“Do looks matter?” Kirk Zehnder asked National Fastener Distributors Association conferees, while displaying examples of distributorship entry waiting rooms on the conference room screen.

Lobbies at distributorships are important in “first impressions,” said Zehnder, who is third generation in the Cleveland-based master distributorship Earnest Machine.

One possibility creating a difficulty for the fastener industry may be that many of the fasteners the industry handles are identical to ones Earnest Machine was selling when it was founded in 1948 and today, Zehnder acknowledged.

Zehnder recommended taking a serious look at how others see your company’s looks.

“Looks matter,” Zehnder declared.

He finds three responses to “looks” questions:

First: “This truly represent who we are and where we are heading.”

Second: “I came up with this logo and took the napkin to our printer.”

Third: “It’s good enough and I still have three boxes of business cards.”

• Zehnder countered the traditional executive’s response that “I can’t change my look, we are an established brand,” with a series of both Pepsi and Coca-Cola logos changing multiple times over the decades.

• Office furnishings need to be kept up to date, Zehnder said. “We are where we sit,” Zehnder said while displaying older and current office chairs and office desk cubicles.

• On internal communication, Zehnder recalled the days when so much company information could be kept private or papers destroyed in a trash fire. Today there are WikiLeaks, Google, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Yelp and LinkedIn to spread news. That forces change on fastener executives.

But instead of a negative, Zehnder said he finds today’s openness can help a business. “Transparency builds trust.” Web: EarnestMachine.com