We know from the latest neuroscience research that our brains are programmed to "catch" the other person's delight and happiness whenever we see a genuine smile.  So…wait until you've been introduced, then as you shake your new acquaintance's hand and say her name, you smile broadly.  Body-language-savvy alpha leaders know this trick - it's as if you and your name brought a smile to their face.

- Janine Driver, You Say More Than You Think

Maintain good posture.  Standing straight also sends the message that you are confident.  Get in the habit of holding your head comfortably high, but keep it in a relaxed position.  When you hold your head comfortably high, your body will naturally have good posture.  Try this posture exercise: pretend you have a string attached to the top of your head.  Imagine the string is being pulled straight up until you are standing tall and holding your head in a comfortable position.  When you find yourself slumping, do the string exercise.

-Renee Evenson, Customer Service Training 101

Qualifying is the blueprint of the sale and the foundation of the sales process, and yet what we find when sales people qualify is a hurried, non focused attempt. 

The act of qualifying the customer means you will ask questions to determine information about the customer's needs and expectations. 

In today's high-stakes business games, not all errors are forgiven and forgotten, of course.  Some may even cost a person his or her job.  But in many cases, by taking responsibility and by solving the problem, you may navigate the troubled waters with little if any negative effect on your career.  To deny responsibility - to reflexively say, "That's not my fault!" - is almost guaranteed to infuriate everybody.

- Emily Post's The Etiquette Advantage in Business

Consider everything as a work in progress and don't panic if it doesn't work right yet.  Remember Mosher's Law: "If everything worked right, you'd be out of a job."

-Pablo Guevara

Honesty is so refreshing, isn't it? I was recently at a restaurant with my daughter, and we had something so interesting happen that it's worth sharing. While looking over the menu items, we both wanted to order meals on the healthier side. When the server stopped to take our order, she quickly deducted, by our conversation and menu orders, that we were trying to be healthy. She mentioned to us, very confidently, that if we want a lower calorie and lower fat meal, the turkey burger is not a good choice. She told us that she found out that it is injected with fat for flavor, which triples the calories and puts the fat content at a very high percentage. How refreshing to know the truth!  And, how she did this was in a caring and informative manner and not in a way to slam the restaurant.