Is your car a work tool?
Do you have to drive clients around in your car?
Have you been given a company car?
Right, then let’s see how to look after your car, vehicle or wheels when you have to give a lift to a contact, a current or potential client, or a supplier.
Much of the advice I am going to give you is based on my own experience or anecdotes.
Cleanliness and image
Outside:
Just as you are supposed to wear clean, shiny shoes, do the same with your car. Spend €5 at the car wash, or €1 to give it a quick hose down, so that it is clean on the day you know you are going to use it with clients.
If you scrape every pillar in the car park, or you have smashed it into a lamppost, or you park it on the street and in the morning the birds have covered it in “little presents”, don’t touch it! Take a taxi with your client.
The inside of your motor:
Clean and tidy. Keep a special cloth to give it a quick wipe from time to time. If you smoke Ducados or Celtas Cortos, empty the ashtray often, and get a good air freshener if you can’t kick the habit.
If you have children, take a look at the car the day before, put the car seat or booster seat in the boot, and clear away the leftover crisps, sweets, mud, baby food, toys and all the other usual items.
If you were out partying the night before, remove the blonde or dark hairs from the seats, the bottle of whisky, the thongs, earrings and other accessories.
If you are an animal lover, it will be hard to keep the inside of the car spotless unless you have one of those hairless cats; leave the car at home.
The boot should be clean and tidy too; you never know. No smelly boots or trainers, toolbox, piece of furniture you rescued from the rubbish, sack of potatoes from your father-in-law’s vegetable patch, etc.
Marketing materials
Make the most of it by keeping a box of business cards in the car, in case you leave yours at the office.
If you have any merchandise or gifts that you usually give to clients, keep a small stock in the car.
Brochures or catalogues are a good idea too, but well stored so they don’t get damaged or dirty.
Manners and driving
Park the car so that your passenger can get in comfortably, then open the door for them and invite them to get in, whether they are a man or a woman.
Make your contact or client feel comfortable. Adjust the seat to suit them, the air conditioning or heating, ask whether they feel like listening to music or a particular radio station (rather than having the Máxima FM CD on at full blast, or Los Mojinos Escocíos).
Watch your driving style: “you’re not Hamilton”. Respect the signs and traffic lights, don’t do anything crazy and drive smoothly, or they might decorate your carpet with their breakfast.
If you are taking them back to where you picked them up, then do just that: don’t drop them in the middle of the Castellana in the bus lane; it has to be a door-to-door service.
By the way, it is also very handy to always keep an umbrella in the boot.
My car: yes or no?
***
\
If you have a decent car, use it, but if you drive your mum’s 1985 Opel Corsa, you’d be better off leaving it parked. It’s a different matter if you have a classic in good condition or a mid-range car.
If you have a Porsche because you won the lottery or come from a well-off family, but you are a salesperson and your car is above your position, that doesn’t look very good either; I would hire a car if I had to spend the whole day going here and there with a client.
In short, your car is also something from which your contact or client will form an image of you, so take special care of it if you use it regularly for work.
Happy Networking!
Categories