You never looked so good!

Is your sales team saying good things about you?

What do you mean, you don’t have a sales team? Of course you do! You have several members of the team in your wallet, a few more stuffed into your printer (ooh, that would be comfortable) and perhaps a pile of them sitting on your bookshelf. And, there is another member of the team out there on the Internet for all the world to see.

I’m talking, of course, about your marketing material—your business cards, your letterhead and envelopes, your brochures and your website. Your corporate look. You.

Let me ask again: Is your sales team saying good things about you?

Right or wrong—and even if it goes unsaid by those who see them—your stationery and corporate collateral speak volumes about who you are, how you operate, your commitment to quality, your level of professionalism and your attention to detail. They can give you instant credibility—or not. Regardless of your personal beliefs, appearance matters. (Don’t believe me? Try showing up at a client’s office with your underwear on the outside.)

Some people design cards themselves and have them printed professionally; others have them designed professionally and print the cards on their own laser or ink-jet printers. Others do it all themselves while a fourth group farms the whole affair out to professionals.

My advice? Produce the very best material you can afford. Even if your marketing budget is tighter than the age rings on old-growth lumber, spend the green to spruce up your image (yeah, that one took awhile).

It’s never been easier to design websites. Or, produce business cards—it’s fast, cheap and you print only what you need. But that, I’m afraid, is the problem. Just because it can be done doesn’t mean it should be done.

Your website or business card may be the only connection the potential client has to you. It has to knock him dead—or at least knock him in the general direction of the telephone.

As tempting—or as fun—as it might be to throw a website on the Internet, design a new logo or layout your own brochure, unless you are qualified to do it, these are jobs best left to professionals. While you might save a few bucks now, you may be risking thousands of dollars in sales later.