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Complete Story
11/04/2025
Sales Road Kill
Source: Bill Farquharson, November 3, 2025
If a sales tip video landed on your desk delivered by someone unshaven, unkempt, claiming to be an expert, but looking more like roadkill, how long would it take you to actually hear the message?
Be honest.
Business dress standards have evolved—no doubt. Casual Fridays turned into business casual… and for some, it’s just casual. But here’s what hasn’t changed:
Appearance is part of the message.
Before you speak a word, your customer is already receiving a signal. That signal?
It’s your clothing.
Your grooming.
Your presentation.
It’s how you represent yourself—and by extension, your company and profession.
Back in my early sales days, it was suits every day. One Friday, 25 years ago, I visited a print equipment manufacturer. The guy greeting me wore flip-flops, oil-stained jeans, and a T-shirt better suited for an afternoon under the hood of a car.
That wasn’t casual. That was disrespectful.
Recently, a client shared feedback about a speaker who followed me at a conference. “His content was great,” he said, “but he started at a disadvantage—he looked like he didn’t care.”
You may disagree. That’s fine. But I’ll say this:
It will never hurt you to dress to impress.
The Sales Vault, created by Bill Farquharson, is a subscription-based resource and sales community featuring a calendar packed with live workshops, on-demand sales courses, peer-to-peer discussion groups, and 35+ years of sales training content all searchable by sales challenge. Think of it as a sales conference where the seminars and workshops, full of instantly applicable ideas, are ongoing and more programs are added constantly.
The Sales Vault is available on a monthly subscription basis, normally at a no-brainer monthly price of $45/participant, but… GMA members can take advantage of an exclusive offer: FREE membership for 30 days followed by a discounted monthly subscription price of just $40/participant.
Bill has been a friend of GMA for many years and is, no doubt, known to our members as a top sales trainer and content creator for the graphic arts.
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