Are You Presentable To See Customers?
I’ve talked about this before, but I feel compelled to further elaborate upon it.
Part of putting your best foot forward is making a good impression by presenting a professional appearance.
There are two experiences I’ve had that made impressions on me in this regard.
The first was at a B2B outbound sales office I used to do business with. They had a full length mirror in their foyer, and a sign, directed at their sales force that read “Are you presentable to see customers today?”
The second was the wisdom that someone once shared with me: “The way you dress indicates the respect you have for other people.”
If you’re a forty year old man and you’re still dressing like Dennis the Menace, the signals you’re sending do not inspire confidence.
Unless you’re a Web 2.0 billionaire app developer, in which case the rules don’t seem to apply to you.
If you are a billionaire app developer, never mind. If you aren’t, then don’t dress like one until you are.
There’s more to appearance than just your choice of clothes. I used to deal with a manufacturer’s rep who was famous for two things: the depth of his technical knowledge and his habit of chain smoking.
You know the type: the kind of nicotine fiend who hand-rolls his own cigarettes from pipe tobacco and who lights his next butt from the still-burning coal of his last one.
I love the guy to bits, and he was one of the hardest working reps I’ve ever known, but my heavens, the smell.
After his office visits I literally had to open the windows and light a bunch of Scentsy candles to get the reek of stale tobacco out of my office.
Not that I’ve never stepped out of line in that regard. I was actually just joking around on Twitter with AV Pro Gina Sansivero about this a couple of weeks ago.
As a serious foodie and cook I cherish garlic. Too much garlic is, quite frankly, never enough.
Unless of course you come to work Monday morning reeking like a Transylvanian holiday festival, with garlic oil literally emanating from your pores.
Sometimes there aren’t enough breath mints in the world to save you.
I was, no joke, summoned to my boss’ office, and reprimanding for my garlicky odor. It was also suggested that I take an office day and avoid dealing with clients until my metabolism got back to normal.
Come on, it’s not as if any of our clients were vampires or anything.