PLAYING WITH A FULL DECK OF...

Well you can think whatever, but I’m referring to business cards. Yep, that’s right business cards.

I’m thinking in this case of people who go into situations like business deals and are totally unprepared. And not having enough business cards is a sure sign to me they are not going to be all that reliable in terms of someone you can count on to do what they say.

That is one of my little tests I administer to people I meet, especially sales people. I ask for a business card. If they have trouble finding one or have to go through their wallet to find one, bingo I know they didn’t have enough confidence in their product or sales approach to expect to make a sale. It is like a big alarm going off in my head.

A second thing I don’t like is the guy with a business card that he has to cross something out in ink and write in the change like a phone number. Most of the time you do know that in advance so again it leaves me totally unimpressed.

Of equal value in terms of losing my interest is the guy who shows up with a generic business card. That screams rookie! And you can bet I might listen to him out of courtesy just long enough to make some excuse that I have to cut the meeting short. Buddy if you haven’t got around to being issued your own business cards I sure as heck don’t plan on being the dude you test out your new career with. Been there and done that and it sucks!

Now what I am impressed with on the business card test is the guy who has a small plastic sleeve in his jacket with his business cards in them. And they are clean too. That means they haven’t been sitting in his pocket forever. Another little detail on the Limburger test that often doesn’t end up being noticeable to the guy who I am meeting.

So I assume some of you might ask, “Hey Rash surely you aren’t going to tell us that you base on your decisions about salesman on whether they have business cards?”

No, I am not going to say that. It might be a big factor, but not the only one. Still its one I have used as sort of a guideline. And it is amazing how that really ends up being more reliable that you might think. That is because often people convey these messages with their behavior in terms of business cards without realizes what is says about what they are thinking.

Another little tidbit I watch for is the guy with too many business cards. I mean if the guy has several different ones with his name that tells me he either has changed jobs a lot or has a whole lot of side deals going on. I ought to know because I have all kinds myself when I want to pretend to be somebody other myself. (Only in my case the others have bogus names to go with the bogus companies. It sure can be a life savor when I’m under the influence and carelessly give my date my business card. Those really come in handing the day after when the gal calls a pay phone number that I listed for the office of my non-existent company!)

In the meantime I hope you give this little observation on business cards some thought and perhaps it will spare you buying something from a guy who is on his first day on a new job. Good luck and take an extra second to check the card before thinking it is worth your time. Cheers and all that jazz.