Is poor personal packaging costing you?

Over time, we've found that there are a surprisingly few simple things you can do to improve the first impressions created by you and your staff in your chosen marketplace. They include:

1. The outside wrapper (your store, website, stock displays & literature)

2. The inside wrapper (uniforms, clothing and dress standards)

3. The soft centre (attitude and intent)

4. How we stack up (posture, deportment, movement, shape)

5. How we present (grooming, hygiene, body decoration, style)

6. How we sound (voice, language, vocabulary, accent)

7. How we feel to others (touch, contact)

8. How we relate (rapport, attention, focus, engagement, empathy)

9. What we know (product knowledge, awareness)

10. Our skill (everyone wants to deal with 'a nice expert')

Every one of those items is under our control and capable of a vast range of execution - from appalling to enthralling. Does it make sense for each of us to learn how to take each one of them to the top of the range? Does it make sense to teach our team to do the same?

We don't have room for them here, so if you'd like to pursue this line of thinking just ask me for our "First and Lasting Impressions - 10 Tips to Creating Them" and I'll share them with you but, when it comes to gaining some expert advice on packaging yourself for your market, I'm going to defer to the experts.