You only get one chance to make a first impression, and when it comes to business first impressions count a lot. Here are seven ways to make sure you always look the part, and impress your clients with your professional appearance.
The Importance of Looking Your Best
In the business world, appearances are everything, and you always want to look your best when your clients or customers could see you. In addition to making a great first impression, it also shows them that you are serious about the job you’re doing and are ambitiously working towards a better future for yourself.
#1: Play Your Part
Dress the way your clients expect you to. This may not always be the way you want to dress, but in the end it is worth it because you’ll do more business with the kind of customers you want to have. There’s also evidence that suggests that looking the part plays a big role in how you feel and execute the job at hand, dress the part and you are able to perform better in that capacity.
#2: Be Aware Of Your Habits
Our habits can be hard to discover because many of them are so ingrained in who we are we don’t even think about them anymore. But others are more obvious, and others will notice them as well.
For example, if you love to vape you’ll probably want to resist the urge when you’re meeting with a new client who might not appreciate it in that moment. Of course if you find out that your client also vapes you can use that to your advantage and and bond over your shared interest.
#3: Make an Appearance Checklist
When it comes to how you’re perceived by your clients the little things matter. It’s time to go over each aspect of your appearance with a fine-toothed comb and make sure everything is tip-top.
One way to do that is to keep a check list on your smartphone of all of the things you’ll want to check out before heading out the door. It may seem silly, but even surgeons keep checklists nearby so that they can quickly reference them to make sure they don’t skip a step.
#4: Groom It Up!
From keeping your fingernails clean and trimmed to making sure you don’t have visible nose hairs, you’ll want to do an excellent job of grooming yourself so you have the utmost confidence when interacting with your clientele (more on the importance of confidence below).
Keep all of your grooming tools together so that you can quickly look down and see which ones you’ll need to use. For guys this might mean a beard trimmer, and for women it might be a pair of tweezers. Customize your kit to what you need and it will be easy to cross-check what you need each morning.
#5: Dress Accordingly
Adjust your wardrobe based on what your primary role will be for the day. If you’re going to be meeting face to face with several customers all day, make sure you’re prepared with the right attire. If you’ll be trying to land a big client, dress to impress and pull out all the stops.
#6: Accessorize the Right Way
You can’t go wrong with some accessories to complete your overall look, but don’t go overboard. If you’re in a business setting it could be something as simple as a high-quality pen that you use to take notes with. People will notice!
#7: Above All Else, Be Confident!
There’s one style tip that you just can’t fake, and that is your confidence level. Confidence isn’t sold in stores and there isn’t anything you can change about your wardrobe or style that will give you confidence in and of itself. Confidence comes from within and everything else is just external but can help you feel your best in the moment.
Confidence is also something that is built up over time, no one is born confident, they learned it through a lifetime of successes and failures. Show yourself a highlight reel in your mind of all of your best successes and you can’t help but feel like you can take on the world.
Bringing It All Together
By the time you’re finished putting your ensemble together you should look and feel like a million bucks and ready to take on whatever the day brings. Remember that each day builds on the last, so make it a great day and you’ll start a positive upward spiral that will make a big difference over time.
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