SELL YOURSELF By Chris Stark 

A sales development expert shares his top ten list for selling products, services, and your own abilities too.

10. People love to buy but hate to be sold to.

Each day I carry with me a wallet full of credit cards in case I see something I might want to purchase.  I love the experience of buying things.  However, if I sense someone is trying to sell me something, my defenses immediately go up.  How do we sell ourselves without tripping the other person’s “sales person radar?” That’s the foundation of what the rest of this list addresses.

9. I am financially independent and I don’t need the job.

If you could trick your brain into believing that the above were actually true, you wouldn’t need the rest of these tips.  You would do them automatically.  However, since this isn’t true for most of us, anxiety takes over and causes us to not apply the rest of the remainder of the suggestions.

8. Sell like a doctor.

Pharmaceutical companies know that doctors are their frontline sales people.  However, when you are in a doctor’s presence, you don’t get the sense that you are being “sold to.” Consequently, your natural defense against being sold to just doesn’t go up.I believe that at least in part it’s because doctors sell you what you want to buy not what they want to sell. They listen and then sell you a solution to your pain.  If you want to avoid looking and sounding like a sales person, avoid pre-mature presentation.  Don’t ask anyone to be interested in you before you’ve been interested in them.  Ask questions until you know what pains the other person has that you might be able to help them fix.  My observation is that premature presentation is the number one mistake of sales people in every industry.

7. Become an expert.

You’ll quit having to sell yourself once you become an expert. . . on anything!  It is amazing in our society how little it takes to be viewed as an expert.  Write an article and have reprints, make a video presentation and put it on YouTube™, or use one of the instant publishing websites to create a book with the knowledge you’ve accumulated.  If necessary pay someone to put the book together for you. Position yourself as an expert and the battle is half over.

6. Seek the other person’s trust and respect.Too many sales people have bought into the myth contained in the phrase

If they like me, they’ll buy from me.

However, experience shows that such faulty thinking oftentimes causes us to lose the component we need the most from the other person (i.e. their trust and respect).When we seek the other person’s trust and respect, we won’t be tempted to lower our price/salary or make unilateral concessions. We will keep the conversation reciprocal – asking as many questions as we are answering.  We will evaluate them as much as they are evaluating us.We will also sell ourselves based primarily on referrals from others – using the trust that others have already established to jumpstart our own trust-building process with the other individual.

5. Leave your enthusiasm outside the door.

Nothing trips a person’s “salesperson radar” quicker than enthusiasm on the part of the person trying to sell.Enter the conversation with the best interests of the other person as your primary focus.  Frame the conversation as an interview in which the two of you are merely trying to figure out whether or not you are/have a fit.  No enthusiasm is required for that approach.

4. Be ready to say “no” first.

If you sense that what you are trying to get the other person to buy is not in their best interest, be ready to say “no” first.  There is nothing that will gather another person’s trust quicker than when a sales person is willing to say “no” even before the prospective buyer says “no.”  If you aren’t a fit for the job, be the first to say so.

3. No begging allowed.

Nothing will lose the other person’s trust and respect faster.  Preserve your dignity throughout the conversation.

2. If you sense it, say it.

Find the courage to ask the other person what they meant by that sigh or that rolling of their eyes.  Don’t assume that you know.  We tend to always assume the worst.

1. Don’t allow wishy-washy words.

Don’t fear the truth so much that you hold onto false hope.  Listen for those phrases like “maybe,” “possibly,” and “we’ll get back to you.”  In all honesty, ask what the other person means by each phrase and if they are just too nice to tell you “no,” help them.  If it’s going to be “no,” you’ll want to know it that day so you don’t waste your time but rather get on with finding someone who will appreciate and be willing to pay a fair price for what you have to offer.

Management Consultant and Sales Trainer Chris Stark is the President of Strategic Sales Growth, Inc. in Cary, NC. Mr. Stark works with individuals and companies who struggle to gain a greater increase and consistency in their sales.Copyright 2007 Chris Stark.  All rights reserved.