You are different, and you have enough obstacles in your way so your appearance has got to be right.  You are in the spotlight!

Looking good is extremely important and it is also one of those areas that so many buyers pay attention to in their decision of who appears to be most professional.  There is no doubt that in the process of preparing for a call, you may find yourself primping and spending a lot time in front of the mirror.  Go ahead and do it!  Looking your best gives you confidence.

As I have had sales professionals call on me in many of my previous positions.  Let me make a couple of statements:

• For every sales professional who is dressed well, there is more than one who is challenged
• When a sales professional is challenged in his wardrobe, they are at a solid disadvantage to the ones that dress well

Don’t be at a disadvantage, put others at a disadvantage.

Some Basics – Suits

Remember a cheap suit looks like a cheap suit.  You want to exude quality.  So be wary.   Buying a suit on sale is different than buying a cheap suit.  Cheap is not professional.  Remember it.

Although you don’t want to be too confined to rules, I would ask you to note some basic rules regarding your mode of dress:

First Meeting- I would stay with the dark colors including Navy and Charcoal Grey as the anchor to your color scheme.  I would brighten the tie to something red, green, or at least something that stands out.  This is tried and proven for first meetings with customers.  If you are not wearing it, your competition is wearing it in their initial meeting with your potential customer.

Sustaining Relationship – Here you have some latitude if you want to stray away from the darkest “true to business” colors.  Blue-Gray is good here, as well as Gray.  These are relationship colors.  These colors are formal without appearing too formal, and they can be appealing.

Summer and Hot Weather Colors – This includes olives, tans, and some other lighter colors.  These are always fun to wear, yet be selective about when and how.  To the office is fine, yet to a new client call I would stick with the advice above.

Dark always works, but variety is good.  Know when to wear colors.

Casual? – I would suggest you take a look at Black Sales Journal February 7, 2011 Your Appearance Your Image on this issue.  The suit is your uniform, and the customer deserves to see you at your best.  Remember, there is always someone dressing to impress, and his or her appointment might be right after yours.  Your customer will see you in your khakis and golf shirt, then a sales professional in his or her business “uniform.”  One of you will look more like a clown!  Care to guess which one?

Shirts and Ties– Spend the Money!

Black men obviously come in a variety of shades, and this is a plus.  Your choice of colors for your shirts should be based on what you see in the mirror.  The tones should complement, and sometimes contrast your skin tones.  White always works for a dress shirt but you don’t have to limit it here.  Always spend money on good shirts.

Dress shirts must be crisp and done at a shirt laundry.  There is no “do-it-yourself” deal here.  You cannot possibly iron a shirt to the perfection that they do regularly.  Light to medium starch and you need to collect at least 1 week to 2 weeks of white shirts (5-10), regardless of how many stripes and colors you have.  White is universal for business, although you can easily find the hues and stripes that complement your skin color.  If the collar is fraying, toss it.  Note that if you are not wearing a tie, your shirt should be a button down.

Ties are important.  As you are aware, they bring everything together.  Go bold or just match your personality.  Treat striped shirts just as you would a solid shirt as far as your tie color.

Your ties should always be the right length and the tip should touch the buckle of your belt (actually going ¾ to 1 inch onto the buckle is better).  There is nothing that shows less class than a tie that is done in “Baby Huey” style that stops short of the buckle by several inches.

Tall guys, listen up, pay the extra and buy extra long ties.  There is no substitute.

Always have the tie cinched up, and tied correctly for the call

Shoes and Shoe Care

This is an easy one to talk about.  You have a lot of latitude here. Remember, the key is to have a good comfortable shoe, which is shined well.  If you get a good shoe and maintain it well, they will develop a “patina.”  Wear “big-boy” shoes, no square toe jobs and no buckles unless you wear your style has a “monk strap”.  Invest in a good pair of business shoes that tie up (such as a basic oxford) and keep them well maintained.  I am partial to Allen Edmonds but also wear some Johnston Murphy.  Your shoes are at your base, so they should complement your garb.

Protect them well with a good pair of galoshes.  No shoes look good after a serious bout with salt.  If you go cheap on them, go with a couple of pair, and keep one pair in your car.  Having them where you need them is important. If you dare to go expensive, then buy Swims.  I use these, and can attest for this product, as they are the best.

When going through an airport or downtown in an urban area get your shoes shined.  They do a great job, and you cannot match it, unless you were a “shoe shine boy” in your past life.

