Personal & Professional Image
Studies shows that people who take care of their image, earns at least 6% more than those who don’t. This is because they project better confidence and reliability. If we can take care of ourselves and maintain good personal image and grooming – it would reflect positively on the way we care for our work responsibility, commitments (and customers).
When a customer buys a product or service from a sales person, he needs to feel comfortable and assured that he is buying from a reliable provider. In this case, the sales person is the ambassador of the company – and how he projects himself to the customer will similarly reflect on the company’s product or service and its reliability.
So, why should we let ourselves look bad when we can look good? And more importantly, why should we miss the opportunity of earning more?
We all can build a good image for ourselves and remember – that a good image does not equate to good looks. Personal or professional Image is made up of three aspects: The way we Look, Walk and Talk.
Part-1: The Look
This part is all about WHAT we wear, HOW we wear them and WHO we are wearing them for?
What we wear must first suit our personal wardrobe personality and profession. Our wardrobe personality will reflect the type of dresser that you are: the Natural (laid-back, low-key and casual), the Romantic (more expressive, puts effort into dressing, more open to trying new styles/colours etc.), the Classic (understated, quietly sophisticated) or the Dramatic (which is quite explanatory, think Lady Gaga).
Then, the ‘How’ – it is not about how expensive the clothes are or if they are of designer labels or from the sale racks. Instead, the clothes that we wear must suit our body shape and making sure that they are of the right fit, right cut (style), right proportion (length/prints) and other considerations like choosing the right colours, style, etc. to flatter the body shape.
Next, the ‘Who’ and this is when dress code comes in. Just like dressing up for a date – we want to look good for the ‘audience’ (the person/people we are meeting). What we wear on a daily basis will depend on our agenda for the day – whether we have clients to meet, interviews to go to or special events to attend.
Look out for Part-2 of this article: The Walk & Talk (coming up next)
We would also like to share with you the article about Wardrobe Essentials for Every Mother.
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By Kitty Sani Barrett, principal consultant & trainer at ImageXchange. Kit believes that taking care of our personal image can help us look our best, long after we’ve passed 50!