Lee Heyward - Strategically Suited: Your Secret Edge to Grow Sales and Get New Clients

Your Secret Edge to Grow Sales
and Get New Clients

Lee Heyward

NEW YORK

NASHVILLEMELBOURNEVANCOUVER

Strategically Suited

Your Secret Edge to Grow Sales and Get New Clients

2017 Lee Heyward

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in New York, New York, by Morgan James Publishing. Morgan James and The Entrepreneurial Publisher are trademarks of Morgan James, LLC.

www.MorganJamesPublishing.com

The Morgan James Speakers Group can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event visit The Morgan James Speakers Group at

www.TheMorganJamesSpeakersGroup.com.

ISBN 978-1-68350-243-2 paperback ISBN 978-1-68350-244-9 eBook Library of Congress Control Number: 2016915452 Interior Design by: Chris Treccani www.3dogdesign.net

In an effort to support local communities, raise awareness and funds, Morgan James Publishing donates a percentage of all book sales for the life of each book to Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg.

Get involved today! Visit
www.MorganJamesBuilds.com

S ome time during my senior year of college, I bought a suit. I didnt have an interview I needed it for; I just thought, Im a college senior, and seniors are supposed to find a jobso obviously, I need a suit. It was a double-breasted pantsuit with navy pinstripes. Im sure it was very cool at the time.

I was graduating from college. I had a suit. I was ready to conquer the real world!

Then, after graduation, I landed a dream job as a visual merchandiser for Ariat International, an equestrian footwear and apparel company. It was especially exciting, because I have ridden horses since the age of five. When I interviewed for the job, I flew to the Atlanta airport, met my soon-to-be boss in the Sky Club during his layover, and was hired on the spot. No suit needed.

As a visual merchandiser, I flew all around the country to help our accounts sell Ariats product line. I visited national accounts as well as smaller, locally owned stores. That suit I bought would have been ridiculous in an equestrian retail setting. So it hung in the closet, unworn.

When I got my job, I thought merchandising would be fun, and it was. But I had no idea how many ways it would teach me that the way you present what youre sellingas well as the way you present yourselfhas a direct correlation with the sales results you get.

I got to be around horse people and horse stuff, and was working for the best company in the equestrian industry. I couldnt have been happier. And not long into the job, I discovered that the business perspective it offered was very interesting as well. I quickly figured out why Ariat hires an entire team of people devoted solely to merchandising. Ariat places a premium on visual merchandising because the company knows it makes all the difference between strong and flat sales.

The stores that were beautifully merchandised and consistently serviced sold two times the amount of product than the stores that haphazardly displayed things wherever there was a spot. The stores that created intentional displays had a considerable edge over the stores without a planthe latter struggled to get the sales results they wanted, and complained about their business all the time.

One day, I found myself at a rodeo where I was helping one of our accounts sell Ariat product. I had been urged to dress the part, which meant dressing like a cowgirl in Wrangler jeans, a button-down shirt, a cowboy hat, and cowboy boots. None of it made sense for my personality or level of equestrian expertise, and all of it made me feel as if I were dressing up for Halloween.

Id already seen how presenting the product a certain way could dramatically increase sales. So I was really interested to see what would happen if I dressed a certain way. Would it, too, increase sales?

I knew instinctively that when it comes to the merchandising of yourself, or how you present yourself, its not as simple as putting on a costume simply to dress the part. In fact, wearing something that feels like a costume will actually detract from your sales.

If I dressed like a cowgirl, any real cowboy would know that I was simply wearing something to be more like them. I could better serve potential buyers as an expert who was approachable and knowledgeable about the product I was selling, while simultaneously appreciative of their sport.

So, at the rodeo, I wore my own clothes and added a western flair. We sold outno costumeor pinstriped pantsuitnecessary.

Fast-forward a year to when I was promoted as a sales representative for the same company. Im a girl in my early twenties taking over accounts from a very established cowboy who everyone loves. And someone says to me, Man Id hate to try and fill Glens shoes. How are you going to do that? I said , Im not. Ill wear my own shoes.

In that moment, I had to figure out how to walk into an arena where I wasnt quite like everyone else with 100% confidence in my own sales abilities. Yet in order to succeed, I also had to give my new customer the confidence they needed, to know I was the gal that would help grow their business.

I worked for Ariat for five years and quickly became one of their top sales representatives. I still loved the job when I left, but I didnt want to live life on the road anymore. Often times when Id drive from account to account, Id daydream about what I wanted to do next. As it turns out, Id been training for the rest of my life my entire life!

When I was in fourth grade, my best friend started at a new school. I decided we had to make sure that she would arrive at the new school as a cool kid. So we had a sleepover, and created outfits for the first five days of school. In my mind, this was foolproof. Cool clothes equal cool kid. What more could you want, right?

And it worked. She made friends easily. Clearly, I had a knack for thisbut it wasnt until working for Ariat that it all clicked for me.

I finally took a good, hard look at that suit I bought my senior year of college, which had stayed, neglected and unworn, in my closet for years. As it turned out, that suit was something I thought I SHOULD buy, not something that truly served me as a strategic way to get the business results I was after.

I got rid of my suit.

Now, not everyone should get rid of their suit. Thats my story. For you, it may be strategic to wear a great suit. Or it may not. Theres true power in figuring out which clothing to wear in order to gain an edge in your business, and ultimately increase your bottom line.

Youre successful. You know how to get dressed. You listened when people talked about dressing for success. But now its time to take it to the next level and discover how changing your clothes will actually increase your sales results.