Appearance Does Matter in Business

Step back for a moment and think how you and people you know make decisions about the people you encounter. How do you decide whether some is deserving of your respect, attention or time? Given a group of people how do you choose whom you wish to interact with? And given a specific person, how do you choose how you wish to interact with them?

Looks are the primary criteria for inclusion or elimination from another person’s attention span. It is also the basis on which people form their opinion of who or what you are. While an opinion thus formed could be changed subsequently - it would take far more effort than getting it right in the first place.

So what are looks ? Are they clear skin, exquisite features, appropriately groomed, appropriately dressed, and well heeled? Confidence? The smell that emanates from your person? Is it your expression? (Smile, nose-up-in-the air… etc)

It is the total package - it is all of the things that people perceive about you at the first encounter.

These are then backed up by your voice, the manner in which you speak, your operating style and ethics - whether you make effusive promises with no intention of follow through, whether you are a man of your word, how you treat people whom you have no reason to be nice to. All of these also matter, but they come later and solidify the initial impression formed in the other person’s mind.