Think about how you present yourself. This is most critical if you are a service business. The impression you create in face-to-face contact must reflect your position in the market and create a market opportunity for your business every time you speak to others. People are seeking your credibility on the product or service you sell. Convincing others of your credibility requires two key elements:

1. Knowledge - You must be seen as knowledgeable about the product or service you are selling or promoting by providing expert information.

2. Trust - Customers must believe you will act with their best interests in mind.

Credibility and visibility go hand-in-hand. You need to demonstrate your expertise, trustworthiness, and concern for your customer's welfare. How will you do this? Marketing yourself is an active process. It requires you to assert yourself, make your audience aware of you (even if it is only one person), grab their attention, and then focus that attention on your credibility. To establish and maintain your credibility, you must follow your words with action.

1. List all the paper involved in your business (tags, boxes, stationery, invoices, receipts, cards, etc.)

2. How does your image and name reflect your position in the marketplace? Does it communicate the strength you have in the market (price, service, convenience, etc.)?

3. How do you present yourself to the customer, especially in a service business? How do you answer your phones? How do you leave messages? What does your answering message say? Do you have special clothing or transportation that form part of your image?

4. Name your favorite product or service. What image do you have of them? What does it say to you? Why do you buy from them?

5. Think of your business. What image would a customer get of you? Why?

Business image is extremely important to customers who have many choices in deciding where to spend their money. It also affects whether or not someone will return to you in the future. Customers will leave you for many reasons, but almost 70% leave due to a poor attitude exhibited by employees of the business. This is easily avoidable if you understand what the customer wants and then communicate the image you want to project to all of your employees. Remember to talk periodically to your customers about your image. This is a good way to make sure that your customers view the business in the way you want it to be seen.

Credit:
by Andrea Madonna, SELF, Phoenix, AZ, 1/99

SBA's Office of Women's Business Ownership is leading the way.
OWBO promotes the growth of women-owned businesses through programs that address business training and technical assistance, and provide access to credit and capital, federal contracts, and international trade opportunities.

Article found at: http://www.onlinewbc.gov/DOCS/market/bus_image.html

Reprint of this article does not constitute an endorsement by the National Business Association; the article is for informational purposes for our members and viewers of our Web site.