Learning to sell is the most important skill you can learn to have success at anything you try to do. Understanding how to sell a product or a service is very important, but the main commodity people are buying when they patronize you or choose to work with you is you! People want to work with and buy from those they know, like, and trust. This makes the skill of selling yourself at the top of the list in order of importance if you’re looking to find success in both business and personal life.
Everything is sales
Whether you’re pitching a product or service, or trying to convince someone to go on a date with you, the same skill applies. Selling yourself! People always want to know who they’re getting involved with. This works at the subconscious level. When you are a salesperson, someone may choose not to work with you even if they love your product because they find you disingenuous and don’t trust you. In the real estate world, I’ve seen this happen many times. I’ve seen buyers love a house, but then choose not to pursue it because their gut was telling them not to get involved with the person who they would need to work with to complete the transaction. The same goes for personal life and dating. When you come off as disingenuous and untrustworthy, people tend to not want to associate with you regardless of who you are or what you have to offer. There are certain traits people look for both consciously and subconsciously when analyzing you to decipher whether or not they want to associate themselves with you. The following sections will list a few of the top traits.
Accountability
Believe it or not, most people don’t expect perfection if it isn’t promised to them. The problem with most people in sales and in general is that they overpromise and underdeliver. They paint a vivid picture of how associating with them will bear fruit with no roadblocks or hiccups. This may cause one of two reactions. Those who have experience see right through these types of people. They have dealt with them before as there are many out there who make these types of promises and underdeliver on them. The second course of action one might take is to buy into what is being sold due to lack of experience and enthusiasm. This usually results in a highly stressful and negative outcome that then hardens this individual to be more prudent moving forward. Those who overpromise and underdeliver have a tendency to gain a negative reputation. They’re often deflecting accountability from themselves, never admitting to the improbability of their initial promises and the lack of results they were able to produce. Accountability is an extremely important trait to possess when learning to sell yourself. Setting the bar high is a good thing, but there needs to be realistic expectations set along the way in terms of what can go wrong and how it can be remedied. People appreciate this, and your reputation will be positively impacted as a result. When things go wrong, you should be the first person to accept the blame and look for a solution rather than pointing the finger. This is an admirable trait and one that goes a very long way.
Proactive
Selling yourself convincingly implies that you are proactive, meaning that you plan ahead diligently for every scenario you can think of. In direct sales, this means answering common questions your client might have before it’s even brought up. This approach gains the trust of your clients because you are making an effort to address questions they might not have even thought of in order to make them feel even more comfortable with their decision. Being proactive also means that you see and address things that may go wrong before they do. For example, in real estate, I often have to raise capital for my deals that I undertake. Utilizing personal experience and experiences from others who have done something similar to what I am trying to do, I am able to forecast potential issues that may arise and solutions that may have worked in the past for either myself or someone I know. This proactivity is acknowledging the inevitability of something going awry, but being cognizant enough to foresee solutions to these problems before they become overwhelming. In the simplest sense, being proactive at a personal level can be as simple as planning a night out with your significant other ahead of time. Where you’ll go to eat, what movie you’ll go see, etc. This effort is appreciated by your significant other and is a quality that makes you stand out from others.
Trustworthiness
As we said in the beginning of this post, in order to sell yourself, people must know, like, and trust you. The above two sections highlight ways to gain the trust of others, but breaking trustworthiness into its own section to expand a little bit is necessary here. People with experience and good intuition will make a subconscious decision about you right off the bat based on your mannerisms and characteristics if you’re trustworthy or not. Breaking through that barrier of trust can be a very difficult thing to do. With trust comes loyalty, so without trust, you don’t have a strong base for a successful relationship. Gaining trust can be an extremely difficult uphill battle if you don’t make a good first impression. People always make a judgment about you subconsciously the moment they meet you. It is up to you to make sure that your first impression you give off is a positive one. Confidence, cadence, and relatability go a long way here. Listen more than you speak, answer questions confidently, admit when you don’t know something instead of fabricating an answer, and speak clearly in line with the cadence of how you’re being spoken to. This will help boost your odds of giving off a favorable impression and winning someone’s trust.
These three are not the only traits that allow you to successfully sell yourself, but they are at the top of the list in terms of importance. Being able to master these traits and add them to your toolbelt will give you an edge over others both in the business world and personal life. Remember, everything is sales! Learn it and it will increase your likelihood of success in every area of your life.