Salesperson Appearance

I have a personal opinion question to ask to the board users here:

Does outward appearance matter for sales? i.e. Will someone with long hair and facial hair sell fewer (lets say web sites) than a salesperson that is clean shaven with short hair?

I am just trying to figure out if people really judge on appearance as I feel that they do.

Thanks

You didn't offer an option for short hair and a beard. Or long hair and no beard.

and no option for doesn't matter or either/

As long as they don't smell like a Hippie, it doesn't matter.

---John Holmes...

Although first appearance says alot, to me it would matter the
intelligence and vocation of the salesperson. I wouldn't care if someone
was in their underwear selling me something, as long as what they
were saying wasn't bs and they were being honest,

IMO, appearance does make a lot, not all, of difference. Especially when you're going to that all-important meeting in the conference room of 100-floor high skyscaper for 2 hour conversation. And even if you don't - I think one should keep their body clean, face shaven and hair short. "Just how her you care"

Seriously - when I see someone walking thru the door that's obvisouly not taking enough time to groom themsleves, I start to think in what manner they treat other things? If s/he has no time to maintain his/her own image, how would they be able to take care of my image?

If you had two identical people with identical skillset, would you rather pick one that is clean or one that is not-so-clean? There is your answer.

Hey, don't be knocking beards. I happen to like mine.

I don't think it was a clean vs. dirty debate though. It is a clean shaven, short hair vs. long hair, facial hair debate...

---John Holmes...

Is it me or is there 5-to-1 ratio of dirty to clean people amongst 'beard', 'ponytail' and 'gotee' 'people'?

That's horrible, how could you say that!!

Facial hair doesnt look bad as long as its clean and neat. Generally the beard should be quite short and have clearly defined edge.

If you look like a ape they dragged out of a cave and put a suit on then you might want to consider shaving. If you can't tell where the facial hair ends and the chest hair seen through the open shirt begins then you may want to trim it.

Doesn't it depend on what you're buying?

I wouldn't expect the sales guy at the local CompUSA or BestBuy to look the same as the 6-figure a year IBM consultant.

I would say that the tech sector would be one place where the long hair/beard would be less of a problem. Many people have images of the ponytailed, goateed, rebel computer nerds from the dot com boom years, and thus would not hold that appearance against the salesperson.

However, in pretty much any other field, salespeople should be clean cut. I mean, it might not make a very big difference, but when your entire livelihood depends on getting people to like you and your products, why wouldn't you give yourself every possible advantage, no matter how small?