Dress to Press Persuasion

As a rule, people resist being sold. They love to buy, but hate sales pressure. Succumbing to persuasion pitches implies you’ve allowed your weaknesses to be exploited. People don’t like to view themselves as having weaknesses or as having been exploited. Our guard goes up when we encounter the stereotypical salesman.
     Researchers at Old Dominion University and Lamar University find that wardrobe reinforces the stereotype. In their studies, customers and clients concerned about salesmanship exploitation were more likely to be persuaded by a salesperson dressed in a way not stereotypical for that sales situation.
     On the other hand, there are situations in which people want to hand over control to the persuasion agent. It might be for the retail shopper who enjoys saying, “I couldn’t help myself when I got this item.” It could be the medical patient or auto shop customer who wants to delegate a decision to an expert, and for whom a sign of trustworthiness is the expert’s wardrobe. They don’t want a doctor dressed in dungarees or a mechanic in formal evening wear.
     In these situations, dress to fit the situational stereotype.
     The advantages to breaking the stereotype via wardrobe were especially high with a male persuasion agent and female target of persuasion. Other studies have found that many women avoid situations like automobile shopping, financial planning, and tax preparation because the women feared male persuaders would try to cheat them. The women believed that the men would assume the women’s technical skills are inferior to those of men.
     Use wardrobe to impress without intimidating. Salesperson confidence, but not hubris. This goes beyond dress. An image of salesperson hubris might be set off by a salesperson’s haughty posture and tone.
     Researchers at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv University found that brands, too, can be perceived as arrogant, which causes a conflicted response: The typical shopper is attracted by the exclusivity and implications of high quality, but possibly repelled by feelings of personal inadequacy.
     The reputation of a product itself can set off rejection. Columbia University researchers noted outcomes when shoppers viewing themselves as uncreative thought about purchasing an Apple computer—considered to have a creative product personality. The thinking about the purchasing led to the shoppers’ estimates of the Apple computer’s creativity growing greater. The shoppers felt themselves to be competing on creativity with the product. This made them less likely to buy it.

For your success: Retailer’s Edge: Boost Profits Using Shopper Psychology

Click below for more:
Exhaust Shoppers’ Resistances
Have Staff Who Show and Share Expertise
Cancel Out Implications of Female Inferiority
Impress Without Intimidating
Design Dress Codes Deliberately