7 Dress Tips to Set Sales Reps Apart in 2022

As sales reps you’re front and center with prospects, making the first time they see you a big indicator of how the discussion will go. As a professional salesperson, you’re the first thing that customers interact with, oftentimes even before your product or service is introduced. You have to make this count. You have just 7 seconds to make a good first impression so here are 7 tips to make those seconds count.

7 Dress Tips for Sales Reps:

1. Learn your style
2. Practice proper hygiene
3. Wear clothes that suit your body
4. Go for a clean, simple look
5. Maintain facial hair
6. Don’t dress to impress
7. Don’t break typical fashion rules

#1 Learn your style

There are some main outfit types sales reps typically wear:

• • Suits: Business suits, white shirt, and dress shoes

  • Casual: Shorts, white t-shirts, and tennis shoes

  • Company Uniform: Company collared shirt, shorts or jeans, and casual shoes

  • Neutrals: “Everyday” wear khakis, collared shirts, and casual shoes

Your company might decide which of these styles is required, but if you have the option, go for what suits your personality and daily life. If you’re knocking doors in the heat, casual or neutrals might be for you or if you deal with large corporate accounts in offices, suits are more expected attire.

#2 Practice proper hygiene

This tip is pretty self explanatory. Washing your skin, hands, teeth, and brushing your hair is expected behavior. A failure to meet these standards can potentially cause the customer to focus on that instead of your pitch (they won’t want to talk with you if you have stinky breath). Following basic proper hygiene will present you as a clean, healthy, and trustworthy rep.

#3 Wear clothes that suit your body

It’s apparent that not everyone has the same body type, knowing this you should identify yours and dress accordingly. For men there are 5 options and women have 4 body shapes. Once you know your body type, this will guide your style choices, but as a universal rule of thumb, avoiding baggy clothes or overly tight clothes is best.

#4 Go for a clean, simple look

No matter the style you choose or the shape of your body, aiming for a clean and simple look is the best way to go. This can be done with any of the 4 styles or body types. A clean and simple outfit means that you coordinate your colors, wash your clothes, and don’t wear dirty pants or shoes. 

#5 Maintain visible hair

If you have facial hair and it’s not maintained, it can be off-putting to customers. This includes: beards, eyebrows, nose hair, and hair on your scalp. This can fit under the hygiene category but it’s extremely important that what visible hair you have is kept trimmed otherwise you might catch the prospect staring at it instead of listening to your pitch.

#6 Don’t dress to impress

Occasionally reps think the most expensive clothes they have, the better, but this isn’t always the case. Hardcore Closer shares an experience of when “dressing too nice can cost you a sale.” This isn’t to say that you have to wear cheap clothes when you own nicer ones, but wearing overly expensive and flashy clothes draw away from the pitch to your customer and can make you seem arrogant. So don’t dress to impress, dress to make a good impression.

#7 Don’t break typical fashion rules

That said, never break the rules too much. Black brogues or dress boots instead of oxford shoes are fine, but canvas sneakers or light brown leather saddle shoes with a suit is not. It’s best to pick a style option and stick with that consistently so you don’t draw negative attention to your clothes.

What Dress Tips Do You Have?

These are some of the big dress tips for sales reps, but what tips do you have? Let us know below in the comments! If you’re looking for more tips on sales culture, check out our blogs and chat with us sometime.