Okay, first of all… I’m not a salesman in any way shape or form. I know absolutely zero about it, I haven’t read books or been to seminars and I don’t know anything about traditional sales tactics. This is purely on feedback I’ve been given from clients as to why they signed up with us. It might not be the same for everyone, I just thought I’d share my experiences and see if anyone else finds it to be the same for them.
Despite my profile picture I never really wear a suit and I’m rarely clean shaven. When I first started going out to see clients I was far more nervous about it all than I am now, but being the chatty one of our little agency it was left to me to be the “salesman”. At the will of the others I went along in a suit, with a bunch of paperwork such as contracts and a standing order form with the hope of getting people signed up straight away (I was advised by somebody who works in sales that this was a way around our previous problem of customers saying they’d like to go ahead, and then never getting around to actually signing up with us).
Needless to say I had little success. After a while I started reverting back to my scruffy self, even at appointments with clients. I tend to have that “Just fell out of bed look!”
I noticed that I felt more comfortable in myself with this and felt it somehow affected my ability to talk to the clients. After all, I was an SEO not a salesman… looking back I realise that I felt uncomfortable trying to be somebody I’m not (wearing a suit and trying to push things on to people).
I was chastised for this a little and was forbidden to go to a particular meeting with a large national company who were a potential client. I went with my gut feel and turned up looking like myself anyway. As far as I was concerned, it should be about what I say, not how I look that determined the outcome.
We got the job. As the curious chap I am (and smug about being right as usual), I wanted to find out if the suit would have made any difference, so I asked. I didn’t ask just that client, I asked anyone and everyone we had success with. I got in to a friendly chat with them to procure the information in order to figure out what sold it.
My findings were as follows.
A suit would have put them off. The clients are used to smartly dressed salesmen turning up and trying to get them to sign their lives away, and if I had of turned up in a suit it would have instantly put them on the back foot (or in defense mode against a hard sell strategy). So people are right about first impressions, just not necessarily in the way they think.
The general feedback I got was that they were more impressed by the fact that I clearly was not a salesman, I was a techie geek. I was obviously passionate about what I do and instead of trying to sell to them I excitedly explained what we did and what it could do. This is where the suit comes in. techie geeks don’t wear suits, salesmen do. Techie geeks are scruffy and don’t use pressure sales, they just get excited about their techie geek stuff whenever they get a chance to talk about it. This gave the clients confidence that I was good at my job, and they trusted me because it wasn’t a sales pitch from an sales expert… they didn’t feel I was trying to manipulate their thoughts, overstate or over promise anything in order to get a sale.
Aside from this we ditched the contracts. We weren’t comfortable trying to tie people in anyway. Why would we need to do that if we were doing our jobs properly, if we were getting the required results then they would be happy to stay with us anyway! This meant less risk for the client, as they could cancel at any time, and made it clear that we had confidence in our own abilities. Having said this, I do still understand why some companies do have contracts with clients. I think it very much depends on the circumstances, the clients involved, and a number of other factors. We’re just in a situation where it’s not so necessary for us.
Anyway, now when I must go to meet with a potential client I turn up scruffy looking and do the exact same thing, I don’t sell SEO to them… I chat to them about SEO. I give them loads of free advice and I enjoy myself doing so. If I were to turn up in a suit to my next client meeting I would feel uncomfortable again, I would go into some alter ego salesman mode which isn’t me, and I would fail miserably. No matter how big the client and how much is at stake, if they’re going to choose us, they’ll do it for the right reasons.
So, in my opinion (and please know I’m no expert, this is purely my own opinion based on my own experiences) if you’re a techie geek and you have to meet a potential client, turn up as a techie geek. You don’t need a suit, it’s your knowledge, expertise and passion they want to see, not your dress sense.
The moral of the story is that despite the fact that I’m not a salesman, I now make quite a good SEO salesman (through not being like a salesman). If I tried to sell anything else I would be awful. But the clients I see at least, prefer to be sold to by geeks, which makes things all the better for me!
Finally I want to add this. A friend of mine who is awesome at his job (he designs yachts) went for an interview for a fairly low level position in a fairly small company about a year ago and was turned down on these very same grounds. Whilst he was smartly dressed, he did not wear a suit to his interview. Just after that interview he had what is arguably the world’s most prestigious yacht design company come across his work and offer him a very high level position. Now, just one year later he is head of their design department and has achieved some amazing things for the company.
Maybe people should be employed on the merit of what they can do, instead of their ability to dress themselves in the morning. In some industries at least!
