All my classes, books, meetings, and experience have taught me that for one, life isn't fair. We can make laws that try to make us treat people equally but in reality, looks do matter.
As bad as it sounds, there are certain things you can do as a salesperson to dramatically increase your conversion rate. I learned this a long time ago and you may call it superficial but I "changed" my image because of it.
These things have been
proven to lead to more sales than their alternatives:
- Short Hair vs. long
- Tall vs short
- Thin/athletic vs. fat/overweight
- Professional attire (i.e. suit, slacks & buttonup) vs casual (i.e. shorts & tshirt or even jeans)
Everything in sales rides on the person's first impression of you. You can make the best presentation ever, but if you look like a slob you're probably not getting the project or sale.
I was an "alternative" kind of guy in high school, and even college. I had long hair, baggy clothes, skateboarding shoes, etc. I didn't really care about what other peopel though (and still don't to an extent) but when you have to feed your family and know that dressing a certain way and conveying yourself in a certain way can win more sales - what are you supposed to do?
So now I dress very clean. When I'm not wearing a suit I wear either slacks and a button-up or polo shirt. I occasionally wear nice jeans with a button-up or polo if I don't have an appointment.
I have short hair and no facial hair. I have a nice pen (ink pen) and leather attache case I take to meetings. I try to look as professional as possible within reason. For instance, I don't wear a suit if I'm meeting with the owner of a construction company - because it's overkill. But I would if I was meeting with the president of a bank.
As superficial as this all is, it works. Proven. I can attest to it. All of us can say that we don't judge people based on looks but it's just not true. Studies say that we get our first impression within like 5 seconds. There's not a lot of room for talk in 5 seconds, so it must come from looks.
The moral - if you are in sales, take heed to some of the advice herein and watch your sales conversions increase.