 |
|
"It's important
to do things right, but just as important is to do
the right thing."
|
When
life gives you lemons……
I was instantly swept
back to childhood as I watched the first episode ever aired
of “The Apprentice.” The prize: a job
working for Donald Trump running one of his companies and
taking home a huge salary. Whether you like the show
or not, Trump has us properly focused now on the fact that
business is all about sales
and leadership.
In the first show he
assigns the contestants (a group of “already
on their way to top the top” business
professionals) to hit the streets of New York City and sell,
of all things; lemonade. He divides the group
into women against men, and a seemingly simple task
sends every contestant into a selling frenzy.
 Now,
I tried to remember my first lemonade stand and I don’t
think that my little friend
next door and I used sex or sex appeal to sell our five-cent
cups of the sugary nectar. But then again,
we had our own marketing ploy since we had something else
going for us… plain, simple “little kid”
cuteness. I got to thinking about the marketing and
sales tactics used by the contestants on the show and how
these can be good examples of “to dos” and maybe
more importantly “not to dos”.
As
women, should we use sex to sell?
My belief is
that sex and sex appeal are two very distinct terms.
For instance, using sex to sell would almost hint that somewhere
in the sales process there may be a reward of sex which almost
seems like coercion. In my opinion, using
sex to sell is in bad taste and should carry
a stiff penalty just as offering a financial bribe would.
 But
sex appeal is another story. It may mean just
putting on a little lipstick and wearing pantyhose with your
business suit versus a naked leg and flip-flops,
or a neckline that flatters your face and neck versus a harsh
collar and manly tie or scarf.
We all like to look
at good looking people and Hollywood is a perfect example
of this. We have been programmed
by movie makers and fashion photographers to believe that
beauty equals success. Who
in business does not want to appear successful?
So back to the apprentice:
The female contestants win the lemonade task by outselling
the men. But they get criticized
by most of the American viewing audience for using sex appeal.
Hmm…I ask myself would it have been a hit show
or would anyone have been watching if they were a group of
ninety year old former female weight lifting champions? However,
regardless of how attractive they are, the female
candidates on “The Apprentice” took it too far
when they crossed over the sex appeal and into the sex line.
It was clearly crossed with physical contact and promises
of personal information.
Now please don’t
get me wrong. I am far from being considered as a “pretty
young girl”, (you know, just like the female apprentice
candidates). However after being
in sales for 20 + years I know that it is important to make
a good first impression. You only get one
chance to make a good first impression. An example of not
advertising yourself with sex appeal: You can have great eye
contact and a firm handshake, but if your nails are bitten
and your polish is chipped your confident handshake begins
to wane in comparison. What
kind of a first impression are you making?
Subsequently if your
nails are polished and well cared for but you give
a “limp fish” kind of handshake, you’re
not giving a great first impression either.
In my sales coaching
practice I teach business women and men they need to appear
very confident in order to increase sales revenue. If
you carry a confident persona you will demand more attention
and command more respect. But your visual
messages must be clearly aligned or you will send mixed signals.
We
are not all born beautiful,
but we all have the ability to care about our appearance.
We also have
wonderful traits that we can utilize to our advantage such
as a great smile, or wonderful sense of humor. We
all have varying levels of sexiness that we feel we can reveal
at particular times through our style of dress, makeup and
hair dos. For instance; selling
lemonade to men on Wall Street might warrant a little sexier
sizzle than selling Girl Scout cookies at a school bake shop.
As women, and more importantly
as women business professionals, it
is extremely important to analyze our own standards as to
how much sex appeal is too much. In a business
situation I am not suggesting we want to ever sacrifice brains
for beauty. But if you have both, (which many of the
female apprentice candidates did) why not use every advantage
within a tasteful set of guidelines?
As for the male candidates
on “The Apprentice” are concerned; I wonder if
perhaps they were so upset over the loss because they realized
they missed an opportunity to
use some of their own sex appeal to sell more lemonade.
|
Jan
DeLory
is
president
of
Boston
Professional
Group,
a
sales
consulting
firm.
She
is
also
a
business
&
life
coach
and
recently
founded
Women-Matters,
a
unique
way
to
bring
affordable,
facilitated
coaching
groups
to
women
in
the
comfort
of
their
own
homes.
For
more
information,
log
onto
www.women-matters.com