A Few Things To Remember

• Always carry a mirror in your briefcase – use it after meals and before calls.
• Avoid black suits – resort to dark charcoal gray, unless you are coming from a funeral.
• No more than 3 buttons on a business suit.
• Avoid Light colors after Labor Day in the north and east.
• With a suit wear an oxford, with a sports coat a loafer is fine.
• Your belt should match your shoes in terms of color.
• Socks should be calf length at the least – no one wants to see your hairy shins.
• Dry-clean your clothes regularly.

I could go on for days on this issue.   Esquire magazine publishes “The Big Black Book” which can be helpful.  It is published in the fall, and is billed as the “Essential Knowledge: How to look better, feel great…” GQ also does some annual editions on this topic.  No one should be confused about business dress.

I am sure we will be talking about it more in the future.

Your comments are welcome.

Finding a job is tedious and requires a plan.  I would like to say in jest that you could go crazy looking, but there is some truth to it.

When it comes to the job hunt, you have to have a plan, and you have to stick to it.  You also will find it necessary to stay vigilant for that excellent opportunity that just might slip by if you do not recognize it.  No one wants to miss the “perfect” opportunity so I’m dedicating this post to important tips that may help your sourcing of job leads.

Instant Notice is the Best Notice

Twitter is turning into an important source of job information for all jobs, and especially for sales positions.  It is also an area that Black sales professionals do not use effectively.

One of the tips is that if you are not on Twitter, and you are searching for a sales job, you need to get with the program.  I am not saying that you need to tweet friends and associates, or follow Paris Hilton’s tweets and I am not talking about telling someone what you had for dinner on your vacation! I am saying that after you sign up, and with the understanding of a few important terms, you can follow sales positions and potential employers as they look to use social networking to find potential applicants.

Have you ever used Twitter to see what was in the job market?  Do you know how?  I did not either until I started using it to follow blogs and promote Black Sales Journal.  Some of you miss out on job offerings and some just end up getting them later.  The first notice of a job posting is often by Twitter.  It is a lightning fast broadcast which goes out using a hash tag to all who are following that hash tag.  An example of a hash tag is #sales, #NYJobs, #selling, and #chicagojobs.

A tweet is essentially a broadcast to all followers; it differs from an email because email goes directly to the selected recipient. A ‘tweet’ was once described to me as an outpouring of information, this “pouring out of information” can be to your benefit as you can receive updates about brand new opportunities as they become available.

Twitter is easy to sign up for, and easy to use.  You will need to practice with hash tags, as there is an amazing amount of information that you can come across with the correct tag.  Now if you are job hunting I would suggest that you consider a piece of software called TweetDeck (I use TweetDeckv38.1).  Here is the sales pitch… Both Twitter and Tweetdeck are FREE!  

You can follow job sources as they come from the following:

• Employers – many of them directly tweet their job openings to the public.  Increasingly employers of all types are doing this, and it is being effective for them to get a strong response.
• Job Web Sites – Many of the best job web sites are sending out tweets on the postings.  They want as many people to see these as early as they can in the process.  I would not doubt the effectiveness of this activity.
• Postings by Topic – I mentioned a few of them in the preceding paragraph.  This includes following #sales, #selling, #jobadvice, #interview, etc.  You will get all jobs, and you will have to pick out the jobs for sales professionals.
• Postings by city, region, or area – This would be exemplified by the tags such as #chicagojobs, #NYjobs, #sacramentojobs, #houstonjobs, etc.  Now this will get you all jobs, yet if you have Tweetdeck, you can follow your area, and the cities that you might consider selling in.

Get Rid of the Misconceptions

Yes, this is a way that some people spend needless time sending short inane messages back and forth.  Yes, anyone can do it from his or her cell phone, and they do to a fault.

But….this can be a powerful medium.  A broadcast blast that goes out to everyone “listening” informing him or her about the job you want.  You need to be in on the front end so that you can respond.

I described web sites that are online offering advice and also posting jobs.  If you will refer back to BlackSalesJournal 1/24/2011 5 Suggested Internet Sites for Finding That New Sales Job you will see these sites.  Note that they all are accessible by Twitter as well.

Wrap Up!

Tweetdeck is now part of twitter after having been developed separately.  You can access both Twitter and Tweetdeck by going to Twitter.com.  If you elect to try it, you may consider following Black Sales Journal’s posts on Twitter as well.  All posts are all posted onto Twitter and they will link directly to the site.  Our username is BlackSalesJrnl.

Get with the program and try some of the new tools.  As I said earlier, Twitter and TweetDeck are both available by going to Twitter.com.  You will be amazed at the activity on the screen based on what you are following.

In an upcoming post I am going to show some of the Twitter users you might want to consider following.

Your comments are welcome.