“Selling myself in terms of building credibility, it could be building credibility in a sales cycle, could be building credibility and knowledge about me in terms of a job interview” – Mike Simmons & Jacquelyn Nicholson in today’s Tip 1797
How do you sell yourself?
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip features both Jacquelyn Nicholson and Mike Simmons in another of their joint tips. Here they are:
Mike Simmons: How do you sell yourself?
Jacquelyn Nicholson: Well, I think for me, it shows up in a couple of places in my life. So one would be if you’re ever in a job interview cycle, right? I’m currently working, so I’m not doing that. But in the past, when I’ve been in a sales cycle for a job interview, it’s something that’s really important. Then the other piece is your personal brand as a professional, as it pertains to you on LinkedIn. So a lot of people make their presence on LinkedIn about their business, about the company they work for. But then there are a lot of us who focus on our personal brand. For me, based on my great friend Larry Long Jr’s advice to me last April was he wanted to see my point of view on things every day. He’s like, just go out and do it. I don’t really care if you’re reposting somebody else’s stuff. I want to know what you think about stuff. And I don’t want to know what you think about someone else’s post. I want to know what you think, period. And so I started doing that. And I tend to be known for talking about the importance of mindset in sales. And on the weekends, I tend to post about wine. And so for me, my personal brand and “how I’m selling myself on LinkedIn” is to be a person you can reliably see content from on those topics.
Now, when I think about selling myself in terms of building credibility, it could be building credibility in a sales cycle, could be building credibility and knowledge about me in terms of a job interview, or it could just be maybe I’m running for public office, which I have done before. There are any number of things that you can do, but it’s really about letting people get to know you. What are you good at? What is your character? What are some of the results that you’ve gotten in the past? And what would other people say about you? So to me, that’s the mix of going into how would I sell Jacquelyn. It’s like, look, here’s the demonstrated success I’ve had. You can ask others about me publicly. You can see what I’m doing on LinkedIn. You can see I’m consistent. You can see what I care about. And by the way, here’s what I care about. Here’s what I’m passionate about. And here’s why it matters. And that just having that authenticity, that demonstrated capability is, I think, very important. How about you?
Mike Simmons: It’s an interesting challenge. Where this question came up is Jacquelyn and I were talking with a group of folks, and one of the questions that came up was, how sell yourself? Well, heck, if that’s a question that people are asking, why not talk about it? I don’t think about it as selling myself, but I think because of my background and because of what I do and what I talk about, that people think I’m always selling, depending on who you engage with. There are some people who will look at the smile and look at the discussion and look at the questions. They’ll be like, Oh, there we go. Cheesy car salesman or whatever. And I’ve never sold cars. But you get this impression where, Oh, you’re just a sales guy. And as a result of being just a sales guy, you get put into this category. And I think the challenge that we’ve got to run into as sales professionals, as leaders, as people who help solve problems, is not falling into the trap of being just a sales guy or just a sales girl or just a sales whatever. It’s more about what’s the specific problem that someone is trying to solve? How can I help someone solve that specific problem? And if there’s no problem there, I shouldn’t be creating it and trying to solve myself because that feels very self-centered and not serving, not acting in service of others. And I believe sales is an act of service. It’s an act of service, it’s an act of leadership. And we as leaders, we understand what people are struggling with. We can help them move forward.
So I think it’s less about selling yourself and more about helping others either move forward, solve problems, reengage. Now, the challenge with it though, is sometimes I might be too soft and I might not be so direct in calling people to action. And some of is by design, and some of it is just because there really isn’t the right fit. And that’s even by design, too. So that’s how I think. I don’t really think of it as selling myself, but I think other people would say that I’m typically selling myself. That’s not how I want to be perceived.
Jacquelyn Nicholson: Well, if it’s any help, I don’t perceive you that way. I feel like you’re one of the go-to people that helps others all the time, but I know you well, so that’s a good thing. And I do agree with you. I think one of the reasons why we are such good friends is we both believe that same thing about sales is it is an act of service. Our good friend, Dale Dupree feels the same way. It’s like we’re here to serve people, we’re here to give people an experience. And if people perceive it the wrong way, then all we can do is try to do better the next time, or we can take the advice of my great husband, Paul, who said, I would not take criticism from someone from whom I would not take advice. I was like, Yeah.
Scott Ingram: For links to connect with both Jacquelyn and Mike, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1797. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!