Sales Resources

YOUR IMAGE OF DIFFERENCE (part 1)

"Image is everything" has been a tag line for Canon Photographic equipment for many years. This is a great tag line for business in today’s environment as well, especially when your business is uniforms.

What is image and why is it so important in today’s marketplace?
Business professionals are under constant pressure to deliver value to their customers, especially as pricing and features become indistinguishable between different companies. Image is one of your many weapons to combat "sameness" and will enable you to separate you and your organization from the rest of the pack.

Image begins with how you present yourself and your organization to customers and extends to your ability to create interdependent relationships with your clients. A professional, personal presentation and the development of customer relationships based on trust, credibility, and rapport, will lead to the ability to identify value creation opportunities for your customers.

Appearance Matters
Often times, today’s casual business environment leads to a less professional approach to business. Appearance is often a forgotten tool to gain confidence with your customers. As professionals, the greatest compliment that we can pay a customer is to take the time to be prepared from an appearance perspective. Meeting each customer interaction with appropriate energy, a positive attitude, and a clean, polished appearance is a way to demonstrate to the customer, "I care about you and I am here to do business. This is not a social call." Bringing the appropriate Energy, Attitude and Appearance into each sales call is an integral part of your mental preparation for your solution development, which is critical to your success.

A business casual environment does not translate to "Casual Business." The passion and energy that you bring to customer relationships is the very starting point for accomplishment. Without energy and focus, a sales call can have the characteristics and sound that the Winnie the Pooh character, Eeyore, might display: "It’s not much of a sales call, but it’s all I know and I’m sort of attached to it…"

Eeyore: "Hey Frank, how’s it going? Is there anything new happening at Worldwide Wallyball Incorporated? (and the classic) You don’t need anything, do you?"

Customer: "NO."

Unfortunately, sales professionals don’t know they slipped into a rut with the customer by becoming too casual. Create your Image of Difference and avoid Casual Business by checking your Energy, Attitude and Appearance. These practices will extend your position with your customers and help you to create valuable interpersonal relationships based on trust, credibility and rapport.

GREAT SELLING!