How Do Your Shoes Look?

Mon­day Mar­ket­ing Tip My mar­ket­ing tip today is a no-brain­er for most of us busi­ness own­ers, but it is some­thing that is often over­looked by our sales staff. It is as sim­ple as this: look at your feet! Do your socks and shoes match and go well with your pants and shirt? Are your shoes pol­ished and/​or clean? But don’t stop there. Yes, as the own­er you should set the trend for your staff per­son­al­ly, but you should also see that your sales staff take that same down­ward glance. I am blown away by how many sales­men dress well from neck to ankles, and then find the most appalling pairs of shoes and socks to wear. If your busi­ness tends to serve an upscale clien­tele, you real­ly want to pay atten­tion to the shoes your staff wears. Have you ever stepped into a cus­tomer’s clos­et dur­ing an esti­mate to mea­sure it for new cab­i­nets, a remod­el or a paint job? As an esti­ma­tor, I always observed dozens of expen­sive, high-qual­i­ty shoes. A poten­tial cus­tomer sizes up your sales staff just as much as your sales­man eval­u­ates the prospect. They are look­ing for a com­pa­ny that will pay close atten­tion to mak­ing the details of their house look pro­fes­sion­al, and the per­son­al appear­ance of your staff will give them clues they are look­ing for. A sales­per­son can give a poten­tial client the wrong sig­nals with things like unkempt hair or untidy clothes. And yes, some cus­tomers will even write off a sales­man — and the com­pa­ny he rep­re­sents — for his shoes. It is impor­tant to give your poten­tial cus­tomers an image of all-around pro­fes­sion­al­ism as part of a good mar­ket­ing plan. Remem­ber the tip: look down! Don’t let a sale slip through your fin­gers (or toes!) because of unkempt, cheap, or non-match­ing shoes. P.S. Shoes are a place to start, but they’re not all! To read more about the prop­er ways to dress, vis­it this blog post: Twen­ty Things Men Should Know.