Dale Carnegie wrote in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

Aristotle Onassis carried a notebook with him to write down the names of people he met so he could remember facts about them.

I was a participant in a seminar some years ago and the speaker walked around the audience before he took the stage meeting a number of the guests. During the seminar, this gentleman addressed several audience members by their name and he did this effortlessly without any notes. Everyone was amazed.

This guy understood the credibility that is gained and the possible disaster that can be avoided by developing this one skill. If you want to develop good long term relationships with your clients, it will serve you well.

Are you ready for the number one reason you have trouble? Are you really? It is because you do not care! That may be a little harsh but the reality is we are just not paying attention. This will not come natural to most of us and will take a concentrated effort to become a habit.

Next, please stop saying, I’m just no good with names. Every time you make that statement, you are making a verbal confession that gives you a convenient excuse when you fail and programs your sub-conscience to fulfill exactly what you tell it. Program your mind to succeed. If you want to do anything worthwhile, you have to claim it first.

Now, here are some ideas to help you develop this skill.

1.Franklin Roosevelt liked to visualize the person’s name written in magic marker on their forehead. Color of your choice.
2.Repeat the name back to the person frequently during the conversation. Ask them what they prefer to be called if they wearing a name tag.
3.Associate the name with someone famous or something you are familiar with.
4.Write it down.

There are numerous tricks we can use to help ourselves remember someone’s name however, keep this in mind, you must want to do better and believe you can.

Please submit any creative ideas you have used to help you remember names.