Dressed to Sell

Remember way back in the ’80s when Molloy’s book Dress for Success outlined the correct attire for succeeding in any business venue? Dark suit, blue shirt, red power-tie. These made you look confident, bold and important. Women were cautioned not to don pantsuits but instead to opt for below-the-knee skirts and somber jackets, no ruffles and, lord forbid, no clanky jewelry.

Well, suits gave way to casual Fridays, and these morphed into casual offices, and then casual attire across the board became the norm. Goodbye gray flannel. Hello wrinkled khaki. You got a problem with that? Well, sometimes, yes.

It seems that along with the casual craze came the “whatever I want to wear for work is OK” syndrome. And sometimes what you want to wear, and what others see when you wear it, is just too much. Like too much skin. Too much leg. Too much hairy chest. Too much suggestive tattoo. What are customers likely to think when a salesperson shows up in short shorts, tattered T-shirt and thong sandals?

According to one image consultant, not much. “Many salespeople are sabotaged by overly informal dress,” says Sherry Maysonave, the founder of Austin, Texas-based Empowerment Enterprises, which has been coaching executives to achieve excellence in communications and image since 1982.

“As an effective salesperson or manager, you want your clothes to command respect, inspire credibility and create trust – you must come across as the authority on the product or service that is offered,” Maysonave points out. Your clothes speak volumes about you, your company, your work and how you relate to customers.

“Sales is about relationships,” she adds. “Excellent personal grooming and what you wear set the impression that sets the tone of relationships. What you wear helps shape the first impression of who you are and what you have to offer. Business is a game. What you wear is the first move in that game – the part of your message that your audience sees first.”

In the past that first move involved putting on a suit for work. For men or women, a business suit was the uniform of choice for going to the office, meetings and appointments. Dressing in a suit was a nonverbal statement of authority and credibility. On the other hand, wearing a golf shirt and khakis said, “I am relaxing.” It used to be simple. But the ground rules have changed. “Many things are now acceptable,” says Maysonave. “The trick is that while a wide range of clothing styles is acceptable, only certain casual clothes are powerful, setting you a cut above.”

Here to Stay
Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Esquire, a publication long considered an arbiter of men’s fashion, says that comfort, the engine driving the casual movement, is not some type of fad in the workplace. “Esquire’s editors don’t think of business casual as a trend. For better or worse, it’s a fact.”

Esquire is not alone. The Society for Human Resource Management Year 2000 report notes that 44 percent of employees enjoy casual dress at work.

Lane Cooper, managing director of washbureau.com, a company that specializes in selling report-writing and analytical services to the dot-com world, notes, “While we are in the office we dress very casually. The cold calling, prospecting and phone research we do is tough business, and I want my people to be comfortable. We keep jackets and ties on hand to go out to impromptu client meetings. And of course scheduled meetings call for jackets.”

Even law firms, once the bastion of suits and ties, are acknowledging changing trends. Tom Marian, director of marketing and communication for the New York office of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, notes that his firm became a full-casual office on March 6 of this year. The firm still requires a suit and tie for court and client meetings, but the office attire is now more comfortable clothing.

Although this law firm had enjoyed casual Fridays and summers for years, the transition to all casual was not without problems. Marian found that many employees suffered from what Maysonave calls the “casual confusion syndrome.” They were still confused about how to assemble a business casual – versus resort casual – wardrobe.

Establish Rules
When Marian’s firm had to establish guidelines, he found the perfect solution: a fashion show at a nearby Polo Ralph Lauren. “Our associates modeled different styles and had some fun,” Marian says. “Casual is a lot more difficult to dress for – to find matches and to decide what is business casual versus resort casual. Polo even gave us a discount for purchases made that evening. We chose Polo to work with because it is a high-level casual clothing manufacturer.”

Using a fashion show to set guidelines put the firm in the forefront of recommendations made by the Society for Human Resource Management. In one of the Society’s publications, author Kate Walter discusses various guidelines, pointing out that trying to cover all the bases in a written policy makes management look too controlling. Besides, there is no way to cover every situation, present and future, in a written policy. Consequently, guidelines help your employees navigate the fine line between too casual and not casual enough.

The Society advocates setting general rules to eliminate confusion. Make a binder with pictures from magazines, or conduct training sessions to show acceptable attire. Also, establish a few hard-and-fast rules about what is not acceptable. These might include “No open-toed shoes,” “Don’t wear clothes you would wear to clean the house” and “No beach attire.” As ridiculous as this may sound, a recent article in US News and World Report described office workers arriving at work in beach attire – a situation resulting from confusion over the meaning of “corporate casual.” Maysonave recalls the case of a retired person’s being horrified that his $300-an-hour lawyer arrived for a meeting wearing khaki shorts.

If you don’t want to hold a fashion show, get professional help. Amy Jones, spokesperson for the Nordstrom department store chain, recommends using a personal shopper. “With e-commerce, especially, we receive a lot more corporate casual requests. Our consultants meet with customers, sometimes to go over an entire wardrobe, or sometimes just to mix and add to things the client already owns. We work with your budget.

“The consultation, which can be done on the phone, by email or in person, is free. It helps you find what looks good on you and is a good bet for corporate casual. And it saves time. We use it to learn a bit about your needs, then we work with you. We can call you to supplement your wardrobe on a regular basis – we gather the outfits for you in a dressing room.”

