# "If you're in Sales, you gotta look sharp." True? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 3, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904 "2009-04-03T19:48:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/21 "2009-04-04T00:26:30Z")
> [@fisha](#): > > That’s what I was just going to ask **filmore.** I run a residential remodeling company, and make pretty ok money. > Would you hold this against me, for not having the appearance of being successful enough? > > Similar looking truck > > [http://www.dockagan.com/2000f150blue.jpg](http://www.dockagan.com/2000f150blue.jpg) Not in your case. Your truck is _exactly_ what I would expect for a tiler. The junky trucks I was talking about looked like a $500 Craigslist special–dirty, beat to crap, never washed, etc. And I wouldn’t want the tiler to show up in a $40,000 luxury truck either. ---
**Author:** ![Mesquite-oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/22 "2009-04-04T07:44:44Z")
After years and years of trying, I’ve given up trying to judge people I do business with by their looks. I fight the initial impression. You really can’t tell until you get them talking by asking direct questions as to how they are going to help you. My insurance guy is impeccably dressed with not a hair out of place who frequently speaks in “salespersonese” (creepy). He (and the excellent people he has hired) have worked with me to save me money. One of the guys who works on my house has one of those super expensive trucks, lives in an expensive nieghborhood and invests in racehorses (huh?), but his bids are reasonable, does most of the work himself, and he doesn’t cut corners. On the other side of the coin, My realtor is kind of a chubby nerdy guy, but he has a knack for making everyone trust and love him. The nursery guy who I depend on to sell me all my landscaping/pond stuff looks like he needs to get to a mental hospital, but that guy knows everything and guides me in the right direction. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/23 "2009-04-04T09:14:07Z")
Not as a salesperson, but as a customer I will not deal with a salesperson who can’t take the time to have a shave and look presentable. Nor will I deal with someone who tries to impress you with their knowledge on everything (as opposed to someone who knows about the product you are interested in buying). ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/24 "2009-04-04T22:35:17Z")
I’d be more impressed by the BaileyWorks bag. Mmm. They’re so sturdy and practical! I saw a pharmaceutical sales rep the last time I was waiting at my doctor’s office. She was dressed fairly casually, with a delightfully hippy-ish brightly coloured tapestry newsboy cap. In my doctor’s office, that probably flies a lot better than a suit and a Coach bag, and I’d guess the same for a lot of Somerville/Cambridge. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/25 "2009-04-04T23:02:41Z")
> [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](#): > > Interesting. I would think well of a remodeling company if I knew the owner lived in a very nice, old, lovingly restored house. I would think one could use that as a sales tool - “when we restored the master bath in our Colonial, we used the finest quality blah, blah, blah.” > > I probably would wonder if it were more the McMansion type of very nice house. > > Do you currently do mostly remodeling work for people who make less than you do? Could you potentially make more money by doing work for people with more money than you have? One lesson I learned when I was in sales\* (selling advertising and fundraising) was never to project my own budget considerations onto the customer. You don’t have to answer the nosy questions, just food for thought. Your approach actually strikes me as kinda “Millionaire Next Door.” Nothing wrong with that. > > - I didn’t suck at it, but wasn’t incredible at it, either. One of the parts I hated, particularly the advertising, was the constant focus on consuming and motivating others to consume–better car, nicer clothes, new this, new that. Good salespeople are often shopaholics. I live in a six year old custom house that was designed by a very good architect. We built it ourselves, obviously. I had lived in constant remodel for 15 years before that. Always in an architecturally interesting house, but I was sick of always having some project to do, especially after doing projects during the day for other people. I have used examples from my house for customers in the past, and have invited a couple of them over to see something, but it’s very rare. Columns on the porch, or some built ins, for example. Most of the work I do is storm restoration-we come in and help people put their houses back together after they’ve been hit by storms, tornados, floods, etc. There is a wide variety of houses we work on-from $100,000 pieces of crap that should be torn down, to million dollar homes. Most work we do is in the $250,000-$400,000 pure vanilla range, which is the majority of housing stock in the metro area. Thanks, **Filmore** , that’s what I thought. Plus I love this truck, I really do. I like the front ends of the F-250’s but they drive like a hayrack, and I don’t need a big penis. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/26 "2009-04-04T23:21:05Z")
I am so glad I’m a lab rat. I wear jeans and T-shirt everyday. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/27 "2009-04-05T02:33:58Z")
That’s really interesting about the pharmceutical sales reps. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in Canada. Maybe I just don’t go to doctors’ offices enough. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/28 "2009-04-05T03:46:25Z")
