How to Sell Yourself

How to Sell Yourself to Grow Your Business and Position Yourself as an Expert

The surprising benefit of selling yourself is that you turn the focus away from yourself and towards the people you will serve. Why is this important? The answer is twofold; your confidence level increases and puts your prospects at ease and also you become even more creative when it comes to problem solving for the people you are interacting with. Let’s dig deeper into the process of learning how to sell yourself.

Sell Yourself by Focusing on Your Prospects

As an entrepreneur, selling a product, course, or service requires selling a bit of yourself. But remember that you are there to serve and to solve problems. So as you are explaining and telling a story as to why someone should purchase from you, be sure to take into account that your prospect wants to know more about how you will solve their problem that about how you became accomplished in your field or niche.

Share only a little about yourself and then shift the focus to listening to your prospect and finding out what they need at that point in time. What is keeping them awake at night and giving them more gray hair? Then make sure you have a goal. What do you want from this interaction? Answer the following questions carefully…Who are you? What do you do? Where do you want to go, or what are you looking for? You need to know exactly what you want to achieve or no one can help you get there.

Potential customers don’t care about where you went to college, how long you’ve been in the business, or how much money you earn. And they also don’t care about your systems, methods, or processes. All they want to know is “Does this person understand my problem and will they be able to solve it?

Have you ever created a capability statement? A capability statement is a promotional or marketing statement about your business and its capabilities and skills that advertises who you are and what you do. I first created one when I was going to be interviewed for a corporate consulting position. I looked this up online, and then came up with one that made more sense for what I would be doing for this corporation.

I started with why – the clients’ why. What’s their problem and why do they want to solve it right now?

Make sure you have a perspective to establish your credibility. Establishing credibility is less about what you have already done and more about how you view the present. There is no right or wrong answer here, but you must be prepared to offer a recommendation. What do you believe will be the most promising path to solving your customers’ problem? You’ll lose potential customers who don’t share your worldview while eliminating doubt that you’re the right solution among those who do.

Share the cost of not acting now. Your customers inherently know these. Listing them validates their concerns and spurs action. For example, when someone comes to me for mentorship to build an online business, the cost of not taking action now is having to stay at a job until retirement and/or not being able to have the time and financial freedom they are craving in their life right now.

Discuss the results they can hope to achieve. In the most honest and uncomplicated way you can, list the results your customers will see after purchasing from you or working with you. The most compelling ways to do this are to show them or to have someone else tell them through testimonials.

The most effective way to talk about yourself and your business is not to mention yourself at all. I know that seems counterintuitive, but it’s the truth. Focusing on your customers, their needs, and potential results is key. You establish your credibility by understanding them, and not by listing your past education, experience, or processes. Customers don’t want to hear or read your entire life story, they simply want to know that you can fix their problem.

The only alternative to not talking about yourself is to position yourself as a character in a story that discusses the problem (what is keeping them up at night) and the solution (your products or services). Tell a story that intertwines your life experience with their problem and has a happy ending as the result. We all remember things much better when there is a story or an association attached to the topic at hand. In other words, if you want people to remember you, tell them a story, and make sure it’s a good one.

Learning how to sell yourself will pay off handsomely over your lifetime. Become accomplished in this area and you will always be able to make money.

I’m author, publisher, and entrepreneur Connie Ragen Green and if you are interested in learning more about getting your message out to the world please take a look at my recent and popular training on How to Sell Yourself and Your Stuff. Please connect with me on Twitter and join my list (on the right) to learn more about building your online empire.