Page 74 - How To Sell Yourself

Selling with the Right Signals 73 unaware of how to send the signals that say, “I care,” other than
to simply treat the illness.
Think about the signals in the office environment: the boss- employee relationship and those between colleagues. Think about the signals in the parent-child and teacher-student relationships. More often than not, interpersonal problems are caused by mis- understood signals rather than by misunderstood words.
The words we choose, the way we say them, and the way we look all have an important bearing on the signals we send. It doesn’t really matter what we say if it doesn’t reach the person who hears it the way we intended.
Clothing
In addition to your face and your posture, your clothes send signals even before you’ve said a word.
The 1990s brought dramatic changes. The dotcom surge, the Silicon Valley explosion, changed everything in a big way. But, even though the uniform-of-the-day—blue suit, white shirt, sub- dued tie—is over for awhile, certain rules still apply.
The local bank manager is still out of place in cutoff jeans.
An employee of the Department of Agriculture who works in farm country can’t make it in a three-piece suit carrying a leather attaché case.
Shirts open to the navel with gold chains hanging down over the bare chest won’t make it at the brokerage house or IBM.
Let common sense rule
Today there are very few rules. Casual Friday has cloned it- self to include six other days in most places. The guiding principle is compatibility. Clothing has to blend with the situation and the audience’s expectations.
My rule is that nothing you do and nothing you wear should attract unnecessary attention.
Anything that’s noticed about you can destroy your message.
Anything that’s conspicuous will interrupt, interfere with, or cancel out your communication.
You want the audience to leave with your message, not the memory of a mustard stain on your shirt.