|
|
FEATURE
ARTICLE |
How to Sell Yourself
(and Why Your Career Depends on It)
By Peter Clemens |
To get ahead
in life, you need to be in the business of
selling. If this statement makes you cringe, it is
probably because the word “sales” evokes images of
annoying telemarketers and pushy car dealers. Relax,
though, as this article is about a product so wonderful
and special you should have no qualms in selling it.
The product? You.
There are endless situations in life where the key to
success is the ability to sell yourself to others. In your
career, the ability to convince an interviewer that you
are the best person for the job is critical. When it
comes to relationships, your ability to show your best
qualities can be the crucial factor in clinching a date
with the girl or guy you want. When you think about
it, if you cannot sell yourself as a person to others,
you are going to have a difficult time selling them
your ideas, your wishes, your needs, your ambitions,
your skills, and your experience.
Despite the necessity of being able to sell yourself to
others, for many people like myself it does not come
naturally. Introversion, shyness, and lack of self-worth
are just a few of the obstacles that can potentially
get in the way. To overcome such obstacles, I suggest
focusing on the following:
Be Sold on Yourself
This is the first, and perhaps most important, aspect
to successfully selling yourself to others. Unless it
comes naturally, this is probably also the hardest.
Being sold on yourself comes down to this: you must
be aware of your own self-worth. This means you
believe in yourself, have faith in yourself, and have
confidence in yourself.
Being sold on yourself is not something that usually
happens overnight. For many years, I did not like
myself. I can, however, personally attest that it is
possible to change your life and gain a sense of self-
worth when there was once none. If you struggle with
your sense of self-worth, here are just 3 ideas that
may help:
 Live
in such a way that you would want to be
friends with yourself.
Find some
time to reflect on what you like about
yourself. If this seems
hard, start with the smallest of
attributes.
Don’t
do anything that will give you cause to feel ashamed later.
Have a Saleable Package
This article is predominately about letting others
know about the inner contents of your package. That
being said, there is no getting around the fact that people
judge others based on their appearance. Some questions you may
consider asking yourself are: am I
looking after my appearance to the best of my ability?
Are my clothes appropriate for the image I wish to project?
Be Positive and Enthusiastic
Can you remember the last time you received poor
customer service? Did the person look bored,
disinterested, and as if they wanted to be anywhere
but that place? Don’t be that person. Positivity and enthusiasm
can both be developed, but once again it takes work. Here are
a few tips to help you:
Look
for the best in people.
Associate
with positive people.
Care
deeply about something.
See
life as an adventure.
Smile.
Be Real and Authentic
Rather than being about who you appear to be, selling
yourself is about letting others know who you are as a
person. For this reason, lies and half-truths are a
recipe for disaster later down the line. By telling the
truth, you will earn both trust and respect which, in
turn, will help you build a great reputation. Not only
that, it will make you feel good about yourself. The
last thing you want to do is sell yourself out by compromising
your values and principles.
Article printed from PickTheBrain | Motivation and
Self Improvement: http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog |
|
