in the business world, it’s important to realize that your prospects for money now can hurt your prospects for money later. investors know this. you don’t sell stock when the market is on an up-swing. your $20 a share stock can turn into an $80 investment. but when it comes to selling services, there’s not much indication of a trend. this is what drives leaders to rash decisions.

you also wouldn’t sell stocks when they’re at rock bottom. i learned a valuable lesson when i was young (young-er anyway!) about the value of honesty and how client satisfaction changes everything. i sold produce for 5 years and in that time span, the most important sales were the sales where i didn’t sell anything.

i’m somewhat of a cantaloupe expert. i can tell you +/- 1 day when a melon will be within prime eating conditions. one day a little old lady came in the store and said she was having some company over, and that she wanted cantaloupe to serve her girlfriends. i told her “i wouldn’t buy any of those. they’re not ripe yet. these won’t be ready to eat for at least 2 days on a hot [kitchen] counter.” she said, “well then i don’t want it.” so 2 days later, she came in the store again and got a cantaloupe and said, “i’m having some friends over, can i cut this tonight after dinner?” i told her “not this one,” and found the right cantaloupe for her. the next day she came back with 3 of her friends, and they all bought a cantaloupe each. and that’s a true story, swear on my life.

when you deal with customers, what’s more important than making a sale is making the right sale. you can sell a $400 pair of high heels in manhattan, but if they’re not of high quality you’ll be working out of the bronx in no time once word spreads around. so you make a sale that benefits the customer, and if you can’t make that sale, you’re better off not making any sale.

when you talk about clients and contracts, many companies will bend over backwards to win a new buyer. some tactics are sly, others completely unsavory. any way you look at it, money is an important factor. revenues increase stock price, and stock prices make happy investors, and happy investors make the world go round. but if you’re doing so at the cost of providing poor quality products or services, then you’re just putting lipstick on the pig.

it’s important to have the guts to turn down a sale — to turn a client with cash in hand away — in order to preserve your company’s reputation for quality and building relationships. if your client wants something that you can’t deliver on, then you have to tell them that you’re unable to meet their expectations. they’ll respect you more, and while you might lose money now — later on — when they need their next issue solved, they’ll remember how you didn’t sell them a low quality product. they’ll remember the honesty that you showed, and that goes a long way to building relationships that foster financial growth.

so when you’re working on that next “big lead” and you’re about ready to close the deal, or if your client is asking for something that you can’t deliver on, remember:

don’t sell bad cantaloupe.

that alone would be excellent advice, but i’m talking about a different kind of dressing up. i’m talking about dressing up your business.

people perceive certain things, whether it be right or wrong, when they look at your company. it’s natural — life likes good looking things! there have been studies that show the peacock owes its livelihood to looking good. scientists clipped the brightly colored feathers from male peacocks, and left other males alone as a control group. those without their feathers clipped saw much greater rates of mating with the females in the group. throwing evolutionary caution to the wind, the lady peacocks choose brightly colored males because the more feathers they have, the more viral the male appears to be. during the mating season, other brightly colored birds like the many variations of parrots and parakeets, will sit on the highest branches in the sun so that their feathers are more visible and appear more brightly colored than their rival males.

the point is you need to look good. you have to dress for success. don’t ever underestimate what fancy looks can do for your business. everything about your company has to make you appear more “brightly colored” than your competitors. if you sell produce — make sure your produce is always piled high. if you sell milk — make sure your refrigerators are always packed with milk. if you sell computers — make sure your floor models always have clean mice, keyboards, and monitors. keep the floors mopped and the carpets cleaned. if the carpeting on your office building’s steps is worn out — replace it on the weekend with some extra carpet. if a light bulb is burned out — replace it with a new bulb. buy the more expensive plastic bags. go with frank sinatra or duke ellington for your elevator music instead of yanni. michael bolton may have been hip at one time, but the classics never fade.

it’s the small things about your business that make the biggest impact.

and not just to your customers either. give your employees new chairs — give them the BEST chairs. they deserve it, don’t they? buy new microwaves and coffee makers for the break rooms. they’ll see how you’re dedicated to them, and they’ll return the feeling. when they see the rest of the office or wherever you happen to work looking clean and orderly, they’ll also be clean an orderly — and not just in where they work, but how they work. i’d bet you would see an increase in quality of products and quality of service.

and as far as clients go, there’s never a second chance at a first impression — but there is a first chance at a second impression, and those are sometimes the most important ones! making changes signifies to your customers, “hey look, we’re changing with the times. we’re constantly making ourselves better. why don’t you partner with us and make sure that you don’t get left in the past?”

the way you present yourself says a lot about you. equally the same, the way you present your company says a lot about your company. be the peacock and dress for success.