My name is Jasmina. Over the years I have been called Juliet, Jacqueline, Georgetta. Now I receive a lot of business offers, letters or calls. I am sure someone went through the trouble of checking my name to address them to me directly. And yet I still see my surname change from Marinova to Markova, or my first name – to Yasmin. I guess you must have heard that a person's name is the most important word for them. Yes, research proves that this is the word we hear most often throughout our lives. Our name is so deeply rooted in our minds, that we are able to catch if someone utters it in a very noisy room, even if we are not paying attention to the specific person who says it. This is a mental reflex, our mind is programmed to recognize the most important things, and there is nothing more important for a person than their name. It is an identity that helps us announce ourselves, to exist, to be seen, to be heard. People use our name to call us to eat and warn us of danger in the first days of our lives. That is why our name is embedded in our instinct.

Bear that in mind when you extend an offer – be it commercial, business or even if you’re only conducting a job interview with the person opposite you. Getting their name wrong has a subconscious effect and automatically puts a dent in your chances of success. In face-to-face exchanges it is unpleasant, but understandable. But when you send a response to an invitation for an interview, a commercial offer, or you invite someone to have a conversation, it is unacceptable to make a mistake. Check again and again. Technical errors in the name are simply not acceptable.
Consider for a moment how you feel about your own name and whether you think your life would have been different if you had been named differently.

And yet how can we remember the name of a new acquaintance? A trick is to make an association when we hear a person's name for the first time. This is the so-called "anchor". An important condition is that you must make the association yourself. You can associate the name of the new acquaintance with a person you know, or perhaps it could have something to do with the root of the name.

It could be the meaning linked to the name, for example Stella - the Latin name for star, or Milan being the Italian city. And if the person is called Stoilkov, you can use an anchor that it sounds like Stoichkov, but with an “L” instead of a “Ch”. Because people are unlikely to say their last name twice the way Bond, James Bond, does. :-)

As difficult as it is to remember a person's name the first time they say it, remember that it is the key to your success. When you use it at the next meeting, that person is certain to have a more positive attitude toward you and feel that you are more friendly.

Author: Jasmina Marinova