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Here’s a jarring thought: based on overwhelming research, if you had to choose between spending time on either the first impression you’d make or the substance of the information you’d convey, your time would be better spent on the former.
I have never met an advisor who truly understood the extensive data on first impressions. That's unfortunate because the failure to recognize the impact of a first impression means converting fewer prospects into clients.
The unexpected impact of clothes
There is one aspect of making a positive first impression over which you have total control – what you wear.
If you believe what you wear impacts only those in your presence, you are mistaken. A fascinating study examined how clothes affect the mindset of the person in them. The study was done by Hajo Adam and Adam Galinsky, cognitive psychologists at Northwestern University.
The researchers conducted three experiments. In the first, they divided participants into two groups. One group was given white lab coats to wear, but was not told anything else about them. The other group remained in street clothes.
Both groups were given an identical test measuring their ability to identify incongruities. The group wearing the white lab coats performed markedly better than the group wearing street clothes.
In the second experiment, the researchers separated participants into three groups. Two of the groups were given identical white lab coats. One of the two groups was told these were “doctors’ coats.” The other group was told they were coats worn by artists. The third group remained in street clothes, but were told to look briefly at the "doctors’ coats" displayed on a table. All three groups were given an identical test that asked them to identify differences in similar pictures.
Once again, the group wearing the “doctors’ coats” performed much better than the other two groups.
The third experiment was a variant of the second. One group of participants was given white lab coats and told they were “doctors’ coats.” A second group was given the same white lab coats, but told they were typically worn by artists. A third group was told to stay focused on a “doctors’ lab coat” that was placed in front of them for the entire session (rather than briefly as in the second experiment).
Each group was then asked to write an essay on what they thought about the coats. For the third time, the group that wore the “doctors’ coat” outperformed the other two.
The importance of the study
The authors of the study concluded that clothes "can have profound and systematic psychological and behavioral consequences for their wearers.”
The first experiment demonstrated increased selective attention on the part of participants who wore the coat. The second and third experiments show the influence clothing can have depends both on “whether the clothes are worn and the symbolic meaning of the clothes.”
Associating the coat with a doctor, but not wearing it, had no impact on participants. When the coat was worn but not associated with a doctor, there was no increase in sustained attention. However, when participants wore the coat and associated it with a doctor, sustained attention increased markedly
The authors found the effect of wearing certain clothing involves "the co-occurrence of two independent factors – the symbolic meaning of the clothes and the physical experience of wearing them."
My experience
My experience validates these findings. I routinely tell advisors of both genders to change the way they dress when meeting prospects and clients. The result of this change, I have discovered, has been universally profound.
My clients tell me they feel more confident, stand up straighter, gesture more and speak with more authority when they are dressed in suitable attire. Some have told me they see a difference in the way they are viewed and treated by colleagues, significant others, social acquaintances and others.
To convert more prospects into clients, pay more attention to your clothes. What you wear will not only affect the way you are perceived by others, but also the way you think about yourself.
Dan Solin is the director of investor advocacy for the BAM Alliance and a wealth advisor with Buckingham. He is a New York Times best-selling author of the Smartest series of books. His latest book is The Smartest Sales Book You'll Ever Read. He limits his sales coaching practice to advisory firms that advocate evidence-based investing.
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