Dress properly...

Just wanted to blog today some sage advice my late Father passed on to me at an early age. He said this, "When you go out into Public, make sure you dress appropriately."

When I was younger, I wore sweat pants, running shoes, Football jerseys...etc. You get my drift. It wasn't until my early teens that I started to dress nicely. Somewhere around the time that I became interested in the pretty young ladies wandering the halls of Richmond Senior Secondary School in Richmond, BC.

Now you ask yourself after reading the first few paragraphs, what does that have to do with me. Well here is a lesson you can learn from me first hand.

And the story goes....

I had my SUV down at Visions today on the corner of Kingsway and Imperial in Burnaby. When they fixed my radio the other day, they disconnected the back up camera wire and so it was useless to me. SO I had to go back to get it corrected. Silly me thinking it would be a 20 minute job. Turned out to be 2.5 hours. At least I had my new book "Social Boom" by Jefferey Gitomer to read. But this is not why I am giving you all the background information. I made a critical error. Could have potentially cost me $4 K if you look at it a certain way.

What did he do you ask?

Well, seeing as how I thought it would only be a half hour max, I wore my jeans, my favourite Jeff Gordon Nascar shirt, white belt and white shoes with a nice coat. Great looking casual wear if you ask me.

So, whats the problem then? You dressed decent for what you were going to do right?

Yes. But what profession am I in?

Ahhhhhhh SALES!

Being in sales means you have to be ready for the potential meeting of a client no matter where you go. Sure enough, today I ran into one in the gentleman who helped me with my SUV. I presented a business card to the clerk in the beginning so they could reach me when the work was through. The nice lady who helped in the start was not the same one who completed the transaction.

Uh oh.

The Customer Service rep who wrote me up said " Oh, you work for Dominion"

I said "Yes, My Brother and I own a Franchise in Richmond, BC and we love to make mortgages easy for people. Do you know of someone who may need my services?"

He goes on to tell me that his parents are $90 K in debt due to some medical leave from work and they are looking for a Broker. Random, totally random encounter.

Was I ready? Was I prepared?

Hell yes mentally. I went into sales mode quicker than the Red Sox went down 0-6 to start this year's ball season off.

What I didn't have was the "Pièce de résistance" . I was not dressed to suit the professional image I am always trying to portray. The one I worked so hard to create, the one I try to get out there. I set myself up for failure because I was not being proactive.

Now I did get his business card and I am going to follow up Thursday afternoon with the gentleman, but as far as the first impression I left, it was not where it needed to be.

So take note of the rookie mistake I made, and make sure you dress for success when your a professional in anything that you do.

YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE YOUR NEXT SALE IS COMING FROM.

Acta est fabula ( so ends the story )

check out my web page for more details on how you can get in touch with me today!

www.kevynoyhenart.ca

until tomorrow...

Kevyn