NINJA SALES REPS

The other day a rep said something to me that I hadn’t heard in a long time. When I asked him why he would ever walk into a customer empty handed he replied, “I don’t want to LOOK like a salesman”.

All I could think was “Here we go again”. A sales rep who doesn’t want to look like a sales rep. This has always made me wonder what these reps want to look like. Maybe they should wear hospital scrubs, that way they will look like a doctor. Or should they wear a clown suit and look like they just escaped from the circus. I guess they could wear a Stetson and boots and look just like a cowboy.

But WHY?

Do these reps really think that the customer is going to never catch on that they are there to sell something? And when the customer does catch on isn’t the idea that the reps has been trying to fool them going to make them mad?

I know one thing for sure, when I go to my doctor I want her to look like a doctor, I want the pilot flying the plane I’m on to look like a pilot, and the guy who fixes my car to look like a mechanic. I don’t want anyone surprising me. Can you imagine if you were sitting in the dentist chair waiting to have a root canal and in came someone in blue jeans, a dirty shirt wearing work gloves and said, OPEN WIDE, WE’RE GONNA GET THAT SUCKER OUTTA THERE RIGHT NOW!”

A sales rep should look like a sales rep. The good news is every rep makes the decision what they should look like (unless your company makes that decision for you). The basic rule of thumb is dress for your industry. You don’t want to be too over dressed and you don’t want to be too under dressed. If you are in a Christian Dior suit calling on metal working shops, I would dare say you probably won’t blend in with everyone else in the shop, at the same time if you are wearing coveralls selling pharmaceuticals to a doctor’s office you will be just as out of place. Dress for success, but the success you are selling to.

I just figured it out, the reps that don’t want to look like sales reps want to be NINJA SALES REPS! They slip in un-noticed, do a few quick flips, have the customer say yes, get the signature grab the check and out the door like smoke! No one knowing they were ever there!

Lorin