September 2007

BUSINESS OF WEARABLES

Dress the Part

Why what you wear really does affect your wearables sales numbers.

By Nowell C. Wisch, MAS

A recent newspaper article I read indicated that the business dress pendulum is swinging back toward the formal – and away from the sloppy. What’s great is that corporate players in the 24 to 36 age range are leading the change, and both men’s and women’s wear suppliers are seeing a resurgence in traditional clothing purchases. Business dress retail stalwarts such as Nordstrom’s, Men’s Wearhouse and Barney’s are reporting stronger sales in traditional clothing after years of decline. Wow, I definitely didn’t expect this, especially since I see a lot of younger supplier and distributor reps attired in questionable clothes in professional settings.

Part of my job is to teach my middle managers how to teach their new hires to dress inside the box. …We teach them that first impressions count and bad first impressions count even more. It can be a tough sell to people who’ve grown up in torn jeans and shirts. JULIE, distributor

“It had to happen,” said Julie, a distributor, at a recent trade show we attended. “We’re swinging from corporate formal to corporate sloppy and back again.”
In strict contrast to the rest of the meeting room, Julie was wearing a crisp blouse and a blazer, a skirt, and short-heeled pumps. I’ve known her for many years, and I believe she’s one of the top distributors in the business. She sells millions of dollars to a compact list of corporate clients – and she reeks of professionalism.

“One thing that amazes me is the lack of concern among suppliers in the trade,”
Julie said. “When you walk a trade show floor, you see the most amazing range of clothing options possible, from the well turned out to the worst. It’s depressing.”

I looked around the room and knew without a doubt that I had finally become an old fogy. It must have snuck up on me when I was paying attention to other things. Or, perhaps it was science fiction: You know, a flash of light, a sniff of ozone and the
next thing you know you’re somewhere other than here.

Only I wasn’t somewhere other than where I was. I was doing a traveling trade show week and was surrounded by sales reps from major suppliers and distributors. Not much had changed for me except that their average age was younger than that of my children. And, for many of them, their behavior was much, much worse than my children had ever evidenced in a professional setting. Julie was right – it was depressing. This really trumpeted impending fogy-hood for good, old Nowell.

I’d been traveling with a road show that had older, more experienced reps with a number of years on the job. For the most part, we’d grown up in the business at a time when business dress meant a shirt and tie for men and dressy blouses with skirts or slacks for women. Yes, we’d heralded the age of business casual, but for us that meant embroidered shirts, blouses and polos with nice slacks or skirts. Since we were in the promotional business, we wore smart-looking promotional fashion.

“The world seemed to follow our lead. I remember my first sales call with the Tehama Golf rep, Howard Hedden. We showed $60 polos to a now defunct corporate distributor in Orange County, CA,” I told Julie. “He put thousands of dollars of clothes on the table and the distributor took 17 styles to his customers the next day. I simply couldn’t believe the power that good clothing had in the corporate world.”

We’re not in Kansas anymore
We seem to live in a different world today. My training in salesperson conduct was forged in the ’70s by salespeople who sold millions of dollars of printing and promotions in and around Chicago. Much of my education took place in bars and restaurants after working hours. Between drinks and hors d’oeuvres we young apprentices were taught how to become big-time salespeople. Lessons included proper dress and demeanor, call habits, techniques that work when trying to get through the gate guards, and dozens of other useful lessons on becoming and being a professional.

Contrast that with some of the behaviors I observed at the recent traveling road show I attended with Julie. I watched a 20-something woman who represented a top supplier tell a man who was old enough to be her father – as well as being a representative for one of her competitors – that she “should kick his (insert your choice expletive here) butt” while standing in line at a hotel check-in. As a demonstration of completely unprofessional behavior, I was astonished. Even her company seemed to condone the activity after being informed of her behavior, which compounded my disbelief.

And, I saw “corporate sloppy” trying to masquerade as “corporate casual” in everyday show clothing. The sales manager of a well-respected north-of-the-border supplier came to work with his casual dress shirt tails hanging out of wrinkled casual pants. His counterpart at another supplier dressed as though she was going to a sexy night club as a performer instead of as a professional sales representative in a trade show setting.

Julie wasn’t surprised. “I see this every day in the corporate world,” she said. “Part of my job is to teach my middle managers how to teach their new hires to dress inside the box. My staples are clothing from companies such as Cutter and Buck and Rohde Royce. At the very least, we try to teach them that first impressions count and bad first impressions count even more. It can be a tough sell to people who’ve grown up in torn jeans and shirts.”

At the traveling road show, I was wearing a uniform of black slacks and a black embroidered camp shirt. While eyeing my outfit, Art, a fellow “old fogy” distributor, told me that the dress code’s been sliding for every business. “I’ve been selling business fashion for more than 10 years, and I’ve seen the transition from suits to slacks and sport coats, to shirts and ties, and now to slacks and embroidered camp shirts,” he said.

“As an old fogy, I still think that business dress is professional dress for men and women,” Art said. “That doesn’t mean bare midriff and untucked long-sleeve twill shirts over play pants.”

A tough lesson to learn
I was again reminded of my sales education. More than 30 years ago, I left the Marine Corps and the Jefferson County sheriff’s department to enter the selling profession. I wore wash pants, short-sleeve polyester shirts and loud, wide ties. I showed up for my first day at work looking like a loading dock worker next to even the most junior of the company’s professional salespeople.

I was assigned to a senior salesman who was wearing a Hugo Boss suit that probably cost more than my car. On the way to our first call, he stopped at his clothing store and introduced me to his “guy,” who sold me my first big-time suit, a few cotton shirts and two ties. It was worth it because when I left the store, I looked really sharp.
The first sales call I made in my new outfit was a resounding success largely because I felt good and performed at a very high level. This wasn’t because I was any better at selling. It was because I fit into the environment.

“Perhaps the moral of the story is that we, as an industry, need to pay more attention to mentoring those who’ll inherit the earth,” said Art as we were finishing up our show. “We should do this by example. Those who are following in our footsteps are better than us. They’ll carry the industry to new heights if we teach them well.”
I agree with him. When more than a third of our sales are clothing, we are, or should be, authorities on corporate casual dress. Our customers expect it, too. Being dressed for the part means that we look like we know what we’re doing. And that always leads to…

Happy Selling!