I have been reading Harvey Mackay‘s new book The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World.
It’s a terrific, easy-to-read book that takes you through the various components of how to sell effectively – by being you and by knowing what your customers want. That is some serious paraphrasing, but you get the point!
One of the chapters in particular spoke to me and I wanted to share it with you. It’s called Sell Yourself.
Harvey talks about the three toughest sells being Company, Product and Self. As a small business owner and a mentor, I know how difficult selling yourself can be.
Selling yourself can be one of the most difficult things to do, if you do not recognize your own value. If you can’t see and describe the value you provide to your clients, you will have a more difficult time finding new clients.
If you find yourself having endless conversations with prospects … and coming up without the sale more often than with the sale … your problem may be value-related.
Prospects can come up with every objection in the book, but the bottom line is that people spend money on things that they consider to be valuable.
Exercise: Try recording your sales conversations for the next month. Revisit them after you have finished. Note what you did right … and what you did wrong. Listen for missed cues or things that you can fix or tweak for your next call. Improving your skills on sales calls will definitely help you to see if you are missing opportunities to show your value to your prospects.
When you are working on your marketing, be sure to place big emphasis on your own value – what makes you the best choice to work with, your expertise – but always bring it back to the client … and how that expertise you provide will benefit them, and be of value to them. When you look at your marketing message from a value perspective, it’s much easier to sell yourself.
After all, how can your prospects recognize your value if you don’t?