It’s complicated to talk about this issue without being a little bit controversial, but we must be realistic and there’s no second chance for making a good first impression. This statement, even being essential in sales, is applied to all areas of life. The first impression that a person causes in another, impacts and transmits building in our mind a preconceived image about the person that we have in front of us (idea that sometimes is totally wrong). Here is where the importance of the physical images comes into play, one of the most important facts of this first impression.

In fact, the physical image (clothes, hairstyle and smell) influences at any type of communication, but when we are going to communicate with a very clear aim –to close a sale– its importance is even more relevant. Our image is basic in the opinion we generate in people, and this implies that in the sales field the physical image becomes another tool for the sales force. In fact, this is the way in which the sales force presents their first product: themselves.

We can affirm that it doesn’t exist a standard pattern about the proper physical image when we are going to sell because this depends on a lot of factors: from the product you are selling, the company represented, to the customer you are going to visit. However, we must be sure that every detail about our physical image is related to our personal marketing and as a consequence, to the image that our customers associate to the brand we represent.

So, it is difficult and unethical as well to make this statement, but if you cause a good impression to the receiver with a good physical image, you will open the first door towards the sale.

From physical image to personal image: attitude and body language

We must not mix up the physical image with the personal image. The former is included in the latter, but it’s not all. Personal image is made of both the physical image (appearance) and the attitude and body language.

However, and luckily, no matter how good-looking we are, there are small details that will mark our sales visit and can decide the success or failure of a sale. Our attitude in front the customer is one of them and is a key point to work when we prepare a sales visit.

As important as attitude is the body language. From a too forced smile to a pair of sloping shoulders can make our sale fail, because they will be communicating to our interlocutor that there’s something wrong in that communication.

We must not stop being ourselves

In this combination of good physical image, attitude and body language is important not to mix up our staging with the need to mislead. We mustn’t stop being ourselves, neither to force the sales role. Dress yourself appropriately for the customer you are going to visit but always feeling comfortable with your clothes, have a positive attitude but never lose your personality, be polite and careful with your gestures but don’t become obsessed with it. In conclusion, we have to make the best of us, highlighting our best virtues and being calm during negotiations, this will be key to close more successful sales.

The same happens with the products of a company: if the customer, at first glance, receives them through a good presentation the probabilities of purchasing will increase. Is because of this that there are technological tools to present the products in a proper and attractive way that will lead the potential customer to the purchase. For instance, urCollection, the document management app for sales force helps companies to present products in an elegant, clean and interesting way so that the potential clients would have a good impression of the company and proceed quicker to the purchase.