How Your Looks Affect Your Sales

People are very visual beings. There is a saying that Looks Do Not Matter but this is simply not true. People to a certain degree will judge you by the way you look. My experience in sales and based on the online articles I read online point to the fact that this is true. You may not be able to change the way you look but there are certainly a few things you can do to reverse this or minimise its impact.


Short Salespeople: The main disadvantage of short salespeople is that other people tend to look down on you. During confrontations short people are underestimated and during negotiations other people will try to dominate you. If a short salesperson does not do a good job holding their own then they would tend to lose during sales negotiations.

Not all is bad to being short. Since other people underestimate you they consider you not a threat to them and this may cause them to be more welcoming to you. They might be more considerate and pay more attention to your sales pitch. They may even show sympathy to you which would make your sales effort more effective.

What can you do to be a more effective salesperson? You can cosmetically change your appearance to be taller than you really are. Male salespersons can wear elevator shoes while female salespersons can wear heels. Short salespersons can dress more sharply to increase their professional look and command more respect.

Short salespersons can be more aggressive without being forceful. They should emit the aura of confidence when they talk without sounding arrogant. This takes practice but it can be done. In fact many short salespersons do not consider their height as a stumbling block to them doing successful sales.


Tall Salespeople: Tall salespeople have the disadvantage of being threatening or a challenge to their customers especially to the short ones who may even feel a bit of jealousy towards them. During sales negotiations customers may spend extra effort in trying to beat the down or might even get hostile with them. If tall salespeople do not charmingly disarm their customers they would fail in sales.

The main advantage of tall salespeople is that since their customers are intimidated by their physical size they might tend to be more cooperative and docile with them. Their physical size combined with charm can be very effective in controlling sales negotiations in their favour. Taller people are also confirmed to have the look of authority and tend to be given positions of authority.

What can tall salespersons do to reverse or minimise the threatening look they have on customers especially the short ones? They can use charm and wit to dispel the fears of these people and make themselves look just like the average person who is not a threat. My former boss for example who was very tall would smile all the time and tell us friendly jokes. He is so effective that he was able to charm a lot of his subordinates.

A book I read called What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack tells the story of a very successful salesman who knows that customers are intimidated by his tall height. To reverse this he would act clumsy to show weakness. His customers would be disarmed by this simple technique and treat him more friendly.


Fat Salespeople: Sexy salespeople especially women tend to be attractive to a lot of people which makes it easier for them to develop social connections including sales contacts. Fat salespeople on the other hand have a certain negative image to them. They tend to not look good and are considered unhealthy which leads customers to believe that they have bad habits related to eating, hygiene and health.

What can fat salespeople do to negate this? They can eat more healthy and less and exercise more. They can also wear clothes that diffuse the look that they are fat. It is more important though that fat salespeople are well groomed to prove to customers that they are taking care of themselves which gives the image that they take good care of things including their customers.


Beautiful Salespeople: The main advantage of beautiful salespeople both male and female is that they attract many customers almost automatically. In extreme cases they do not have to approach customers but rather customers approach them. Customers tend also to be more attentive and cooperative with them. In fact there are many sales campaigns conducted where beautiful salespeople just stand to attract customers.

Once they have attracted potential customers the real salespeople do the hard job of persuading customers to buy their products. This is the reason why many companies tend to hire beautiful salespeople. This is the also the reason why many salespeople spend a lot of effort trying to make themselves beautiful especially during an important sales negotiation.

Though beautiful salespeople usually can easily establish a sales connection they also suffer the disadvantage of not being taken too seriously at times by their customers. They are often termed as All Looks and No Brains and are usually underestimated or even looked down by their customers.

What can beautiful salespeople do to reverse this? They can show an aura of expertise in the product they sell which gives the impression to customers that they are smart and study their products well. They should also show an aura of authority so that customers would not look down on them.


Ugly Salespeople: The main disadvantage of ugly salespeople is that customers usually do not want to be associated with them. It is this simple. Ugly salespeople have to work much harder than other salespeople to get customers. They can improve their appearance but the truth is they have to work harder than the rest of the other salespeople.

Conclusion

Every person has to contend with other people judging them by the way they look. Looks however are everything and an effective salesperson knows how to sell not only their products but themselves as well. What it usually takes is confidence in yourself, the ability to charm others and expertise in the products one are selling.

You might also like to read the article:

Is Sales Hard?

Make no mistake sales is a hard job to do. People do not like parting with their money. Customers want the best quality products for as little cost as possible even for free. Sales people especially those with sales quotas will usually go the extra mile to please a client just to have a sale especially if it is a high ticket item...