The Jacket
Whether you’re dressed in a three-piece suit or khakis and a blazer, your clothes should send a subtle message that you’re in control. In her book, Casual Power: How to Power Up Your Nonverbal Communication and Dress Down for Success (Bright Books Inc., 1999), Maysonave details matching ensembles that work to project each of the four important aspects of clothing communication – power, credibility, authority and trustworthiness. The jacket figures prominently.

According to Maysonave, the jacket is the one item from the world of suits that makes an appearance over and over again with casual combinations. “The key to winning the game of sales and business is exuding the proper nonverbal signals with your attire,” she says. And the jacket – for men and women – is the primary clothing power symbol.

“Jackets are especially important in sales to give clients a good first impression and for making presentations,” Maysonave explains. “Wearing the jacket while giving presentations marks you as an authority. To make the situation less formal later, remove the jacket to increase bonding with a less-formally dressed audience.

“It’s a competitive world in sales – keep that jacket handy. A presenter has to dress to have impact. People want to know that you are an authority. Jackets do part of their work by helping to keep attention away from you and on the material you are presenting. Jackets are also great for hiding a multitude of figure problems.”

Are there exceptions? Of course. Sometimes it is more important to dress for particular clients.

Fit In
Craig Doak, general manager of Housing Products Inc. (HPI), a Pennsylvania-based wholesale distributor of building materials, rarely wears a sport jacket to client meetings or for presentations. “The work sites we visit are generally construction sites full of dirt. Our clients don’t want us to look too slick.”

However, Doak does want to project the proper air of authority. For a first presentation, Doak and his team carefully research the scenario they will enter and dress accordingly. His sales staff may wear jackets if they have researched the new client and find that to be an advantage. Otherwise they wear knit shirts with logos of the products they sell. “When we give a presentation on something, as we did at a recent trade show in Pennsylvania, each member of the sales team wears a shirt from the same company. The last one we did was on Anderson windows. All 14 of us wore red Anderson shirts. It was impressive.”

The shirts served as a uniform. Their attire proclaimed them Anderson experts. By looking alike, the sales team presented a united front during the presentation. Their work uniform also communicated authority and a sense of product knowledge.

Salespeople and managers often talk about dressing to match their client. But use caution, Maysonave warns. She stresses that finding the right place between overdressing and underpowering your wardrobe decisions is easier if a few principles are followed. Of course, the jacket helps – even over a golf shirt or turtleneck.

Be Yourself, with Quality
Matching your client is not the only consideration when choosing a workplace wardrobe. Salespeople need to carefully consider what matches their own coloring and figure type when selecting clothes. Maysonave offers the example of one client who sought her image-consulting services to build his casual look into the image of a trustworthy, intelligent, approachable and accomplished winner. In other words, he wanted quality.

The changes may have included adding a microcheck sport coat, but the biggest difference in the client’s appearance was upgrade. His new clothes were better quality; they fit better and their colors and styles were a better match with his coloring and body shape than his old clothing.

When Esquire’s Omelianuk called the casual workplace a fact for better or worse, he also was referring to quality. “Worse is when men really don’t know what they’re doing and think they can wear what they wear at home in the yard on a Saturday morning to the office on Monday morning,” he explains. “Better is when they realize they should judge casual wear with the same criteria they use to judge a suit. That means making sure that there is a certain level of craftsmanship, a certain quality to the fabrics, a proper fit and a luxuriousness appropriate to one’s stature.”

The items you select should be the best of their type. “You can’t ever overdo real quality and excellent grooming,” Maysonave emphasizes. “To visually communicate success, make quality your middle name.”

Marian selected Polo for his firm’s fashion show because of the quality merchandise. “Polo is one of the companies that represents the level of quality we want our people to wear to the office.”

Maysonave agrees with Marian’s recommendation to work with an upper-end clothing manufacturer. Even those on tight budgets should buy the very best they can afford, in simple classic styles. It is better to have just a few high-quality outfits than several of lesser quality. She advises building a “capsule wardrobe” around a few items in your best power-neutral color. “Then add other hues complementary to your natural coloring that coordinate well with your best neutral,” she says.

Clothes Alone Won’t Do
It’s just as important to take the same care with every aspect of your appearance as you do with your clothing. Corporate casual is no excuse for appearing slovenly. You may dress down – but power up your image.

According to Maysonave, each garment you wear must exude crisp cleanness and be well-pressed. Khakis should be starched and ironed or professionally dry-cleaned. “Your sales clothing must never be outrageous. That can wave a red flag to your clients, unless of course you are working a tour for MTV,” she says.

“Nothing you wear should draw attention to yourself,” says Marian. Just be sure that your clothing emphasizes your air of authority and does not detract or distract from your message. Your clothes should help you say, “I know my product: I am someone you can trust and do business with.” The spotlight should shine on what you are presenting.

Good grooming is number one in helping project the image that you are an expert in your field. Your hair must be clean, dry and styled. Nails must be clean and manicured – but not overly done. And that goes for both men and women.

Women should wear professional make-up and earrings. “Accessories, especially jewelry, can be distracting. Don’t be an accessory to your own sabotage. Proper accessories make even the most casual outfits look more finished and polished,” says Maysonave.

Finally, stand tall and hold your shoulders back. Visual cues of quality help you to think of yourself as more successful.

“By giving you energy and confidence, the right clothing is like a good friend,” says Maysonave. “Your consistent professional appearance is a nonverbal tool that gives you the edge.”