Structure
Chapter ONE Introduction, Sales and Marketing
Chapter TWO Selling YOU!
Chapter THREE Impressions
Chapter FOUR Features and Benefits
Chapter FIVE Selling and Buying Cycles
Chapter SIX The Buying Cycle - Motivational Needs of the Buyer
Chapter SEVEN Endgame
HOW TO SELL AND MARKET YOURSELF
Why are some people more successful than others?
Simple – they have more drive, conviction, self-belief, and ambition than others.
This book aims to give you an appreciation of the principles and psychology involved in Selling and Buying because at the end of the day you are selling a product. And the product is YOU!
Most candidates represent themselves poorly on their CV and very many do not interview well - despite having the credentials for the job. In todays ruthlessly competitive markets, if you don't understand the principles of selling and buying, how CV's are evaluated and tailor your approach accordingly you will not reach interview stage. And then, having got an interview, any candidates simply fail to sell themselves.
Remember!
The ladder of success isn’t crowded at the top because most people can’t be bothered to make the effort to climb it. If you have the determination, stamina and, above all, belief in yourself to get to the top.
YOU WILL!
How to Sell and Market Yourself
Nick Alexander
Copyright 2011 by Nick Alexander
Smashwords Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
SALES & MARKETING
Make no mistake. Selling and Marketing yourself is about improving your lifestyle and about making money. Why else would you go to the effort? You want more out of life and you know you’re capable of getting a bigger slice of the pie than you already have. But you’ve got to want it! The more reasons you have for improving your life the more determined you will be to achieve it. And… if you’re thinking “I’ve never achieved anything before” it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from: only where you want to get to. Dwelling on the past simply makes it become your future. Have you ever wondered why some people are more successful than others? In most cases the overriding reason is that they have programmed themselves to reach goals, to achieve, to be a winner. They view themselves as a product that has to be sold. They work every facet of their personality to their advantage and they have exceptional drive in pursuit of their goal. It was once said that Bill Clinton won the presidential campaign because he
• possessed superlative stamina
• had unwavering efficiency in pursuit of a desired objective
• demonstrated resourceful resilience (the art of managing a setback)
Everybody, no matter how successful they are, at some point encounters a setback. It’s what they do that differentiates winners from the rest. In order to win you need to be in control. And getting a job today will generally involve
• Compiling and sending out your CV
• The possibility of Psychological Testing
• Interviews
The ONLY PART of this process that YOU CAN CONTROL is the content of your CV. At every other stage the employer sets the agenda and is in control. But you can influence their level of control by constructing your CV to be attention grabbing, directly relevant and persuasive. You are attempting to get the employer to buy YOU! So you must look at yourself as product. A product that is in competition with perhaps tens or hundreds or thousands of other products. YOU MUST BECOME YOUR OWN BEST PRODUCT.
The aim of this book is to prove to you that there is a link between the sales process, the CV and the interview. If you are trying to get a job or improve your career you become involved in the selling process. There are numerous definitions of selling, for example …
The exchange of goods for an agreed sum of money
~ To attract prospective buyers
~ Selling is the process of helping someone discover something of value
~ Selling is the art of closing the deal because selling is first and foremost a transaction between the seller and the prospective buyer or buyers
~ To influence others into your way of thinking and doing
and of course all contain an element of truth; but what you need to be clear about is that if someone is SELLING then someone equally is BUYING and each has a defined process that they will follow, either consciously or subconsciously. In other words there is a SELLING CYCLE and a BUYING CYCLE. So in order to effectively SELL yourself, you need to understand HOW people buy. You do it yourself every day. No matter how small or how big the purchase you go through a conscious or subconscious buying cycle. Take buying a newspaper for instance… you either always buy the same one because you know that what it contains satisfies your needs, you like the look of the paper, the writing style of some or all of the columnists etc. Generally most of us don’t think too much when we reach the news stand but just occasionally we might be deflected towards an eye-catching headline in another publication and decide to investigate that. Now you have a decision to make – is the new one better than the old? And if so why? Is it enough to make you buy it? Will you buy the new one as well as the old one or instead of? Or will your evaluation lead you to decide that you should stick with the original and move on to your next decision?
The point is, people make decisions all the time about all sorts of things – it’s just that they don’t register as decisions because they are generally familiar and occur every day. When it comes to major purchasing decisions the subconscious cycle is generally the same but the conscious buying cycle changes in intensity where larger amounts of money are at stake or where the product or service purchased can have long-term implications.
How many times have you agonized over buying something substantial – car, furniture, holiday? Most of us agonize because we don’t want to make a mistake. No. not even that! We can’t afford to make a mistake! And neither can an employer. And when you’ve finally taken the plunge and made the purchase – what happens next? You’re overcome by feelings of doubt! Have I done the right thing? Will it work? Did I pay too much? Will others like it? Will I like it? This is known as “Buyers Remorse”, And so it goes on. Until… someone tells you that you’ve done exactly the right thing. Nothing like a vote of confidence for the self-esteem! Selling yourself on paper (your CV) and at interview is no different. On your CV you are selling you in the hope of making interview. If you make interview you are hoping that you are the right candidate, the only candidate that they want. But if you’re selling then automatically someone else is buying, and that is why you need to understand the selling and buying cycle. Sometimes it’s referred to as “Sales for non-sales people” – but everybody sells to somebody every day, so we are all Sales People. It has also been said many times that selling is the highest form of professional communication and that the best sales people have the highest level of integrity. And nothing could be nearer the truth when you are talking about selling YOU! If you cannot get across all the positive things about yourself in a truthful and convincing manner, you will fail.
So, as a Sales Person, read on and learn how to master the challenge of Selling YOU!
SELLING YOU!