Use a Business Image Consultant to Perfect your First Impression

Whether presenting, meeting a prospective client or interviewing for a promotion, your first impression is critical to how you are perceived.

If you do not create a desire to know more and create a positive perception you can lose out on making the deal, getting the promotion or even selling your idea.

Of course you need to have the skills to back that up, but without mastering that initial few seconds of meeting people, or how you look in your environment, where stereotypes are cast and unavoidable judgments made, you can lose you competitive edge and impact power.

A business image consultant can really give you the skills and confidence to make radical changes in your business and discover different results. Sometimes we need someone outside of ourselves to help gain self-awareness and get a perspective on the impression we make and what aspects could be contributing to this.

Image is everything

Research indicates that we have possibly between 7 and 30 seconds to create a first impression. In this tele-visual age, we are learning to make assumptions quickly in order to deal with the overload of information.

In business, this is no exception, in fact much about one’s character and worth to a company and the internal character of an employee is judged on the image or visual impression made. Ones visual expression becomes an indicator and rightly or wrongly, this means that other people’s perceptions become a reality....

Companies spend millions of dollars every year in public relations and image development. If a company has goals and targets to meet, it would craft a visual message to the world about this and ensure this is brought consistently throughout their elements of business.

Similarly, you brand yourself. Whether you are conscious of this or not, you are expressing a message about your worth, your attitude to the world and what’s important to you.
• Are you aware of the brand or impression that you are making?
• Are you are investing in developing your impact power?

An image consultant is similar to your personal brand consultant and can help you craft the message you want to give your colleagues, clients and boss’s that helps you get where you want to go.

Furthermore, a business image consultant can help businesses see how staff and branding elements communicate a message and what impression it makes in the subconscious minds of customers and consumers.

If you want your business to come across professionally, friendly and competently, how well is that working? Do you want your business to look creative and innovative yet technologically slick? Or are you looking for traditional, experienced and knowledgeable?

A consultant will help you to define weak points and then fix those points to ensure that your business always makes a winning first impression.

What Happens During a Consultation

1. When you hire a personal business image consultant, the image consultant will firstly spend time developing an understanding for what your goals and objectives are, whether they be on a business or personal level.

2. You will look at what is working and where things need to be addressed.

3. You will then start making changes. Elements that may be involved include:

• Colour analysis – checking that colours are communicating positively in your environment and bringing out the best in you
• Look at cut, style, shape of clothes and brands that work and don’t work for your environment and body shape
• Accessories like glasses, jewelery etc.
• Personal Shopping to find styles that suit
• Wardrobe planning to ensure you can mix and match on your own, buy effectively to enhance your collection and ensure that you are optimising your cupboard space and displays.
• Suit case packing for business trips for that maximum impact with minimal items
• Grooming and other aspects

4. The client will make changes necessary and monitor the changes and impact this has on confidence and outcomes of situations.

In corporate business image consulting, analysis of various aspects of the business strategy is explored. Then an audit of what image aspects like marketing, PR, online environment, office spaces and employees are projecting is done. Gaps will be identified and research done to gain understanding of perceptions. This will lay the foundation for recommendations to repair these gaps and develop the image more effectively.
How Consultation Helps

• Help you to understand what your goals and direction in business are
• Can help you reach your goals by helping you remove obstacles that may be preventing your development and success
• Help you to build confidence and positivity in leading, selling ideas, persuading, influencing, communicating, presenting, and building relationships.