I like the quote from American Gangster - “The loudest guy in the room is always the weakest.” The most important thing in sales IMHO is connecting with your customer. For some reason, 90% of the sales world thinks the way to do this is to look and act and dress like a slick obnoxious douchebag. I have come to the conclusion that they dress this way not because it makes them any more effective at their job. It is because they are slick obnoxious douchebags. You should always be well-groomed and professionally dressed, but a lot of salespeople use flash, smoke & mirrors and bullshit to try to cover up the fact that they don’t really know what they are talking about or that their product sucks. They think they are Alec Baldwin in Glenngary Glen Ross, but they come across more like my last boss - a flashy disingenuous asshole who was overcompensating for a small penis. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/29 "2009-04-05T04:24:21Z")
Every drug rep who comes into our office is dressed to kill–impeccable suits on the guys, real designer labels and expensive accessories on the women. I like this, only because I don’t really like dealing with drug reps and it makes them easy to spot (and thus avoid). In fact, when I had an office at the end of the hallway, I had about fifteen seconds of warning before a female drug rep came in, because no one in the medical profession wears shoes that sound like that. If they were trying to appeal just to me, they’d probably tone down the formality a little bit. But when they come to see me they’re probably seeing a dozen other doctors that day, and the best bet in that situation is probably to look as sharp as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/30 "2009-04-05T13:45:35Z")
> [@emmaliminal](#): > > This variety of salesperson is, in my somewhat salesperson-impoverished experience, the epitome of what I’m talking about: salespeople who seem to think it’s necessary to look extremely polished and are covered head-to-toe in tony brand names. These are the people that give doctors all those free samples they have to give to patients, and who used to give doctors all that pharm company swag, although I think that’s been made against the rules in the US recently. They all seem to look like former models, too. As someone who works in a medical center, I’ll say that there are rules in place which strictly limit what you can accept from pharmaceutical companies as gifts. (I wouldn’t be surprised if some people broke the rules but I doubt it’d be worth getting caught.) That being said, it seems like they’re even limiting the free samples that we get, so I doubt there’s much swag being handed out too. **DoctorJ** - very good point, it makes them pretty easy to catch at a glance. ---
**Author:** ![Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dec6dc/32.png) [@Picard\_Kills\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Picard_Kills_Kirk)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/31 "2009-04-05T16:27:13Z")
I think dressing the part is the most important. If I were looking for investments, I would typically expect the person to dressed in a suit, or at least a shirt and tie. If I was meeting with a woodworker about ordering some new kitchen cabinets I would expect him/her to be dressed in clothing somewhat more relaxed, like polo shirt and pants. For any type of sales I would expect the person to be clean. ---
**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/32 "2009-04-06T05:07:22Z")
> [@Mesquite-oh](#): > > (snip) > > My insurance guy is impeccably dressed with not a hair out of place who frequently speaks in “salespersonese” (creepy). He (and the excellent people he has hired) have worked with me to save me money. (snip) This is the unforgivable sin to me when it comes to working with salespeople. Yes, I’m in sales, but I don’t “speak sales” to my client. I don’t ask my clients how they want to strategize their investment for their family protection portfolio - I ask them what their budget for family health insurance is. I don’t ask them to authorize this action item to initialize the client relations service period - I tell them to sign the app so they can get their damn insurance policy. I simply do not understand why so many salespeople use the sleazy, contrived verbiage that makes us all look bad. What I’m saying is you can dress as well as you want, but using that language with me will instantly make me distrust you. And for the record, my suit is cheap and fits poorly. But I’m a damn good closer 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/33 "2009-04-07T01:12:01Z")
A few years back there was an article about drug companies hiring a lot of former female college cheerleaders to sell to doctors. Think it was in the WSJ. The drug companies were very open about hiring those women. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/34 "2009-04-07T03:54:42Z")
For the record, pharmaceutical sales reps are the prettiest people in the world. I’ve never met a (female) one that I wouldn’t climb over my mother to get a piece of… ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904/35 "2009-04-07T14:00:22Z")
Salesmen around here stick out like a sore thumb–you can always tell them at the hospital because of the slick hair and \>cough\< aftershave. And their clothes are just a little too perfect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-in-sales-you-gotta-look-sharp-true/491904.md?page=1)