Fashion turns to dressed to sell
very month I devour
scores of magazines and periodicals in an effort to educate
myself and keep our members abreast of news and events that
affect the industry. This month, the cover of Sales & Marketing Management featured as its lead story “Dressed
to Sell: How your salespeople look is more important than
ever.”
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The following are excerpts from a lengthy
article by Jennifer Gilbert, senior editor of the magazine:
Image is everything. In today’s
economic climate, corporate America had better clean up its act
and groom its salespeople for success — or risk losing
business.
It’s tough to turn on the TV these
days and not get a glimpse of America’s growing obsession
with image. Shows like ABC’s Extreme
Makeover, TLC’s A Personal Story,
and Bravo’s Queer Eye for the
Straight Guy* tell strangely
empathetic tales of ordinary people seeking extraordinary
changes in their outward appearance.
(*Oh, come on! Don’t tell me you
don’t watch this every week.)
This isn’t a phenomenon relegated to
popular culture; corporate America is starting to feel its
effects. Two years ago, the Casual Corner Group, a collection
of retail outlets geared towards women, started a wardrobe
seminar to help corporate managers define and implement a new
business reality: the concept of casual Friday.
Fast forward to February 1, 2003. The
Retail Brand Alliance, Casual Corner Group’s successor
and a privately held company now composed of Adrienne
Vittadini, Brooks Brothers, Carolee Designs, and Casual Corner
Group, launched a program to help managers guide employees
— particularly salespeople — away from casual duds,
such as T-shirts, wrinkled khakis, and open-toed shoes, and
back to traditional business dress: pressed, button-downed
shirts, tailored suits, slacks, and skirts.
Sales and marketing executives, throw out
your golf shirts and khakis. In this post-September 11,
financially strapped business climate, where time is limited,
dollars are scarce, and negotiations are more serious, the
business-casual look is officially dead. Customers once again
expect salespeople to wear power suits, with a power image to
match. Anything less could be devastating to the bottom line.
According to a recent Equation Research
survey of 361 executives, 30 percent of executives say that
customers have commented negatively on a rep’s appearance
or grooming. And 49 percent say their salespeople have
encountered prejudice from customers because of the way they
look. In addition, 38 percent believe their companies have lost
business because of a sales rep’s negative appearance.
Managers who still have relaxed dress
codes are doing their organizations a disservice, says Dawn
Waldrop, president of image consultancy Best Impressions, based
in Cleveland. An unprofessional appearance can undermine
negotiations with customers and result in lost sales. Smart
sales leaders are the ones who understand that it is their
responsibility to spruce up their sales force, Waldrop says.
The bottom line? The business world is
changing, and managers need to take a much more active role in
monitoring their teams’ appearance in the same way that
they help their reps cultivate active listening skills,
attentive customer service, and thorough competitive analysis.
In addition, many companies’ salespeople undergo offsite
training that addresses professional image. (Is this an
opportunity for you to offer no-charge seminars on how to dress
for success?)
Experts say this hands-on approach is
vital for managers who want their reps to come across to
customers as serious business people. “In tough economic
times, people want to see people who are businesslike,”
says Herbert Miller, a lecturer in the marketing department at
the University of Texas at Austin, “There’s been a
drastic change over the last two or three years of going back
to more formal dress.”
Managers who want to improve the look of
their salespeople should make it a top priority to draw up a
dress code, experts say. In fact, having specific guidelines
gives them something to refer to when addressing an image
problem with a rep.
“It’s a company’s right
and responsibility to spell out what they expect,” says
Stephen Roppolo, a partner with the New Orleans office of
Fisher & Phillips, and whose focus is labor and employment
law. The more detailed the guidelines, the better, Roppolo
says. “If you have a more general rule, it provides more
room for different interpretation of what professional
means.”
Roppolo has recently noticed that many
companies that had detailed casual policies a few years ago
have rescinded those policies, replacing them with policies
that dictate professional appearance. “They are being
more specific because they are moving from one philosophical
approach to dress to another,” he says.
It is not illegal or discriminatory to
fire reps who don’t comply with appearance requirements,
and employees cannot sue their employers for being laid off
because of appearance, Roppolo says.
Yes, the turnaround is finally happening.
We all knew it would. We just didn’t know the devastation
that would lie in its wake: 20 to 30 percent declines in
drycleaning sales, a firm foothold by discounters and many
failed locations. You, the survivors, are facing a brighter
future.
As the business world gravitates back to
formal (professional) dress your business will now begin to see
the growth you hoped and struggled for these many years.
Dennis McCrory is president of The Golomb
Group Inc., a firm that designs marketing programs for
drycleaners. Contact him at The Golomb Group Inc., 7664 Plaza
Ct., Willowbrook, IL 60527 Tele: (800) 679-5856
E-mail: dennismccrory@golombgroup.com
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