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Don’t Sell Yourself Short

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You have to be in sales. I have been in sales for years. As a mother, as a wife, as an educator—I’ve had to “sell” people on eating vegetables, taking out the garbage, and doing homework. Now that I am in business development and recruiting, it is easy to see that, yeah, I’m definitely “in sales.” But you are, too! And, you probably don’t even know it.

Think about those times when you had to step outside your comfort zone in order to deliver a presentation, to teach a lesson, to speak on the phone, to go on an interview… or, how about the dreaded panel interview? I’ll bet you managed it just fine. Guess what? In every one of those situations, you were selling something.

Finding a job requires YOU to be able to sell yourself to prospective employers, but relax; you don’t have to be an extrovert to do this. While you might have to do a little bit of, “fake it ‘till you make it,” selling doesn’t demand that you become someone you are not.

Janet Choi, in her online article, You Were Born to Sell: Dismantling the Myths of Self-Promotion, writes that selling “demands […] you be true to yourself and your passions — and then reach out to connect from that core.” So, you’re not the classic used-car sales personality? That’s okay!

Most of us are a combination of extrovert and introvert, or, “ambiverts.” This means that we can put on that outgoing personality, if only for an hour or so, in order to tell someone about that project, experience, or resume. Being an ambivert means that you have the ability to speak and to listen. And that’s what it means to sell; you build a rapport and a relationship with your audience. Here are the steps:

  1. Listen to your audience
  2. Ask questions
  3. Move the conversation forward.

Anybody can successfully market themselves. Janet Choi says, “To not do so, betrays our creativity and our work,” Look up Dan Pink’s best selling book, To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others. Read this book!  It’s full of great ideas to use for selling yourself to a prospective employer and for everyday living. Then, keep an eye on yourself the next time you try to talk your special someone into bringing home a quart of ice cream, or taking out the trash. See? You’re in sales, too!

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