I had to pitch to a prospective client today for Schematic.
I stayed up until 2AM this past Sunday preparing my designs. Our CTO integrated my designs into our Keynote presentation and everything came together perfectly. All in all it was a great pitch and the prospective client responded great to our work.
Then as we were getting ready to leave in the lobby we saw ‘the other agency’ that was pitching right after us.
They looked like a bunch of scrubs.
Their clothes weren’t horrible but they weren’t great either. Then I looked down – their shoes were even worse.
Let’s get this straight people – if you’re a client-facing person at your company you should own a pair of $300 dress beautiful shoes.
If this sounds snobby, you can take it deep, because it’s true. You don’t need 5 pair or 10 pair, just one pair of top-of-the-line shoes. Also throw in a pair of $200 quality jeans. If you take care of them, they’ll last you a long time.
What? That’s expensive? So fucking what. Maybe don’t blow $100 a weekend on drinks for a month. Or maybe wait on buying that $400 PS3 you were planning on getting. I’ll repeat myself – if you are a client-facing person good clothes are essential.
Let’s put it another way – if you’re pitching to client – your clothing should be as amazing as whatever designs, Keynote presentations or After Effects prototypes you’re showing.
Image is key. Consistency is essential.