.

Today almost half (49 per cent) of boomers have a home loan, while 10 years ago just over a third of people aged from 45 to 59 did. Even seniors have not kicked the debt habit, with the proportion of the over-60s who still have not paid off the mortgage almost doubling to 9 per cent.

But the story is not just about one generation using its purchasing power to elbow a younger one out of the market.

While members of generation Y have less money than their predecessors, they like to spend it. In many ways, today’s young people have more in common with the baby boomers than with the generation between them.

In fact, some commentators have dubbed them the echo boomers. Perhaps living in a period of low unemployment has given them a similar outlook on life to those who grew up in the full-employment 1960s, when a job would be waiting after the obligatory overseas adventure.

But there are few hints of a counter-culture among today’s young adults. More than half of the under-30s agree with the statement “I enjoy clothes shopping,” and more than a quarter agree with the statement “I was born to shop”. Almost as many would eat out every night, if they could afford it.

Not surprisingly, they are much more likely than their elders to go to the cinema, eat out, go to a nightclub, buy fast food, go to a pub or even visit a music store.

They like to spend their money on travel and technology, particularly mobile phones, which will come as no surprise to anyone, especially the phone companies, which are making lots of money out of them.

The Morgan research finds that 91 per cent of the under-30s have mobile phones (perhaps the more surprising finding is that 9 per cent of them do not) and that they spend $54 a month on them, compared with $45 for 30- to 44-year-olds.

They also like to buy computers, and plasma and LCD televisions. And travel.

In this respect generation Y is more like the baby boomers when they were in the bloom of their youth. In fact, today’s young want to do what their parents did in the 1960s: leave the country.

There are only two fears you are born with, the fear of loud noises and the fear of falling? Both these fears are an ancient defence against the most basic of threats.

Every other fear you have is learnt. Unfortunately the flip side of this - is that most of the fears you have also been taught to you - by well meaning friends and family members. Because what they believe to be true is their reality and they simply pass that on to you.

I know my wife has a fear of spiders. And I can see that if she reacts in a fearful manner towards them in front of our children, then they too, quickly form a ‘taught’ fear of spiders.

Yet a child like Bindy Irwin from the Australian Zoo who was brought up by her father to hold and cherish spiders, snakes, sharks and even tigers has no fear at all.

So who taught you to fear asking for the business, fear asking for a specific marketing campaign, or a business referral?

Who taught you to fear asking the buyer to put an offer on paper?

Or worse who taught you the fear of rejection, which can be so great, that you would rather not ask, in case you got a no, than step across the line and try just in case you got a yes!

Another disability you can carry is your beliefs, like fears your perception of reality can hold you back dramatically. If you believe something to be true, your choices, moving forward will be based on that reality, something that can easily have you tracking off on a tangent from the real truth.

It’s a fact that by the time you are 18 years old, 90% of your beliefs are in place and nearly all of them are wrong.

How you believe your business to work can either be an asset or a liability! Whether you believe you deserve the business or not, it is a self fulfilling prophecy. If you believe you are worth $50,000 you will have a $50,000 business and if you believe you are worth 1 million dollars you will have a million dollar business?

As I stated earlier the greatest block between you and your earning potential is yourself.

How we handle objections, defeat and failure all determine the next move, either a move closer towards success, or further away from it.

Brick walls are there for a reason.

They are not there to keep us out! They are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They are there to stop the ‘other’ people!

Free yourself up to do more business today by looking closely at your fears and beliefs and then start getting out of your own way!

In our family we have 5 extra statutory holidays each year, that’s because we recognise how important birthdays are and we make sure we all take the day off for each family member’s birthday! No one goes to school or work and we celebrate that person birthday in style.

As a sideline, that means over the next 20 years - I may end up having 100 more days off - than you?

But back to the topic, why are birthdays so special to forming relationships? Well it’s because almost no one remembers birthdays? But when you do you get yourself right into a very special category of people! And if you remember someone birthday consistently you will form a very special bond in just a few years.

However to remember someone’s birthday you have to first know when their birthday is? So how do you find out the birthdays of people you know?

My first technique is quite obvious and that is to just ask them. Now children love to tell you when their birthday is, the day, the month and the year, they are proud of their age and will even divide the year up into segments to tell you they are 7 and three quarters old right now.

Older people, especially after say about age 28, are far more reluctant to share the year they are born in, and that actually doesn’t matter. Because to remember their birthday each year the only two facts you need to know are the day and the month.

So when you ask them ask just for that. Like “I was wondering when your birthday is, what day and month where you born in’, you will be surprised how quickly they respond with the details. Everyone secretly likes to think they may receive an extra birthday wish, card or phone call on the day!

Other techniques are to ask someone else who knows them? Or if is a client or customer, you may make it part of a form that they fill in?

And of course pay attention, often people will tell you what they have been up to that week and often it will be a celebration of theirs or someone else’s birthday.

I make a point of asking everyone I meet, not right up front but closer to the end of the conversation, and if they have given me their business card I will just take a quick note of the day and month and write it on the back as soon as I have left the meeting.

The most important thing is to have a system to remind you off the birthdays as they come up. I use Plaxo, it’s a free service which keeps your address book up to date, and will give you a 7 day reminder of upcoming birthdays , which gives you plenty of time to arrange a gift or a card.

I also use Plaxo premium which will allow me to send an e-card to anyone in the world on the day of their birthday. A sure fire way to ensure no one is forgotten!

The other thing I love to do is call people on their birthday and sing them happy birthday over the phone! At any age everyone loves to hear that song, ‘Happy Birthday to you’!

And of course the more Birthday greetings you send out the more you will surely receive in return! If you want to you can post a comment here with your name and birthday, and email address… I will send you a card next birthday, I promise!