Hi there,
As part of a sales training course for a client, they would like to look at what is appropriate dress for their Industry.
The company’s sales team (all female) meets with high end private doctors / plastic surgeons e.t.c and the management feels that the clothes worn by their team, whilst smart, are more appropriate for a night out. The management believes that the team believe they are appropriately dressed.
There is no documented company sales manual in place to refer back to with regards appropriate dress code.
What brilliant ways would you cover this in a training session that would be creative, positive and leave the delegates self assessing about their own personal brand?
Many thanks
peter
4 Responses
Hard sell
Hi Peter
This is a tricky one. Your client is really leaving you to do the dirty work for them. Unless there have been complaints from the doctors about inappropriate dress then it will be a hard sell for you.
You could – at a push – use Harvey J Coleman’s PIE model (Performance, Image and Exposure) [http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0787213861/179-1626773-4987319?SubscriptionId=08D0B2KAJCAJFBXZGJ02/179-1626773-4987319] to make the point about appropriate dress. The model really was developed by looking at prospects of getting promoted and the effect one’s performance, image and exposure had on getting that promotion.
A twist could be looking at how a saleswoman’s image could positively affect them. If they come across as professional not only in their technical knowledge of the product but also in their image then they will increase their chances of getting referral work and so increase their exposure to further clients (and further sales!).
Honestly, if the salesperson is making their targets and there have been no complaints from the customers then your client has very little to complain about. Hope my suggestion helps.
Personal Branding
I agree with the previous comment in that if they are hitting their tagets, doing their job and have no complaints then the problem belongs to who? Is this a belief by the management team that has no real evidence? Dressed for a night out compared to whom?
If when explored further there is real evidence that this is impacting on business results in a negative way, is there anyone in the team that can be modelled in terms of their personal brand beahviours. this takes it away from dress sense in isolation and starts to look at personal brand of which appearance and dress sense is one element for me. Maybe you can lok at branding of companies and what they feel about stimulus from well known brands – what influences them in terms of appearance in a customer/sales transaction and then move into personal branding and what contributes to it and how they can influence it…. What do they want their customers to be seeing thinking, feeling after a sales transaction and what do they think influences this…there is so much you could do with this as long as you get them to embrace the learning and don’t use traditional chalk and talk ‘this is appropriate dress’ type concept.
Hope this gives you a starting point
Jo
Dress Codes
We have produced a free guide on dress codes based on landmark case authorities such as Schmidt v David Austick Bookshops
There are numerous cases around this issue which always centre on the concepts of what is reasonable,practical and proportionate
We can give you a couple of tips about bringing this seemingly dry and dusty topic into life on your training courses
Regards
Dominic
Visit our website for details of all our services including our:-
Showcase equality law and diversity issues training courses
and many others, plus
Free monthly newsletter by e mail
12 month after care service
Lots of free resources and advice
http://qedworks.com/
Thank you for your answers
Thank you very much for your answers. I really do appreciate them.
I will look into all the resources you all mentioned and will develop a fantastic workshop of the back of it.
I hope you don’t mind but Im struggling to pick one of you as the best answer. You are all good!!
Many thanks
Peter