hen you meet with a prospect or a potential employer, you make sure your clothes are fresh from the drycleaner, your hair and nails are perfectly groomed and your shoes are shined and in good shape. You have all the necessary files and paperwork at the ready and you arrive on time, if not early. In short, you put your best foot forward. You do all this because you know that first impressions are important and you want to win this client's business or get this job. But, while first impressions are important, so are second, third ... and 24th impressions.

Landing a new client or job doesn't give you license to become careless. Perhaps after you've grown comfortable with a client, you stop in wearing a rumpled shirt or scuffed shoes. Who cares, right? You already have the account. Or maybe you bring another client out-of-date sales figures. It's OK. He won't know the difference, right? Wrong. Never become so focused on the next big fish that you let your dedication to established commitments slide.

Even when we have long-standing agreements with clients and think our relationships are on solid ground, we are still judged by them at every meeting. How we act when we think no one is watching or when we don't believe anything is at stake says a lot. It tells others who we really are.

Many times, we are judged by the small things. It may be the actions we don't even think about that make a client form a positive or negative impression:

• Do you hold the door for people as you enter the client's business?
• Do you greet all employees cheerfully and introduce yourself to them, even the lowest ones on the totem pole?
• Do you respect your client's time and responsibilities and arrive on time?
• At business lunches are you polite to the restaurant staff and parking attendants?
• Do you refrain from tossing cigarette butts or gum wrappers on the ground?
• Do you avoid making negative comments about others?

All of these small actions speak volumes about who we are. Clients want to work with people they respect and admire. If you are up against a competitor who sells a similar product, the only thing that differentiates your product is you. If the competing sales professional is tardy or indifferent, or does something that makes the client feel uncomfortable, your pleasant demeanor and on-time arrival will help you get the sale.

Doing the right thing may not pay off immediately; you may not get any new business or referrals from an established client. But, it will pay off at some point.

Perhaps your sales will increase as your word-of-mouth reputation gets a boost. Or perhaps your reward will simply be the satisfaction of knowing that you've done the right thing and conducted yourself with integrity, honor and respect for yourself and others.

In this industry, you can make or break your success on your name and your honor. Character is everything. When you are retired or have moved on to another industry, your sound reputation will be the one thing you take with you.